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

This week we have ten gems for you, quite a mix — you continue to surprise with your creativity, long may it continue.

Whether you make it on the Faves or not, you’re more than welcome to submit a track for consideration to my radio show for Islington Radio, drop me an email at del.owusu@gmail.com with a bio and MP3 and I’ll check it out.

Right – reviews! 

I have some orange hot chocolate left, I’m trying to make this last as long as I can.  

So. 

Headphones charged? Oui. 
Hot chocolate hot? Si 
Keys in the ignition? Ja.

Four lit and in the green.

Let’s go.

AN DANNSA DUB FT. CIAN FINN – Golden Thread

Summer vibes and it’s not even warm yet! 

Nice. 

This is quite quite a mix, as it combines folk music with reggae! 

What I like about this song is that they’ve incorporated instruments you wouldn’t usually associate with reggae – a flute and a violin, and it works so well, the melodies they add really sets it off well. 

This song is about the passing of legacies through storytelling, music, and learning from seasons passing, it’s essentially a song that really speaks for itself, very poetic.

I think my favourite part of this song is the drums — it’s laid back from the intro, the cymbals are played on the bells to make it really ring out. I would be surprised if those drums are not live – hats off to the drummer!  I like the tape echo added to the instruments towards the end as well, this is dub elements at its best!

An Dannsa Dub (The Dub Dance in Gaelic) is the brainchild of dub producer / singer Tom Spirals and Scottish traditional musician Euan McLaughlin.

Cian Finn is an Irish songwriter who has blazed a musical trail from the rugged west coast of Ireland to the sun-drenched shores of Jamaica and beyond. 

Tom Spirals is also featured here according to the Spotify details, listed as being a vocalist and producer from Glasgow. 

Great work!

Official | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Bandcamp

FLORAL IMAGE – Gallipoli

The intro on this builds with what sounds like analogue synth sounds in the intro, almost like take off. It launches at quite a pace too, all set by the bass line playing eighth notes.

The guitars are prominent in the mix, really powering through, especially in answering lines sung by the lead vocals. This isn’t heavy rock, but it definitely has a leaning towards it. More a prog rock kind of feel? 

The track is broken up by with an instrumental section from 2:18 onwards, but then there’s a time signature change at around the three minute mark, which makes this epic for me, and then… it’s all over. 

Floral Image are from Norwich, they formed in 2019 – I don’t usually like to comment on image, but they do truly have the 70s look going on! Love it. 

Linktree | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp

HANA LILI – Existential

Very cool intro on this, the ethereal tra la la’s to kick it off make this dreary morning feel a little bit sunnier. This is from Hana Lili’s EP of the same name, released in December 2022, and it’s the final track on it. 

Lyric wise she poses the question that keeps us awake – why is the sky blue?

Good question, and you feel the transition in this strongly because it’s all part of a daydream that I reckon was Hana’s intention, and it gives the entire song a wholly different feel with that. 

While looking at the lyrics on Apple Music I noticed that you can actually have a karaoke feature where you can cut out the vocals entirely and sing along. And boy does this make you want to sing along! 

Hana Lili is from a small town in Wales, her first language is Welsh, classically trained in the flute and her favourite takeaway is Temple Of Seitan. I love how detailed her bio is!

Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

MARCUS JOSEPH – Challenge Day Revisited By NikNak

The horns over the top of the various breakbeats… 

Insane. 

With the loss of Wayne Shorter last week, it’s made me revisit his work with Weather Report, so this has put me back in the mood for hearing things like this… 

Like you shouldn’t be in the mood ever? 

There’s a nice little run on the tenor sax, which starts at 1:11, that really caught my ear!

The trumpet solo as well.

Who’s the drummer? Some nice grooves there. 

Ohhh also there’s a deep synth bass that gets added later – sneaky because it’s not there initially! 

What a jam. 

Marcus Joseph is a musician and spoken word artist and his sound can be described as a warm fusion of Jazz, Reggae, Hip-Hop and Contemporary Music. 

His debut album Beyond the Dome was released on the Jazz Refreshed label.

His work has been supported by Tom Robinson (6 Music), Gilles Peterson (6 Music), Tony Minvielle (Jazz FM), Dj Lanni (Worldwide FM) and Jay Phelps (Jazz FM, Worldwide FM).

He’s also my track of the week. 

Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp

MOTHER SAID – Tallulah

This one’s an interesting one. The heavy kick playing four on the floor, with tambourines playing 16th notes in place of hi hats all within the intro… then the big distorted bass…

Then the shouty vocal! 

I think this is my favourite lyric! 

