Artists at a glance
CHIEDU ORAKA
CROOK
HANNAH SCOTT
MOTIONS
ONLY THE POETS
ROBOCOBRA QUARTET
RUN LOGAN RUN
SAMUEL JACK
THE KING'S PARADE
These Fresh Faves were picked by our readers over the weekend – and reviewed by BBC Music Introducing in Devon and Cornwall presenter, and Fresh On The Net moderator, Sarah Gosling this week. You can hear all these tracks in a single Soundcloud playlist here.
AISLINN LOGAN – Spree
Listening to Aislinn Logan singing about committing a spree and running away, thick as thieves, I can’t help but think of ‘The End of the F***ing World’. If that show, with all of its perceptive cleverness, fun and emotive subtlety were to be made into a track, it wouldn’t be far from “Noisy Irish Londoner” (her words, not mine) Aislinn Logan’s haunting synth-backed beauty, Spree. Almost caressing in its delicacy, the fun’s provided in the form of snapping percussion and a very cool guitar line indeed. Definitely a song to start a quiet riot to.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
CHIEDU ORAKA – Won’t Get Along
So deeply entrenched in London life is Grime, there’s something shocking and incredibly endearing about Chiedu Oraka’s Yorkshire brogue. A trailblazer of the catching fire that is the Hull grime scene, Chiedu Oraka has already played the Radio 1 Big Weekend in the city, been featured as the BBC Introducing track of the week on 1Xtra, and had cross network radio support. With We Won’t Get Along, that progression seems unlikely to falter – lyrics like “if you buy clothes to seek acceptance and you’re not in school? We won’t get along” put his social poetry up there with Mike Skinner as he tops a pitch-perfect Grime groove. So. Very. Good.
Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
CROOK – Easter Morning
Not many pop-punk infused Indie tracks manage to be quite as charming as CROOK’s Easter Morning. With a vocal sounding like it could tip into Teenage Dirtbag at any moment, and a confidently laid back chorus and hook which push the song from pop conventionality to something far more interesting. They describe themselves as “the kind of music that plays after the party is over and everyone has gone home”, which is probably meant to be self-deprecating. What they’re forgetting is that the last ones standing are usually the ones with the best music taste.
Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp
HANNAH SCOTT – Signs Of Life
Lyrics are always worth listening to, but Hannah Scott’s are a particularly rewarding experience. Signs of Life is a reaffirming, richly poetic track which combines fiercely honest and wonderfully perceptive lines inspired by struggles experienced by her and her writing partner with an anthemic, dark musical backdrop imbued with a deep cascading joy. With an arrangement that rich, it would be easy to lose even a strong vocal. Not here though. A weighty joy of a track if ever there were one.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
MOTIONS – Waiting To Tell You
If you please, picture yourself sitting on the sun-warmed bonnet of an old convertible jeep. You’re beachside, the waves are lapping in the distance, a slight breeze tickles at your ears, the warmth feels like a different world, and the apple of your eye is just down the sand, walking towards you. This is how Motions’ Waiting To Tell You sounds. Combining a laid-back psychedelia with a sterling Indie hook, they succeed in trapping the feeling of a lovelorn summer, not just singing about it.
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ONLY THE POETS – Dead Young
Sounding like an Indie-Pop dream made up of the best bits of The 1975 with a dash of Little Comets, in Dead Young Reading and London based Only The Poets have made an exceedingly commercial and wonderfully enjoyable piece of music. It’s not repetitive, it’s not clichéd – it’s just a good time. Having already been made Apple Music’s Best Of The Week for their debut track Ceasefire, these guys have nailed their style down and polished it to perfection on new release Dead Young. Prepare for that hook to get stuck in your head. It’s been in mine for about three days now, so good luck.
Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
ROBOCOBRA QUARTET – You’ll Wade
I could make plenty of puns about wading into the musical stylings etc. but frankly dear music fan, I’m better than that. Instead what I’ll say is that in You’ll Wade In, Robocobra Quartet’s stylistic confidence is deep enough to drown in as they take the best of jazz-done-dark and improvised musical poetry to create an intricate, dimly lit mangrove of delights primed for exploring. Boasting an impassioned drummer-vocalist as the lead oarsman through the mist and a crew of haunting, free-wheeling saxophonists, You’ll Wade In is a cascading wash of sound that provides another sunken treasure with every listen. Fans of Fugazi, Badbadnotgood and Bright Eyes will find something to jump in at the deep end for. Ahem.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
RUN LOGAN RUN – Death Is Elsewhere
Self-described “heavy spiritualist music” artists Run Logan Run have managed to do something fantastic on Death Is Elsewhere, a track which, given the tools employed, could in the hands of so many have been near unpalatable. Employing only frantic tribal drums and a saxophone which seems less to be playing and more to be speaking, the Bristol based band have created a track which feels primal, vital, and almost as natural as the earth itself. Eccentric eclecticism is brought to a finely-honed crescendo in this darkly hued, ritual-dance-worthy track.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
SAMUEL JACK – Witness
Eyes are supposed to be the windows to the soul, but for Samuel Jack, the wide open door is most definitely his voice box. Bearing his soul all over the studio with rootsy tones not dissimilar to Lewis Capaldi, Rag-n-Bone man and Leon Bridges, with Witness the London-based artist has created one of the most timelessly captivating tracks I’ve heard in a very long time. Something about this track (and it’s not just him calling us to witness) makes me struggle not to stand up, hands in the air, and holler to the high heavens. This is a song created for catharsis, and to hold us to account. Our bank accounts that is, as we rush to buy whatever record he’s about to come out with. Just me? Didn’t think so.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp
THE KING’S PARADE – Woman
Invoking shades of Half Moon Run, Alabama Shakes, Leon Bridges and more of the best new-blues has to offer, London-based The King’s Parade’s new track Woman succeeds with aplomb in creating a sprawling landscape of sound and emotion in a tidy three-minute package. The rasping, impassioned vocals of frontman Olly Corpe drive the track straight into a brick wall of sound in this stunning track full of gusto and surprise which more than merits a playlist spot. Would recommend listening in a bar with a bev or alone: you’re about to do some real impassioned air singing and fist-punching.
Official | Soundcloud | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
PS from TR: If you’ve submitted a track that hasn’t been picked for the Listening Post, our team has definitely listened to it and there’s no need to send it again: feel free to send us an even stronger track another week. The same goes if you were picked for the Listening Post but didn’t feature in our Fresh Faves.
But if we’ve recently featured you in our Fresh Faves – or on my BBC Introducing Mixtape – please wait three months before sending us another track, so we have space to help other deserving artists… For more info see Robinson Has A Good Old Moan.
Well done to Only The Poets … looking forward to seeing them again later this year when we both play at 110 Above !!!!
Super fab reviews Sarah. I live in hope of seeing Aislinn Logan live.
Like it only took me two whole years to get to see Bryde!
I can wait, I can wait – no, I can’t!. Come to Dublin NOW! 🙂
Great reviews Sarah. Your language is energetic and evocative and I’m particularly pleased that everything you have said about Chedu Oraka chimes with what I think about his Northern Grime style.
And as for ‘Boasting an impassioned drummer-vocalist as the lead oarsman through the mist and a crew of haunting, free-wheeling saxophonists, You’ll Wade In is a cascading wash of sound that provides another sunken treasure with every listen’. Top reviewing by any standard. 🙂
That’ll be ‘Chiedu’ Oraka! My apologies!
Top reviews of top rated songs from this weeks colossal FotN inbox.
Artists ….. as you made it here this week on the Fresh Faves …. you might like to know that you had no better mathematically than a 4% chance to feature here. Well done!
Really fantastic reviews Sarah and a real joy to read.
Well done indeed to all artists who made it here. As Gersprungled has pointed out, you had just a 4% chance of getting here out of the huge amount of tracks we received. Hats off to you all……doffs cap….and adds
A curtesy!
Dx