These Fresh Faves were picked by our readers over the weekend – and reviewed by Fresh On The Net’s Neil March this week. You can hear all these tracks in a single Soundcloud playlist here.

Halloween is here so look out for some haunting tunes nestling among the ten tracks our ever-discerning readers have chosen. Once again we had a Listening Post packed with more great tunes than the country has had Prime Ministers and Chancellors of late (and that is saying something!). It is not just people running around dressed as ghosts, ghouls and zombies who are making the UK a scary place to be right now! But at least we have new music and lots of it. So it is once again my privilege to be reviewing your choices from a stellar list. Coffee’s ready. So let’s get to it.

BALDERDASCH – Waster

Balderdasch is Jessica Matthews from London, and it looks like she is well prepared for Halloween with scary and unsettling pictures adorning her Instagram page. Balderdasch was featured this time last year on Tom Robinson’s BBC Music Introducing Mixtape show on BBC Radio 6 Music. She has more recently appeared on BBC Radio London’s Introducing show which is no mean feat given the scale of the competition for London’s one hour a week slot. She seems to be something of a social media recluse and says, both on Instagram and in the lyrics of this song, that she could achieve more if she helped herself. Perhaps this endorsement by the Fresh On The Net audience will be the boost she needs.

Waster is built around a repeating squelchy synth bass pattern. Her voice is immediately striking and distinct, and the lyric is self-reflective and has a stream-of-consciousness feel as she pours out elements of her story, often self-deprecating but with a smart humour too. Presumably the waster in the tale is her (from her perspective, not mine obviously!). The vocal switches between singing and spoken word plus some unusual harmonies and spine-tinglingly exotic keyboard chords. The contrasts of texture, mood and timbre are stark and impressive, especially when, right at the end of the song, we get slow arpeggio accompaniment to multitracked harmonies with a dreamy retro feel that is a complete change from the edgy contemporary sophistication of the main body of the track. This is an outstanding piece of work, a kind of cutting edge Art Pop meets Synthwave hybrid that presents Jessica as the kind of unique talent who we need to hear more of.

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CHAYLA HOPE – Love In Lo-Fi

Chayla Hope has been building her reputation as a contemporary singer-songwriter influenced by 80s and 90s music in Cleveland, Ohio for a while. She has performed as support to The Marias and collaborated with rising star Holy Mattress Money. Chayla has an album out entitled Damn, Feelings, and she cites Kate Bush, Lady Gaga and Robyn as being among her influences.

Love In Lo-Fi is curiously titled in the sense that the performance and production on the track is anything but lo-fi. The sound is big, spacious, reverberant and loud with multi-tracked harmonies, layers of synth and clever panning of voices and sounds. The 90s influence is certainly in evidence, recalling such names as Zoe, Donna Lewis and Sophie B Hawkins. But I can also hear some Lady Gaga in the big chorus and ambitious scale of the arrangement. This sits at the more sophisticated end of the Pop mainstream – wholesome, substantial and wearing an infectious smile.

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FIONA SOE PAING – The Ballad Of John Hosie

Hailing from Aberdeen in the North East of Scotland, Fiona Soe Pang’s website talks of how she combines “… multi-layered vocals with dark, rhythmic electronic textures, field recordings, archive material and traditional instruments”. Her Soundcloud blurb defines her style as Avant-Folk. She also has quite a history, having sung in Burmese on a Warner Bros compilation back in 2007, and had her music discovered, more or less accidentally, on MySpace by legendary DJ Charlie Gillett. While living in New Zealand, she was discovered by another producer who made a documentary about her music for a national TV station. Fiona returned to Scotland whereby she received support from Creative Scotland to further develop her live show which was performed as Alien Lullabies, with lyrics in Burmese and English, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2015. She began recording a new album during lockdown in 2020, with support from Help Musicians UK, and that is set for release very soon.

