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.

Hi everyone, thanks to all the artists that submitted tracks last week. I’d like to ask a favour of those who have made the faves. While you cannot submit a track for 90 day please do come and support your fellow artists at the weekend, and check out the listening post. They’ll love you for it!

As always, if you’d like to be featured on my Islington Radio show, send me an audio file and a bio to my email, clean radio edits only!

Thanks folks.

Onto the faves.

Well, I really fancied something refreshing so I’ve got a tall glass of orange juice and my headphones are charged.

Four lit and in the green.

Let’s go.

ALAS DE LIONA – The Alchemist’s Son

We kick off with a piano based ballad from Alas De Liona, and this one’s got an interesting twist!

What do I mean?

Well, let’s break it down.

An alchemist is someone who has the ability to change ordinary metals to gold. A person of myth and fantasy. This Is what this song is about at its core.

But wait there is more!

When you get into the song, there is something that, under the circumstances, wouldn’t normally fit. But then, this is Fresh On The Net, we don’t always expect normal when it comes to tracks that are submitted.

There’s a reference to an 808.

An 808? In a an indie pop ballad that’s bordering on levels of folk?

It feels like as if I’m in a paradox.

I like it.

Alas De Liona is a US singer songwriter originally from the Mojave Desert now living in Edinburgh, where she grabbed the attention of The Proclaimers manager, who helped her get support slots with Hamish Hawk, Rufus Wainwright, Travis and Emeli Sande.

She definitely travelled more than 500 miles for that one…

I’m so sorry.

Linktree | Instagram| Website

ALEXANDRA LEAVING – Hold The Sugar

It’s great to see Alexandra Leaving in the faves – she’s a triple threat, a fantastic singer songwriter, great live performer and a genuinely nice person full stop. I had the pleasure of seeing her perform at the FOTN Live event and I’m immensely proud of how she’s doing.

This is her new single released on 19th February, and it’s guitar led, and it shows off her range as well. She sings with a vulnerable feel in the verses but when it comes to the chorus she goes in with a harder edge.

I like what she’s done with the arrangement with this, she brings the drums later in the track, while it’s just her, the bass and guitar for half the song. It gives it such an emotional lift, taking you to peaks, and lows.

Lyrically, if I was to interpret the poetry it really is, I think we are being told to bring the bitterness because it’s a reality check – coffee without sugar is bitter (If you can do coffee without sugar you’re gangsta I tell you now!) so there’s no way to sugarcoat things – while everything’s going to be alright it’s going to be crap for a while.

Another strong track from Alexandra Leaving who makes me wonder in my mind whether she took the name in honour of Leonard Cohen?

Something to ponder.

Alexandra Leaving is from the Midlands now living in London, describes her sound as cloud rock.

I like that.

Official | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

ALL MAD HERE – Pink Roads

This has a bit of a slick reggae groove to it – what caught my ear was the pitch bent electric piano – it messes with your head. The production and arrangement is pretty slick on this, great performance from everyone all round. This track starts off with a wind that blows, before settling into a short instrumental and the main song kicks in. I love the soulful vocals on this, very clear and classy! The production value on this track is high!

I love the fact that there’s a hammond organ underneath to give it even more of that reggae vibe.

In fact this track gets my chef’s kiss for just being uber cool.

Who are All Mad Here?

Well they are a band formed from the former Czech band The Chancers, it seems they have a liking for Lewis Carroll’s works, as the title of the band is a reference to what The Cheshire Cat says to Alice.

This track is from All Mad Here’s EP, Through The Looking Glass which came out last September. I’ve had a listen already and I can confirm that it’s five tracks of the same standard. In other words if you like this you’d better go and listen to the rest!

Linktree | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube | Bandcamp

BIG OTHER – Desire In The Other

Hmmm. Is this a literary theme in the faves this week? Because Big Other could be a nod to George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. All Mad Here is a reference to a quote from Alice In Wonderland.

So maybe there’s a literary theme.

Maybe.

This one’s a bit of indie rock, it’s got a solid wall of sound feel to it with the big guitar riffs. My favourite part is what sounds like a sample from an old French movie at 1:51. It’s a very short piece of dialogue, and it’s delivered with passion. As I don’t speak French I’m still baffled as to what is being said. But it works really well within the context of the song. If any of our readers can translate please do let me know!

Big Other are an alternative indie rock band from Manchester, this is their second single, first time on the faves which is always a good thing!

Well done.

Instagram | Bandcamp

COLE. – This Is All A Dream

Another indie rock track, this time with a little bit of a Latin off beat to it, which is quite pleasant to hear.

Lyrically this song could be about the way someone’s life is going, you could blame your parents or your school as to how your life is going, it’s like a look in the mirror and how the mirror responds. The question is whether this is a dream within a dream giving it a bit of a surreal feel.

Musically, this is punchy and to the point, the drums drive the whole thing relentlessly, like I said with that Latin feel of dada dadah, there’s an organ again which I reckon is a Vox, giving the warmth underneath and of course the guitars giving us that power. This for me was one of the strongest tracks in the listening post and there were a LOT of strong tracks this week!

