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.

Message from Del: Congratulations on making the Fresh Faves, any artist is welcome to submit a track for consideration to my Islington Radio show, send an audio file and a bio to del.owusu@gmail.com

Over to you Neil!

Neil: There is nothing quite like it being my turn to write the Fresh Faves reviews for focusing my mind on how the weather has changed since my previous turn! But this is the UK and we are obsessed with the weather! Britain, in recent weeks, has been in something called an ‘anticyclonic gloom’ which, in essence, is a strange mix of mild temperatures, still winds and grey skies with little enough sunshine to cause a serious Vitamin D shortage! Now the Arctic winds are arriving and it all feels a bit icier. Despite this, we have some seriously sunny tracks to share with you this week; picked, as always, by our ever-discerning readers. So coffee is ready and background research is complete. Let’s talk about this week’s winning tracks.

ALCIE BELA – Ride Of A Lifetime

Residing in France but with Welsh roots, Alcie Bela takes influences from Soul, Blues and Pop. September saw her perform with Jack Ellis & The Contraband in Italy for the first time and she has just completed a Welsh tour with them, including a Halloween special in Cardiff. Earlier in the year she also played a series of dates in France across a four month period so she is one busy performer. Her website is mostly a merchandise store so check it out if you want some Alcie Bela merch with some cool designs.

Ride Of A Lifetime reflects the above-mentioned influences, perhaps with a dash of Folk thrown in too. The I – V – IIm chord pattern that provides the bedrock for the song is similar to Gabrielle’s Rise (although that is the only similarity style-wise) while Alcie’s alto voice is rich in tone and full of character. The guitar twangs and strums softly while the beat is unobtrusive and sounds like it may use brushes. The backing vocals in the chorus complement the melody and the arrangement is smart, instruments dropping and diving here and there, keeping events moving. Plenty of brightness and not a grey cloud in sight.

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BERNE – Hurt

London female-male duo Berne describe their music as ‘Ethereal Earth-Pop’ which is a good shout. They also care passionately about the environment and climate change (so I guess they are not too chuffed at events across the Atlantic right now). July saw them perform at the National Gallery and the previous month saw them play in Brighton. The impression I get is that they are choosing their live dates carefully and getting to play in front of good audiences.

Hurt has a dreamy, ethereal and enigmatic aura. It sets out its stall instrumentally with laid back, rueful minor key piano and long synth tones, bringing an atmosphere of stark landscapes and semi-darkness before the female vocal comes in at just above a whisper, delivering a warning message. Then we are back to instrumental play as more layers of synths, some staccato, some not, drive things forward. Despite the dark message at hand here, it is easy to lose yourself in the beauty of this music. The vocals return to reinforce the message late on. The track lasts six and a half minutes but it never overstays its welcome.

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CABLE STREET COLLECTIVE – Funny Old World

‘Their music grooves like a bastard’!! Not my words but those of one Tom Robinson when he played them on BBC Radio 6 Music. He wasn’t wrong. Cable Street Collective are that reassuring entity; a vibrant septet who bring musicianship, positivity and a surplus of sunniness into our lives and our living rooms. Not surprisingly, for a band who are so tailor-made for festival stages, they have been playing plenty of those lately including Weyfest, Chickenstock, Folk In A Field and Gate To Southwell this summer alone as well as marauding around the UK playing some great venues. They will be playing a Tropical Christmas gig at Paper Dress Vintage alongside Ruts DC on 20th December too if you can be in the area that day. Cable Street Collective are also serial fresh faves who have now literally been winning our readers’ votes for more than a decade.

Funny Old World sees the band teaming up with Congolese artist Otis Lumumba and the track is a lilting hybrid of African rhythms and arpeggios with triplet time Folk infusions and a Caribbean vibe also present. In some ways it reminds me of that period in the early to mid eighties when bands like Orchestre Jazira and The Bhundu Boys were first getting attention from the UK music press and I would get to see them frequently at gigs and festivals around London. But music like this is timeless. Dexterous female vocal takes centre stage while the rhythm section plays fluidly and with effortless syncopation. The horns provide some goose-bumping stabs, chords and melody lines. If you are inclined to dance, this will have you on your feet in no time and, either way, this is the definition of music to lift your spirits. No anticyclonic gloom here folks.

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DAVID LUXIMON – I’m Taking You For A Drive

Scottish singer-songwriter David Luximon is linked to the Last Night From Glasgow label who, in the past, have brought us the likes of Cloth and Fledglings and, at one time, saw their artists frequenting the faves. He has also had support from Creative Scotland and has been featured on Rick Ross’s Another Country and Roddy Hart’s show on BBC Radio Scotland. All in all, David Luximon appears to have some serious momentum behind him.

His high register vocal on the slow triplet-time Folk-Balladry of I’m Taking You For A Drive weirdly reminds me a little of James’s haunting Just You And I song that features prominently in all series of Twin Peaks although, style-wise, they are quite different. He keeps things simple and organic, the guitar crystalline and sometimes choppy while his voice is highly distinctive and wraps itself around the melody.

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GEISLAR – Quicksilver

It is fair to say that, in terms of information gathering, Geislar are something of an enigma and their Soundcloud and Spotify pages give nothing away. But, with some determined digging, I can reveal that they are an Icelandic sextet whose first album came out in 2014 and the latest, released in 2024, is Supernature from which this single is taken. In October, they played their first live show for 9 years!