In the meantime, we have The Ballad Of John Hosie, a dark and atmospheric track in which two features immediately stand out. One is the bass in open fifths playing a sparse accompaniment while ambient sounds appear and disappear. The other is Fiona’s voice which is highly distinctive in a rich, unusual alto tone. Soon we get glissando strings and harmonies too while the song continues to build on the back of what is, in essence, a minor key two-chord (I – III) figure. The chorus is characterised by a strong tune partly harmonised in open fourths and fifths. Sparse, gripping and haunting with an evocative Celtic current.

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HARMONIE FIELDS – Aurora

The Soundcloud links may be all about the label BB*Island but Harmonie Fields are, in fact, Andrés Barlesi and Richie Setford from Berlin and they formed in 2020. They only made their live debut in May so it is impressive that they already have an official contract with the label. Their debut album Drink From The Bowl was released in September and marked with a launch gig in Berlin.

Aurora has a slow, three-time semi-psychedelic feel. Everything is reverberant including the deep crooning, smoky male vocal. The principal theme has a I major – V minor chord shape that Julian Cope has used on occasions. The ethereal, ghostly feel and slow, measured delivery would sound very much in place on a David Lynch soundtrack. I can picture this being performed in the Twin Peaks Roadhouse as the giant materialises with more chilling news for Agent Cooper! The harmonies that answer the lead vocal in the final stretch, along with the insistent echoing piano chords, cement that dark but dreamy aura. A truly sumptuous track in which so much thought and imagination has gone into its creation. Spooky but soothing. Quite exquisite either way.

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JOHN SMITH & KATHERINE PRIDDY – Talk To Me Of Mendocino

It is a measure of John Smith’s standing as an internationally renowned Folk artist and singer-songwriter that, even with a name likely to produce a lot of results in any online search, he topped the list on nearly all social media platforms. Born in Essex, raised in Devon and making his name on the live scene in Merseyside, he has released eight albums, achieved over 55 million Spotify streams and has played sold-out concerts all over the world. He has also appeared on numerous national radio shows in the UK.

Katherine Priddy has been a repeat Fresh Fave and another who has had a lot of national radio play. The Birmingham artist has had what her website calls a “whirlwind” two years which has seen lavish praise from Folkrock legend Richard Thompson, and a series of features on BBC and Folk Radio shows. As I write this, the pair are about to embark upon a month-long UK tour together.

Talk To Me Of Mendocino is a slow, acoustic duet in which gorgeous extended guitar chords accompany a song that begins a little like something you might hear from Mary Black or Nancy Griffiths; Katherine taking the lead in the opening verse. When John adds his voice in harmony a sixth or so below hers, it is goose-bumping. The song stretches out, more harmonies and subtle keys joining the mix. The chorus is stirring and classic, emphasising the sheer quality of their two fine voices. Folk music at its finest.

John Smith:
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Katherine Priddy:
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KING CASIO – Ran Out Of Sand

Not to be mistaken with a Canadian band of the same name, King Casio are a partly London and partly Sweden based duo. They have been picking up the plaudits from the indie media including God Is In The TV Zine, I Heart Moosiq, Slacker Shack and various others. Their music has previously been played on Boogaloo Radio, the radio station linked to well-known venue The Boogaloo in Highgate and staffed by some well-known names.

On Ran Out Of Sand they present an unashamedly retro influence with jaunty quasi-honky tonk piano chords and whimsical lyrics that recall a lineage of artists from Randy Newman to Ben Folds while Daniel Powter adds chops. At the same time, there is a slightly disarming undercurrent as if something subversive is lurking in the dark corners of their smiley pop sensibilities. The melody is instantaneous and the instrumental arrangement is sophisticated and a little suave albeit that the piano sound and production are deliberately lo-fi too. The resident band in the haunted Halloween hotel perhaps? Works for me.

