This week our Fresh Faves are reviewed by Jim Craigen from AlternativeFriday.com

This Listening Post may have been the last of 2012, but it was by no means the least, as we had 31 very strong tracks for us to listen and vote for, so thanks from all of us at Team Freshnet to the artists – and especially to those who voted – both this weekend and throughout 2012. The following Fresh Faves are the 9 most popular this week, and they are listed in alphabetical order.

ALOOSH – Kid Gloves

Aloosh appear to be keeping information about themselves to, er, themselves*.  All I could find out was that they are a 4-piece band  that come from London, Essex, and Birmingham. Kid Gloves however, is a great alternative indie song, but they seem to feel they are a bit of a ‘marmite’ band, by recently saying “We definitely split the crowd with our music. You either love it or you hate it”. *NB maybe they should check out  why this isn’t a great idea – Tom

Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

ANDREW MONTGOMERY – Making Up For Lost Time

Andrew Montgomery is a Scottish musician who used to be the lead singer in the band Geneva (original name: Sunfish), who enjoyed success in the late 90’s. He is currently performing solo, and lists his influences as “Dopamine, serotonin, weather, and alcohol”, and says that he sings “lullabies for tired eyes”, while the genre for his music on his Soundcloud page is listed as “Space Gospel”. Making Up For Lost Time is a wonderfully mellow track, which also highlight his distinctive vocals.

MySpace| Soundcloud | Facebook | YouTube

HIVA OA – Badger

Hiva Oa are a 3-piece band based in Edinburgh. Formed in 2010, they consist of Stephen (guitar/vocals), Christian (cello), and Marco (bass), while in their own words they produce music with “a fragile sense of melancholy, buried under a brooding darkness”. The mix of guitars, bass, cello and the occasional piano support a haunting vocal to create something quite original. The track Badger is taken from their debut album ‘The Awkward Hello, Handshake, Kiss’ which was released earlier this year.

Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

JONNY REGAN – End Of The World

I can’t offer you much information about Netherlands-based Jonny Regan, except to say that he describes End of the World as “just one of the tracks that Neil Warham, Nick Hall and I have been having fun with while glugging beer in the studio”. The song itself is a sort of apocalyptic festive track (if that genre even exists!?), and you might not be surprised if you were told that Richard Ashcroft had written it, such it its quality, as well as The Verve’s possible influence.

Soundcloud | Facebook | YouTube

K-RODD – Daffodil Girl

K-RODD are the Welsh/American duo of Rod Evans and Kris Davis, who are currently based in south Wales. They are both guitarists who met 10 years ago while playing in a covers band. They have now added some keyboard skills to their repertoire for an experimental 5-track EP called “The Snowflake conspiracy”, which contains the highly infectious Daffodil Girl. For 2013 they’re hoping to take their music on tour, so if any bands out there are looking for a support act then please contact them.

Soundcloud | Twitter

LE PARODY (EXPERIMENTS) – Love Me (La Necesidad)

‘Love Me’ is a wonderful tune with some excellent guitar/ukulele work in it. For some background information on the artist, unfortunately I’ve had to plagiarise a description of Le Parody from her Soundcloud page, as everything else I found was in Spanish… not my strong point I’m afraid! “Le Parody (le pardy) is the musical project of Sole Parody, the Madrid-based musician whose blood runs between Italy and Andalucia and whose music pulses with the impossible, ethereal combination of electro-glitch, pop, and folk. Le Parody’s sound resides somewhere in the space between Sole’s native Granada and the deserts of California”.

Blogspot | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter

SI SEÑOR/YES SIR – Polo Heart

Si Señor is a band led by by Nick Stapleton, with Tony Mason on bass. The two met at Wolverhampton Art College, but the band are now based in Manchester, while the name Si Señor /Yes Sir was influenced by numerous winter holidays to Spain in order to escape the British weather! While their other material has more of a dance vibe to it, ‘Polo Heart’ is a slower but warm electronic pop track, with a great melody and interesting vocals that remind me a little of Lloyd Cole.

Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

SNIPPET – Come To My Party

Snippet, known to readers of this blog as Johnno Casson – host of our weekly Prick’n’Ding feature, is a multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter who was born in London, but is now based in Colchester, Essex. His quirky but infectious electronica-pop-folk style will definitely get your foot tapping, and is likely to leave you with a warm smile on your face. He released 4 EPs between 2008 and 2011, with the debut Snippet album ‘Slowly Slowly Catchee Monkey’ coming out in 2011, while he also released the album ‘Window Shopping’ under his own name this year.

Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter  | YouTube

TOM HICKOX – The Pretty Pride of Russia

Camden based Tom Hickox began song writing as a 17-year old. He combined this with a passion for playing the piano, and hopefully a successful career now lies ahead for him. Described as being like “Leonard Cohen crossed with Anthony and the Johnsons” the track ‘The Pretty Pride of Russia’ superbly highlights his velvety smooth voice and excellent song writing skills. His debut album, ‘War, Peace and Diplomacy’, is due out next Spring, and if you enjoyed this track then have a listen to ‘The Angel of the North’ for further proof that he is a talented chap.

Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

This week’s Fresh Faves were reviewed by
Jim Craigen from AlternativeFriday.com

Also known to the world of Twitter as Big Jim Cambo

From Tom: the Listening Post will be on holiday now until Monday January 7th 2013, though Team Freshnet will be posting some roundups of our favourite tunes of 2012 and Mar has been working hard on a major musical Christmas treat for us all. Watch this space…