Every week Signal Committee present an Eclectic Picks playlist. All tracks are selected from the full inbox of 200 tracks that are submitted each week to Fresh On The Net. This week all the credit goes to our special guest curator, Saint Martyn.

WHAT DO WE LOOK FOR?

Our playlists are orientated to the alternative music fan. Lyrics are not essential, abstract ideas are embraced and the fusing of different genres is encouraged. If you used to write band names on your pencil case at school, you’ll probably like our playlists.

INTRODUCING SAINT MARTYN

We host a broad church here at the Eclectic Picks, and Saint Martyn has managed to hone her dark arts with tracks like Aubrey Plaza Smile and Gurl. Gritty, sombre and melodic with shades of NIN, both tracks caught our attention on playlists gone by. Do check out her album Smile, but for now its time for Saint Martyn to play curator with her top 10 picks from the closing inbox before the Easter break…

ARTISTS SELECTED THIS WEEK

1. AMY MONTGOMERY – Change Change
2. FE SALOMON – Creatures of Habit
3. MARK LEWIS HEAVENOR – Carousel
4. BB*ISLAND – Ella Ronen – The Girl With No Skin
5. AMILOST – Good Morning
6. HELLO AMNESIA – Meet Your Maker
7. FFREDI BLINO – L’ami de Jacques Renard
8. WARE – New Model
9. CAMSHACHLE – Beg For Your Life (feat Rhona Maitland)
10. DORA LACHAISE & JONNI SLATER – Sign on the Door

A FEW WORDS FROM SAINT MARTYN

This was utterly an honour to do.  Being on this playlist some two years ago now literally helped introduce me to my audience.  To give back in this way has been a pleasure.   Over 12 hours of music submitted this week and, yes, I listened to all of it (staying up to 5am).  I was constantly surprised by the quality of work on display.  Condensing this selection down has been a herculean task, but one I cherished and will forever have fond memories of doing.  I urge anyone listening to this to check out the 12 hours Director’s cut 😉 

BTW This playlist has a flow.  Listen to the whole thing.  

RyAnne (Saint Martyn)

Amy Montgomery – Change Change

This is so polished, so tight…. balls to the wall driving hard rock song.   The perfect song to open with.  Everything from the production to performance on this oozes quality.  This song deserves recognition.

Fe Salomon – Creatures of Habit

There are genuinely moments of genius in this song.  Those moments hit hard and in unexpected places.  I love how brave and utterly unique  this song is.  It wants to take its listeners on an adventure and boy does it succeed in that regard.   Took me by surprise.

Mark Lewis Heavenor – Carousel

There are no words to do the vocal performance on this song justice.   When it kicks in it sends shivers down the spine.  Mark’s voice is pure soul and electricity.  I played this to my partner without context to see if their reaction was the same – and they just stood there mouth open – tears forming in their eyes.  It’s utterly stunning.

Ella Ronen – The Girl With No Skin

Oh God I love this.   The lyrics craft a surreal and somewhat disturbing story.  The music and production compliment the vocals perfectly, neither one is fighting against each other. 

amilost_ – Good Morning

The build on this is perfection, utter and total perfection.  Emotional and heartfelt, delicate and detailed, I fell utterly in love with everything about this song… and the epilogue 2nd build at the end brought me to tears. 

Hello Amnesia – Meet Your Maker

Guitar riff… then – BAM – RAWK!  This is so unabashedly cock sure, catchy and fun.  I’d love to hear this live, I can imagine this being a blast.  Very hard to capture a song with this sort of energy in a recording, but they manage to do so nicely.  And that overindulgent bridge, every inch of me loves that.

Ffredi Blino – L’ami de Jacques Renard

This song is nuts. The song is about someone trying to be French and cool… and shockingly it is French and cool.  It’s unique, it’s quirky, fun and joyous.   I have kept listening to this over and over whilst curating this list as it honestly puts a huge smile on my face.  And the “Oui” at the end is a Chef’s Kiss masterstroke.  

Ware – New Model

I have so many personal soft spots for this. It’s the kind of music that exists because it has to. It’s anti-commercial, beautiful, haunting and, for me, essential.  Musica gratia musicam.

Camshachle – Beg For Your Life (feat Rhona Maitland)

This song is a painting made with sound and music.  It is genuinely art.  It’s precious and important and I encourage the listener to come to this one with an open mind.  Such a fan of this.

Dora Lachaise – Dora Lachaise & Jonni Slater – Sign on the Door

I was drawn in by the opening’s eerie simplicity.  What I wasn’t expecting was for it to go full Ultravox mid way through… It caught me completely off guard.  It’s audacious, bold and beautiful.   The lyrics are poetic, the interplay between the vocalists, so much to love here.

STEP 1 – LISTEN

Listen to this weeks Eclectic Picks playlist using your weapon of choice below:

SOUNDCLOUD

SPOTIFY

(Spotify playlist is limited to tracks which are available on Spotify

After 7 days, the playlist will be updated with the next batch, and this week’s picks will be added to the 2023 playlists below.

STEP 2 – SPREAD THE WORD

Do you ever think, or hear people say, “there’s no good music any more”? Maybe they aren’t looking in the right places. Prove them wrong:

• Subscribe to the playlist
• Listen in each week
• Tell your friends
• Shout on social media

The more people listen to this playlist, the more exposure unsigned artists receive. So spread the word!

STEP 3 – MUSIC VIDEOS?

Music is great. Music videos are better. Keep the momentum going, send any music videos our way and, if we’re in a good mood, we’ll add the best ones to our music video playlist here.

ARCHIVE PLAYLISTS

The playlists above are updated weekly, then added to the playlists below:

2023 Playlist: Soundcloud | Spotify

2022 Playlist – Soundcloud | Spotify

2021 Playlist – Soundcloud | Spotify

2020 Playlist – Soundcloud | Spotify

RADIO OPPORTUNITIES

We all have ambitions to get on national radio, but in the meantime there are loads of great, independent radio stations that are always looking for new music of the alternative variety. They offer no promises, but the following hosts tell me they that, if you made this list, they’d like you to get in touch to be considered for their show:

• Del Osei-Owusu, aka Platinum Mind and fellow FOTN moderator, is happy to consider submissions for the Songbird Sessions, a 1 hour show for The Songbird HQ on Islington Radio. Just email Del with a bio and MP3 to del.owusu@gmail.com
• Joe Figueira of North Manchester FM, apply with MP3, short bio & twitter handle by e-mail to joefigueira@yahoo.co.uk)

If you are are radio presenter/DJ looking for someone to do all the hard work for you in filtering out the more alternative tunes hitting the FOTN inbox each, week, just give Signal Committee a shout!