I can’t find much of the origins of Cole. other than that he’s from SW9 according to his Instagram. But what I can tell you is that he’s played The Amersham Arms (Down the road from me!), The Troubadour and more – you can tell this track is ready for a live airing and you can see people getting down and having a good time to it!

Instagram

GRACE DAVIES – Do Or Die

This has a Stevie Nicks feel to it! This is a gutsy blues rock track that Grace Davies’s vocal can really play out her no nonsense performance. Built around a rhythm of kick, claps, and hi hat, then bass and guitars – I could be wrong but I think I can hear banjo in there too…

My favourite part of the song is at 2:07, where there’s a breakdown with just vocals and drums. This builds up to a chorus for the outro, and the energy is almost overwhelming!

Where’s Tom when you need him to drop this on a mixtape???

Grace Davies is my one to watch.

Grace has quite a background, she’s been signed to the SYCO label, as she was on X factor in 2017, she was also mentored by the formidable Sharon Osborne.

She’s also got a picture of herself made up in full demon mode, I’d love to know the story behind that!

Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube

JESSIE REID – The Devil Calls

I love the way this starts out! The acoustic guitar and harmonies at the beginning are what really caught my attention it felt like a really warm element to the whole song. The riffing on the guitar is so well played, nice and percussive.

This song was released on Valentine’s Day and if you don’t pay attention to the lyrics you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a love song, but it’s not. This is a song about finding solace when things go wrong, this is evidenced in the chorus:

“Give me something more,
To keep me guided,
Someone to live a better life with,
I need something more
Than just survival
Something to give the breath of life
When the devil calls,
When trouble calls.”

It’s an appeal to find someone that will bring peace and tranquility and won’t be around just to settle with this could apply to friendships or a romantic relationship, everyone needs a bit of protection from an increasingly dark world, and Jessie is showing her vulnerability in this song.

Jessie Reid is a singer songwriter from Shrewsbury, and she’s been getting love from Chris Hawkins from BBC 6 Music, she’s been compared to artists like Nick Mulvey, and I can hear that – I love Nick Mulvey!

This is my track of the week.

Linktree | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube | Bandcamp

LAMIA – Cobra (prod. LAMIA)

Well! This song’s got a lot of audacity doesn’t it? Lots of glitchy electronic sounds that tickle your ear, but at the same time it’s got a sting to it, there’s a no holds barred attack to the repo babies, Soho House comes under fire, and so do the gatekeepers.

Hey did you ever hear the story of how “Le Freak” by Chic was written? The line about how Soho House can suck d*ck reminded me of that immediately. Find the story. Very funny. But in its original form it would never have made it into the charts at the time.

This song has starts off with reversed samples, I can’t tell what it is but my suspicion is that it’s a reversed sitar as you can actually hear it later on in the track. It’s hypnotic.
The drums give me a Timbaland vibe, Mid Justin Timberlake era, it’s got the groove that will sound great played loud at the beginning of the night, and then back on for the encore.

The “I strike like a cobra” needs to be sampled for a drum n bass track!

Who’s Lamia?

Well, Neil clued me in, Lamia is the stage name Eleanor Griffiths, she’s a graduate with first class honours from Goldsmiths and she’s played several of his gigs as well as him seeing her play at others.

What a talent.

Official | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

LOWMOON – Won’t Change Your Mind

This is a solid dreampop track that has all the good elements – the guitars are suitably coated in delay and reverb, giving it a really nice dreamy effect. The vocals are low and melancholy and it works especially given the message of the song.

The first verse is ambiguous:

“Did they turn it back around?
The dark lines won’t disappear,
They can call it what they want,
They’re green behind their tired eyes.”

This could be a reference to jealousy – the green eyed monster perhaps?

Either way, I like the feel of this.

Lowmoon do not disappoint.

According to his spotify: Lowmoon is the dreamy lofi indie project of Yorkshire project of Yorkshire based musician//producer Mikey Wilson.

Linktree | Instagram | Twitter/X | YouTube | Bandcamp

PEPLO – Love Is Fun

To finish this week’s faves we have Peplo and this for me is just gorgeous. We have a song in 6/8 time, it’s all dreamy, but for me it’s the chord progression, it’s giving me goosebumps, there’s a tinge of Jazz in there, I could imagine this also going even further by adding strings. It’s quite a journey!

From the beginning you hear a strumming that’s muted – I guess it’s to give you an idea of the timing.

Then we dive right into the song, it’s a love letter, I think it’s really personal to the lyricist because there are references that we as listeners won’t get but can relate to.

It all culminates to this chorus:

“Love is fun
when it’s you
I love.
You –
I love you.”

There aren’t many tracks that make me go back and play along on the piano, but this one certainly did….

What a stunner to close the faves out with.

So – Who are Peplo? According to their bio they are a Glasgow four piece formed in 2018, they’ve shared stages with an array of artists and that doesn’t look like it’s going to stop. This is the first single from their forthcoming album.

I cannot wait.

Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X

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.