Quicksilver is the kind of smooth, sophisticated and succulent Soul/Jazz pop infusion that you need musicians of true calibre to deliver. High class female vocals weave in and out of the lush chord patterns, instrumental interplay and dreamy late night vibe of the band. The playing is sublime and the melody is made all the more exotic by the extended harmonic language and light-textured buoyancy of the track. A vividly colourful kaleidoscope to brighten up your week. Absolute class.

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PLEASURE ISLAND – Greek Riot Squad

It is rare to read a bio quite like that of Liverpool’s Pleasure Island. Originally formed in Australia by Liverpudlian Sean Etkins who was working in the mines there, the band achieved national airplay across the country before blowing half their home up in a ‘freak Barbeque accident’ (as you do!). Sean eventually returned to Liverpool and relaunched the band with the name Pleasure Island and has been gigging, including being involved in running the Penny Lane Weekender Festival, and getting support from BBC Introducing in Merseyside.

Greek Riot Squad places a sardonic spoken word vocal against an uptempo Post-Punk backdrop. There are shades of The Fall but perhaps more so the likes of Life and Yard Act about the style here. The chorus is reinforced with conviction and the guitars, bass and drums are driving but crisp and cleanly produced, capturing the band’s energy but also creating the space for the vocals to flourish. Punchy, punky and power-driven.

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ROSIE FRATER-TAYLOR – In A Dream

London-based artist Rosie Frater-Taylor has been a regular in the faves over the past few years. This year sees her participating in the London Jazz Festival and her live itinerary is international (including Romania and Poland in recent times). She has also been involved in special broadcasts with Soho Radio, Qwest TV and BBC Radio 3. The sense that she is on the verge of wider success has been growing for some time and now feels more imminent than ever.

In A Dream is, in a sense, trademark Rosie Frater-Taylor. It begins with an air of folkiness to the strummed guitar and soft-toned vocals but quickly develops into something much more complex with goose-bumping chord changes and modulations as her jazz influence begins to shine through and her vocal range, both in terms of register and dynamic, helps her to swoop and soar above the instrumental play. As so often with her tracks, the vocal harmonies are particularly lovely. In one sense, there is a melancholy undercurrent here but this has such a bright, uplifting sensibility. As the song floats away on a fluffy white cloud, I am left with one word – outstanding.

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STEFANIA AVOLIO – Like Bamboo

To Verona in Italy we head next to find Stefania Avolio. Stefania has been playing some lovely looking and intimate live shows and bringing her choreographic skills to video making. Like Bamboo reflects ‘… a woman’s strength, much like the resilience of bamboo’. This emphasis on the visual is also evident in the beautifully combined colours and images of plant and sea life that are a strong feature of Stefania’s Instagram page.

Like Bamboo begins soft-toned and enigmatic. The backing track is translucent, a persistent beat (like a pulse), minimal synths and Stefania’s distinctive voice, sometimes harmonised or echoing into the distance. Warm ambient sounds begin to join the mix and her voice rises higher into the upper register in the chorus. The song retains an aura of mystique throughout, the dynamics rising and dropping in response to the melody lines. Thoughtfully arranged and quietly intense.

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THE HARPOONIST – Heartbreak Autobahn

It is one of the many things I love about being part of the Fresh on the Net family that I get to review artists like The Harpoonist. This is Canadian Blues led by virtuoso harmonica (or harp as in harpoon) wizard and vocalist Shawn Hall alongside Big Sugar’s Cordie Johnson. The latter is based in Texas where this track was recorded but the band’s November live itinerary appears to be firmly set in Canada. The pic on the band’s website shows a quartet (with Cordie Johnson playing a double-neck guitar that is 6 and 12 string). They also recently played a fundraiser gig headlined by Andy Kim, a name I have not heard in nearly half a century, as well as other Canadians who have made occasional forays into UK chart territory, Men Without Hats and Dan Hill.

Heartbreak Autobahn is so immediate in the striking shuffling, energetic rhythms of the guitar and harp. Shawn Hall’s vocals are gritty and expressive and the song is cleverly constructed, introducing surprise changes that lift everything up a notch and demonstrate that Blues can be as fresh as any other genre when it’s in the hands of musicians who mix expert playing skills with creative imagination. Once again anticyclonic gloom is banished here and positivity pours from the speakers. I challenge you not to fall in love with this supremely satisfying track. Whatever the weather!

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WORK IN TV – The Good Life

Sheffield’s Work In TV are described, on their Soundcloud page, as ‘… Sheffield’s beloved indie-pop sextet’. They also appear to be on a bit of a roll with support from BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing and Radio X, a headline tour that seems to be going extremely well and a bunch of festival stages on their CV now too. Among them is Live At Leeds: In The City which took place this very weekend and was headlined by the likes of Everything Everything, English Teacher and Willie J Healey to name a few.

The Good Life is an intriguing track. Male vocals are fed through some sort of filter that fits well with the buzzing synth playing long tones against a cool beat which together dominate the backdrop as the song gets straight into action with no need for intros. Then the guitar begins to add some carefully crashing chords and harmonies adorn a poppier chorus. What follows is an imaginatively organised track with an array of synth sounds taking each verse in a different direction while, by the second statement of the chorus, everything is a bit more full-on and the lead guitar figure that follows has an air of Psychedelic Furs jamming with Fontaines DC, not that the band or song sound particularly like either. There are more surprises to come though, including a laid-back mid-section that takes us down another rabbit hole. So many ideas packed into one track but always coming back to that catchy hook. This is refreshing, executed with real love and, dare I say, not a little sunshine too!

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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.