“It’s cold I don’t wanna walk the dog x3
Don’t make me walk the f**king dog”

It relates to a lot of things – like when you’re too comfy in bed and don’t want to get up in the morning!

Yeah we’ve all been there…

Mother Said is a Leeds-based art-rock five piece, sporting two female lead singers from Newcastle. Taking inspiration from the original post-punk and new wave to create a blend of the absurd, political and dark. Infusing danceable silly tunes with heavier, experimental undertones they create female riot with purpose.

Linktree | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Bandcamp

REAL TERMS – Kite

Real Terms submitted this, the second track from their new album released last month, and being from Liverpool feed into my theory that being in close proximity to the Mersey bands from there can release annoyingly good songs. 

What caught my ear is the harmony in the lyrics of the chorus and also some skilful guitar playing at around the 3:18 mark. 

Lyric wise, it’s the chorus I really wanted to highlight:

“Do you feel it now?
You must have heard the sound
The colour of us is now the colour of everything
Do you notice how
You called the shots but now
You are a kite, first flight
That crashed into the ground”

It’s when they sing the harmony on “now” and how that made me go back and listen a few times just to make sure I caught it. Great work. 

Real Terms, like I said, are from Liverpool and according to their Twitter bio are John, Lynny and David making music on Sofa Boy Records, they’ve got releases on Bandcamp, as well as some nifty merchandise.

Chef’s kiss. 

Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp

SALAD – I Didn’t Know You’d Gone

This is a track by a band that’s been going a fair while! In its 31st year with various personnel changes, the core band is still going strong. 

This song is dark, I like the chord changes in the verse C# D Ab G and circling round. It’s angry lyric wise, about being left with alone with just a note, and it shows that both parties are at fault – if you haven’t seen the note for two days then there’s got to be a reason for that. Much to ponder lyric wise!

The video is really cool too, split screen with footage of the band playing together as well as key words from the lyrics flashing up on screen to emphasise what we are hearing.

Our Neil March is a big supporter of Salad, being friends with Donald Ross Skinner, guitarist for the band, who’s also known for being part of the Julian Cope Band, and his partner in crime through the 80s and 90s. He’s also been sound engineer for Neil’s events at AMP Studios. 

Salad are from London, with Donald Ross Skinner as I mentioned, Marijne Van de Vlugt an ex MTV VJ (ahhh VJs… those were the days!), Paul Kennedy and Jon Hunt. 

Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp

STATIC CARAVAN – British Rail Class 170 Turbostar

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I first listened to this in the inbox – it’s a four on the floor dance beat with the classic bleeps and bloops, but then comes in the shouty spoken vocals — don’t let the title fool you, it has nothing to do with trains! 

There’s a reference to Ceefax in the lyrics that made me feel nostalgic for that clunky piece of text that everyone used to get their news and entertainment from pre-internet, complete with some really kitsch tunes recorded for the BBC library. There were some great tunes in there too! 

Having looked up the class of engine referenced I have never ridden on this one! In the end this track is pretty well put together.

In fact… 

Yes. 

Static Caravan are my one to watch.

Static Caravan are a Leeds-based band that combine melodic post-punk with soundscape design, and experimental production techniques.

They are also available for weddings and parties. 

Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp

SUNNBRELLA – Polyester

The intro with the mashed up drums really caught my ear, you think it would go one way then it settles into the straight ahead indie rock feel. 

I like the synth chords being played in the background it sits well with the jangly guitars, this has a retro indie feel, and that’s not a bad thing at all, it just gets better with every listen. 

This is the first track from Sunnbrella aka David Zbirka’s EP, he’s a Prague-born artist from London, and describes his music as beat-driven melancholy. 

He’s got some cool videos too!

Linktree | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Bandcamp

WOLF PEACHES – Staring At The Grain

From what I can see this is the second single from Wolf Peaches. This is alternative folk at its best, with thought provoking lyrics. The line that really stood out for me was “our trees are arteries”, it’s a poignant reminder that we still need to look after our environment. 

The intro is hypnotic, played with a string being plucked, and when the first verse is sung there’s of fifth harmony, this has a medieval feel and it’s gorgeous. My favourite bit is definitely that entire section 1:46 to 2:24, and then there’s a big change which takes the song to another level, ending on a key change. 

Gorgeous… 

This song is my second track of the week. What a way to close out the Faves. 

This is the solo project of Hazel Thompson, a musician from Sheffield who describes their music as politically fuelled reflective songs, floating in dream scapes and grounded in a deep respect for flora. 

Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Bandcamp

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.

Marcus Jospeh photo by Ginny Koppenhol