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.

Welcome to this week’s fresh faves! It’s been a really strong few weeks since we came back from easter break, and a joy to listen to the tracks coming through. Please keep up the good work.

As always if you want me to consider your tracks for airplay please drop me an email with a bio and audio file here and I’ll feature it on my show.

So….

Cuppa? Oui.
Headphones charged? Si.
Keys in the ignition? Yes.
Four lit and in the green.

Let’s go.

ACANTHA LANG – HE SAID/SHE SAID (LACK OF AFRO REMIX)

The funk on this track is strong! This opens with 70s sounding drums, married up with a very polished production – add to that a horn section and this provides the perfect backdrop to Acantha Lang’s voice. And what a voice! Rich vocals that call on the stylings of Tina, Aretha, and Patti… what a vibe. The vocals are just top notch, and you could just imagine Acantha leading her band through a raucous live version of this – mic drop at the end too. If there isn’t a mic drop I’ll be very disappointed!

For a song that’s under three minutes long we are treated to so much from beginning to end, there’s even a really sweet instrumental section where everything is just going for it! The chorus is infectious and that’s what I love most about this song – the lyrics are about the world going to hell right now, but it’s essentially a party song that’s drawing our attention to world wars, social media celebs fighting for supremacy, hence the he said/she said battle… It’s explosive and makes for one hell of a protest song.

I love it.

So… Track of the week?

Yes.

Yes it is.

Acantha Lang is from New Orleans but now lives in London, and has so many accolades to her name, but the one that stood out to me was this… She was accepted into the Recording Academy/GRAMMYs and has established a dedicated legion of fans with her 12m+ viewed “Standing On The Shoulders Of” soul series.

Bandcamp | Instagram |Facebook | Twitter | Youtube

FOURMARKS – 2120

Another well produced track, at the beginning we are treated to to a processed vocal singing a cappella – there’s a lower pitch to the main vocal to this at the beginning, but that’s not what caught my ear, it’s the changes that this goes through! There are monologues interwoven in this. I’m trying to figure out who it is that’s talking but before you know it that part of the track is over. It then switches gear into an indie pop bit then settles into a hip hop section at 1:18….

The whole track is just beautifully done.

So guess what?

Chef’s kiss.

Fourmarks are from London, and describe themselves as Whipsmart electronics, razor-sharp rock dynamics, lysergic pop savvy and provocative lyrical substance.

Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter |Youtube |Bandcamp

JESSIE REID – YOUR STORY

Jessie Reid slows things down a bit here, blessing us with an acoustic number. It’s gentle, we have an acoustic guitar, layered and harmonised vocals plus a violin that’s just wandering in and out. Dream state, really making me feel relaxed. Perfect for a Sunday evening, you could really chill out to this, it’s the kind of song you could just get lost in. The first verse for me is
just enticing:

Oh won’t you
Sit down beside me.
Tell me the bones of your story
Where did it go wrong?
Is that what it took to make you feel so strong?
Make you feel strong.

She’s there as a listener, a friend and that is just so obvious in the song.I needed this, it just reminds me of why FOTN exists, this is a folk song that needs to be heard. If we can allow Jessie to sing her song and touch one soul today, then we’re doing our job. It’s certainly touched mine.

Jessie is from Birmingham, and by the looks of her Bandcamp she’s KILLING it right now…. 6m streams, syncs with Love Island and Made In Chelsea… She’s got much to be proud of.

Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter|Youtube

MARCUS JOSEPH – BROTHERS AND Sisters

This next track is smooth, combines a bit of soul, jazz, hip hop and blues. The smooth jazz guitar at the beginning sets the tone, and Marcus’s voice comes in, spoken word mode, landing on the rhythm perfectly, and he’s got a decent singing voice too! The electric piano on this has not gone unnoticed, not to mention the saxophone – because of course he’s a saxophone player too. Way too talented for this own good! Definitely a winner here. Looking at his website, he’s active, videos of live performances, his instagram is vibrant as he’s celebrating the jazz greats for example, and just like this track he’s full of life!

Marcus is from Leicester, and has quite a few strings to his bow, having played for George Cole – Leicester’s first black mayor -and playing alongside giants like Dennis Rollins, Tony Kofi, Arun Ghosh, Dave O’Higgins, Abram Wilson, Gary Crosby and Eska.

Bandcamp | Instagram | Official|Twitter | Youtube |Bandcamp

MATONDOLOGY RIOT – MAPEKA

This track has so much energy! The shout at the beginning to the snare rolls command your feet to dance, and it’s justified because the groove is just so good.

The rhythms here are brought together by drums at the forefront, the guitars are doubled up – one with a muted riff and a lead to give it the harmonies and it sits really comfortably. You can just imagine a party popping off with this. This summons the spirits of the original beautiful seven – Osibisa, and the call and response is just epic. There’s almost a duel between the drums and shouts and I’m here for it!

It’s definitely one for a live set.

Matondology Riot is a band led by Mulele Matondo, who I’m familiar with through FOTN and Neil’s show, this is their new single and there’s a live EP on Bandcamp. Definitely a treat for the ears.

Instagram | Bandcamp

MOONPOOLS – SAY ANYTHING

A bit of indie pop now, which combines a bit of 80s synth work with some fancy guitar work. Lyrically it’s an emotional song, talking about the writer’s tendency to break down when things go wrong in their relationship, it’s a song that details the impact:

“You don’t have to say you’re sorry,
You don’t have to say you want me,
You don’t have to say you love me,
You don’t have to say anything.”

It’s a very vulnerable song, but at the same time, it shows the skills in both the musicianship and poetry of the song.