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LAURA GUARCH – Vulgia

London-based Catalan singer-songwriter, composer, sound artist and multi-media artist Laura Guarch is known for building sound installations and utilising the sounds of nature in her work. Her field recording of ice melting in Solheimajóküll’s glacier lagoon, made with Francesco Fabris, was nominated for the BBC Sound of the Year awards in 2021. Her debut album KRËODYLIA was released in 2021 with label Segell Microscopi and led to her being shortlisted as best emerging artist in the Catalan music awards Premis Enderrock 2022. She has been compared to Kate Bush although, on the strength of Vulgia and other tracks of hers that it inspired me to listen to, I would place her in more avant-garde and ambient territory, perhaps alongside the likes of Julianna Barwick and Lisa Gerrard, both of whom could well be influences on this stunning track. There is even an undercurrent of Elizabeth Fraser in the way she is able to utilise such starkly different timbres within her vocal range

Indeed Vulgia is a stunning work. It grabbed me instantly on first listen at moderation as the floating synths and enigmatic sounds emerged out of quiet beginnings and her otherworldly vocals, playing the part very much of instruments, brought soft slowly enveloping sounds and rich harmonic language to the mix. As the events behind her vocals bubble, crackle and stop-start and the prominent sound of birds grows in volume, there is a church-like aura to the acoustic chamber her voice seems to be captured in. Notes linger and overlap, evoking images of stained glass and stone structures. It is haunting yet reassuring and shudderingly beautiful.

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PROPS – Before You Let Go

Londoner Props has had glowing praise from Clash magazine and has the unusual distinction of having got one of his tracks used in the Made In Chelsea soundtrack. He has also made the New Music Friday playlist. According to his Twitter profile he “… basically writes Punk nursery rhymes”! Listen With Monger have described the new single as “chaotic but exhilarating”.

That single, described optimistically as his “latest smash hit” on Instagram, is Before You Let Go. It starts off with acoustic guitar playing a Bernard Sumner-like riff on two strings while the vocal is poppy and slightly lazy (in a positive sense). Then the beat drops in along with a repeating synth phrase and a combination of electric and acoustic guitars. The melody is catchy in an almost McBusted meets Fontaines DC kind of a way. He has a youthful, mid-range voice and uses double-tracked phrases very effectively to keep events moving and developing. Despite a none-too-complimentary lyric, it has a fresh upbeat feel and blossoms nicely from sparse intro into an energetic slice of Punk-Pop.

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RETROPXSSY – Fading

With a name and spelling like Retropxssy, you are not going to be difficult to find on social media (always an advantage in today’s digital world) even if you do decide to make your Instagram handle teletubbycustard! That quirkiness is also evident in her choice to build her official website on Tumblr but, hey, why not? Looking at how much she has been able to pack on there, I am now wondering why more artists don’t follow suit. Retropxssy was born in North London, raised in Bristol and is now back living in London. She is a serial collaborator with UK and overseas artists and has worked a lot in the Alternative Rap and Skate Punk scenes. Performance-wise she explores “… themes of mental health, conflict in relationships, womanhood and identity”.

Fading kicks off with a series of minor 9 chords, quickly joined by a punchy beat and fluid bassline over which her distinctive, multi-tracked vocals take centre stage, sometimes singing, sometimes harmonised, sometimes moving into rap and spoken word. The lyrics are clever, sardonic and biting. The feel is quite funky with echoes of G-Funk mixing with a subtly French flavour and a dash of Trip Hop. Her feisty delivery and a combination of cool, catchy melody and smart, sassy spoken word make for compelling listening.

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TWO TONNE MACHETE – Trap

Two Tonne Machete are Ro, Josh and Emily, a feminist punk trio from the North West of England and North Wales. Unusually they have made Trap available only as a limited edition floppy disc which you can purchase from Bandcamp. It may be their debut single but they have already made it onto John Kennedy’s show on Radio X as a “Hot One” and, if I have understood their latest Instagram post correctly, they have also had kind words from Idles. They are clearly wasting no time in getting themselves out there.

Trap is uptempo contemporary Garage Punk, burning with raw power; driving fuzztone guitars and bass with direct beat at its core. Comparisons are hard. Maybe shades of Savages and LA Witch but heavier, perhaps leaning towards DIÄT or Low Life (albeit without the male vocals). They have a liking for switching up and down a semi-tone with the chords and swapping between full and half time beat. The song is catchy though and passionate. Just over three minutes of pulsating punk energy.

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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.