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

ALT BLK ERA – Come On Outside

This week’s Fresh Faves kick off with a bang. Courtesy of Nottingham’s ALT BLK ERA, Come On Outside lances through the greyness of overcast October like a hard-rocking, metal-edged thunderbolt. Its lyrics are empowering enough to buoy up even a staunchly reluctant heart: ‘Don’t know your life / So they can’t say you didn’t try’.

ALT BLK ERA’s SoundCloud page describes them simply as an ‘alternative sister duo’ of ‘Nyrobi (20) and Chaya (17)’. Nyrobi calls Come On Outside a ‘beautiful reflection’ of Chaya, who supported her sister through years of chronic illness. Nyrobi’s relationship with her disability is the driving theme of their first album, Rave Immortal, which is due to leap into the world in January of next year.

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ARPRAXIS – Diskow

Friend of Fresh on the Net ARPRAXIS has, according to Bandcamp, ‘been playing vinyl, mixing and producing for over 30 years’. It should be no surprise that he consistently marshals his encyclopaedic musical knowledge into addictively hypnotic techno confections that never lose sight of the dancefloor, and Diskow is a shining example of his brilliant brain for structure.

Building on an old-school beat to take us on a voyage through smooth sax, tangy electronics, and percussive water-droplet synths, it might be shy of five minutes long but it feels like an epic all the same, while never growing dull for a second. ‘Do what YOU love, and love doing it’ is ARPRAXIS’s philosophy. Diskow demonstrates exactly why such a maxim is worth following.

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BENNY BELLAMACINA FEAT. THE DUKE – Surviving Like An English Rose

Now, in the shape of songwriter and children’s poet Benny Bellamacina’s Surviving Like An English Rose, we’re treated to a gently upbeat ballad brimming over with warmth. Its production strikes the perfect balance between laid-back ease and silky soulful smoothness, filled out by guitar and organs. Then there are The Duke’s unimpeachably tender lead vocals, enriched even further by a gospel choir.

The genres may be eclectic but as the October days grow shorter, all the artists we’ve heard so far share one thing in common – they trumpet the importance of hope and resilience. ‘Surviving like an English rose / through the winter storm it grows,’ The Duke declaims. With the weather as it is, what better time to hear it?

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BLOOM DE WILDE – Be Patient

Still, resilience is nothing without patience, and so the London-based Bloom de Wilde has arrived just in time to remind us of that fact. In a voice that coos and swoops with Björk-like passion, Bloom reminds us that ‘the world will soon be in your circle’ over a floating, fluttering pop backdrop of keys, horns, and birdsong. ‘When I create, I am patient, there is -only- Now,’ she says of the track. Words to live by for anyone with a creative mind.

Be Patient is taken from Bloom’s new album, The Circular Being. If you like what you hear, no patience needed – it came out only a few days ago, so you can check out the links below and download it straight away.

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CHOLLY – Pockets

‘As children we get taught to never answer back, because it’s disrespectful,’ says electropop wizard Cholly about her memory of being shouted at by a teacher. ‘Sometimes we grow up not knowing how or when to stand up for ourselves.’

It’s a harsh truth, but Cholly confronts it in style on this smouldering synth banger. ‘I won’t stand up straight for you,’ she sings, the soft tones of her voice only strengthening the sentiment’s punk-rock defiance, ‘I’ll be keeping my hands in my pockets too’. As if to illustrate how creativity can only flourish under disobedience, the song then bursts into a squall of marvellously inventive and catchy synthesised noise. Should you need to chase away the darkness of self-doubt, it serves as a blazing torch.

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DECLAN WELSH AND THE DECADENT WEST – Inaction

Boasting the band name of the week, Glasgow’s Declan Welsh and The Decadent West roar onto the Faves with a song as witty, energetic, and politically charged as you’d hope. Set into motion by a thrumming bassline, the lyrics give clear voice to the helplessness and disaffection the title suggests, but the music – a bristling firework of punk guitars – is rousing enough to compel you to make whatever change you can.

Declan Welsh cites his influences as ‘Arctic Monkeys, Amazing Snakeheads, Courtney Barnett, Pulp and Billy Bragg’ but Inaction is purely his own, a roar of frustration worked into shape by his starkly eloquent song-writing. It’s music for bleak times, but all the same, it warns against complacency with rare power.

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DONT MAKE THIS WEIRD – DONT MAKE THIS WEIRD

Craving a toweringly maximalist contemporary twist on 80s sophisti-pop, but can’t wait for the next release from the 1975? You’re in luck. London pop-crafter DONT MAKE THIS WEIRD cites Matty Healy’s band (as well as Cocteau Twins) as an influence on their eponymous track, which articulates an instance of male/non-binary love through chiming electronics, shirt-rending vocals, and booming percussion in an overpoweringly sensual crystallisation of passion.

But as the song draws to an end and the synths ripple, eddy, and flicker through a hazy, processed sax solo, in its surging emotional depth you can also trace a line back to prime 1975 influences the Blue Nile. The hyper-perfectionist Glaswegian art-rock cryptids may have ridiculously high standards, but even they would surely find plenty to love here.

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ELYSIA BRONTE – Stand Up Comedy

Currently studying Law and Political Science at Minerva University, New Zealand’s Elysia Brontë may still be young, but she’s already had quite the life. She’s represented her country as a swimmer, attended eleven different schools, and visited no less than five countries in the past two years. No wonder Stand Up Comedy sees her dealing with the confusion of ‘multiple identities’ and the existentialist anxieties of constant performance.

On this track, Brontë takes the insecurities and uncertainties particular to her generation and combines them effortlessly with the hangdog reflectiveness usually associated with much older singer-songwriters. All that, and it’s wrapped up in a catchy, easy-going pop package. If this is how she’s doing so far, the rest of her life surely has incredible things in store.

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KING FOO – Something To Remember

No matter what the premature Christmas adverts tell you, ‘the days of cold December’ are still a while off yet. But that doesn’t stop KiNG FOO’s Aleksandra Josic singing about them, and Something To Remember captures the time’s sense of wonder perfectly in a blizzard of

Durutti Column-tinged Celtic rock and fairy-light funk. The fusion feels so natural it seems odd that there aren’t more bands like this.
KiNG FOO cite influences ranging from Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple to John Williams and Prokofiev to Toto and Earth, Wind & Fire. A multitude of legacies to live up to, but Something To Remember is a stunning mission statement, as breath-taking and emotionally potent as it is irresistibly danceable.

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THE JUNIPERS – Mary In The Rain

We bring our roundup to a close with something a little lighter – musically, that is. Psychedelic Leicester pop pickers The Junipers bring us Mary In The Rain, a melodious, multi-layered pocket symphony topped with Beach Boys harmonies.

The result sounds deliciously like if Kevin Ayers had put a bit more effort into producing his records. But don’t be fooled by such sonic sunshine. Mary In The Rain is based on the true story of a circus elephant, Mary, who was hanged using a crane after she killed the man who was riding her. Plenty of pop music has put a colourful wrapper on tragedy, but rarely has the tragedy been so peculiar as it is here – nor the wrapper quite so dazzling.

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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.