Like I noted at the beginning of this review, there are elements of indie pop, the guitars sound fantastic, bathed in reverb, giving it a wall of sound feel to it, and I love that sound! There’s a great lead synth sound that takes away the need for a guitar solo. The vocals are strong here too. All in all a great track!

Moonpools are a five-piece band from Basel, formed in 2016 by Marcie Nyffeler (vocals/ guitar), Jasper Nyffeler (drums), and Francesco Vona (keyboard) and completed in 2017 by Matthias Gusset (guitar) and David Blum (bass).
Their sound is inspired by artists like Hatchie, Snail Mail, Ride and Soccer Mommy and moves between Indie Rock and Dream Pop with rousing guitars and anthemic synth parts.

Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp

STRAY TWIN – DIVINE ENERGY

To a purely electronic track now, and this track has all the synthy goodness from the almost 8 bit sounding drums, to the growly synthy bass… This will always have a place in my heart as I grew up listening to Pet Shop Boys so sounds with electronic tweaking always appeals to me. This goes up and down in terms of energy. This starts off with snare and kick, then a pulsing synth bass, a pitched up 808 kick, and there’s an arpeggiator in there too. This track just gets the job done! I have to shout out the vocals on this though, you could imagine this being remixed D&B style and the vocals wandering in and out. I’m glad to see Stray Twin on the faves with this!

This is a band from Manchester, they’ve been together since October 2022. They perform live using drum machines, bass, synths and guitar to bring their tracks to life. I can imagine that their music goes through a metamorphosis because anything can happen with that kind of setup live and I like that!

Twitter | Instagram

THE HAPPY SOMETHINGS & SLOVENLY BOY – WORK IT WITH YOU

My favourite wibbly wobbly timey wimey pop band are back! And they’ve brought friends. This track has all the trademarks of a Happy song – off kilter, something you’d discover if you are really looking for a track that’s going to be stuck in your head for ages. To give you a bit of background about why I call them wibbly wobbly timey wimey pop is because their sound is deliciously retro, you could imagine this being played in a secret corner of Glastonbury, where only those “in the know” would be present. Such is the world of the happys – it’s very peaceful this track, which kind of goes against the title that they’ve given me for this – according to Joy this is the uptight mix which features Oriel T on sax, and I love that Oriel T is doing their own thing on this… This is probably my favourite track by The Happy Somethings and there are a LOT of good songs to choose from!

The harmonics on the guitar to start this off really give you a nice warm feeling, then it settles in to a nice rhythm and back and forth with the vocals.There’s some phasing going on, and there’s a switch between acoustic and electric sounds. All in all a cracker of a track! This is from their new EP which is out on Friday 3rd May, it’s entitled “Pop Goes The Bubblegum”. I frankly can’t wait to see the artwork for this, it’s always interesting to see how they put together their releases.

The Happy Somethings are Happy, Joy and Jolly, from the Midlands, their connection with Slovenly Boy predates the band. This is one of several songs that Happy and Slovenly wrote together, he’s actually got the name because from Joy as according to her he’s very talented but quite unmotivated and casual about it – hence the Slovenly Boy monicker!

Bandcamp | Instagram| Facebook |Twitter | Youtube

TIN RIBS – THE RATMAN OF HUSTLER’S BRIDGE (CLEAN EDIT)

Time for it to get rowdy! This next one is from Newcastle’s Tin Ribs, and boy do they bring the noise! It’s shouty, full of energy and worthy of being a punk record – I’m not sure whether they’re talking about a literal rat catcher – either way, but this song is a brilliant piece of storytelling – I mean I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song about a rat catcher outside of probably a musical, have you? This is one for the mosh pits. I love the chorus:

“Nice to meet you, I’m the rat catcher,
twenty for the first rat,
Ten for every after.”

That’s going to be stuck in your head for a while!

Tin Ribs are a quartet from Newcastle, they’ve got some great references to pop culture on their Bandcamp page, on being the sticky bandits from Home Alone and Bart Simpson as a rat. Being a fan of both this works!

Bandcamp|Facebook

VCR DREAMS – THANET

A mysterious one this week! And I’ll come back to why I say that shortly. This one’s a great pop song. The thing that caught my ear was the vocals initially, well produced sitting on top of a polished instrumental, the drums are very simple, combined with a synth bass that’s finely tuned, I love the warmth of it. The chorus melody is beautiful, it made me rewind to just pick up on it.

Rewind? See what I did there?

This track makes me want to find out more about them, and it’s a good place to start as like I said there’s a mystery around this one. First of all, the brains behind VCR Dreams is an anonymous entity who transcends genres, and this track is from their new album “The Pop Tapes”. This act has been compared to Banksy because truly no one knows who they are, and I like that. It’s not an unheard of concept, but then it just allows you to focus on the music.

Regardless, they are my one to watch.

Instagram | Youtube

VOLK SOUP – THE COMMISORATOR

Staying up with the high energy this next track is a riot of sound, this is at the other end being post punk, and it’s good and loud! They’ve incorporated sax and trumpet into this, and used to high effect. There’s a quieter section at 1:58 where it gets a little bit trippy, and you can hear the sounds weaving in and out between the brass and the guitars, and it builds up to a big climax. I lovee the outro you think it’s about to end but it just keeps going… Then there’s a little squeak at the end like as if it wasn’t meant to end there. Great arrangement!

VOLK SOUP are from God’s own country aka Leeds, they’ve been featured on our Christmas crackers list last year – I knew I recognised the name but couldn’t think why!

Anyway, good to see them make the faves.

Bandcamp | Instagram |Facebook

PS from Del: 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 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.