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, welcome back to another week of faves! Thanks first and foremost to our fab readers for helping us to put together, and to the artists for sharing your talents with us. As always, you can submit a track for consideration to my Islington Radio show drop me an email with a bio and audio file. Clean radio edits only!

Secondly please follow the Fresh On The Net instagram and Bluesky accounts and share with your friends and family.

On with the faves.

Tea? Si.
Toast with a little bit of marmalade on? Oui.
Four lit and in the green.

Let’s go.

ARPRAXIS – Moonlight Slide Ft. Mia G

To kick off the faves today, we have DJ extraordinaire, electronic music connoisseur and fellow FOTN moderator ARPRAXIS. And he doesn’t come alone, he brings his daughter Mia G, and she does a sterling job of providing vocals on this! I believe this is her first release with him.

This is a house track, with percussion giving it a Latin feel, the piano being played is a nod to Italian house music from the 80s. This is not generic it feels modern, and has a youthfulness that tells you that house music isn’t dead.

What I like about it is the combination of house, jazz chords, the diva esque vocals, and the overall flavour of the track, it’s strong and shows Arpraxis’s commitment to his chosen genre. I’ve played this on my show and it’s definitely a soundtrack for the summer.

ARPRAXIS is a London based producer and DJ, loves his vinyl and was on the line up for the FOTN Live festival last year. He also helps run the Eclectic Picks playlist for FOTN.

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BLOODY TOURIST FT. BESS ATWELL – Pelican

What I like about this track is that it combines acoustic with electronica elements, and it does it so well. The harmonies are what got me invested in this track. The vocals are processed as well as being clean, this is evident in the the background vocals especially, there are some things that I picked up on as well, incidental sounds like children chattering and some kind of wind instrument – this is a good example of thinking outside of the box when writing and recording.

Bess Atwell’s voice really touched me, her vocals come in at 3:08, gently to begin with and then she soars… and boy does she soar!

Bloody Tourist and Bess Atwell are my one to watch.

Bloody Tourist are from Brighton, the first of two acts on the faves from the south coast, and their first show was a secret gig at Glastonbury in 2023, they have since got the nod from BBC Introducing’s Emily Pilbeam and Lauren Laverne.

This is my track of the week.

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COLLETTE COOPER – Fireball

Collette Cooper explodes onto the faves this week, first submission for her too! This starts off with a banshee wail that’s inhuman but then Collette has the feeling of a rock star, I reckon she could go toe to toe with Axl Rose with that scream! Anyway, this track does what it says on the tin, it’s explosive – over the backdrop of funk and jazz, Collette pushes through on this track bringing the energy and raw power to it that’s untethered. She doesn’t hold back and sometimes you that’s what you need to shake things up.

The way this changes, going from straight out funk to swinging jazz, Collette takes us on a journey with this track it’s very much a whirlwind of a tune!

Collette has been on my radar for quite a while, she was introduced to me by my Platinum Mind jazz correspondent Sammy Stein who reviewed her albums for my blog, and interviewed her for her own book women in jazz. The independent artist scene is a very small one, as she’s also worked with Gabriella Swallow a cellist who I’m so happy to say was one of my first interviewees for the site when I revamped it back in 2016.

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HANNYA WHITE – Run With Me

Hannya White makes a welcome return to the Fresh Faves with a track that has her trademark vibe, she explores electronica, with grit and unworldly quality. The track starts off with a pulsing sub bass, joined by whistling there’s a low pitched drone added to it which is disturbing to say the least! This track will freak you out, but that’s the general idea. It’s almost the soundtrack of a horror film and with Hannya’s command to come with her it gets into your mind. She puts the whole track through different effects I like the bitcrusher effect which is rarely used in music nowadays.

Chris Mills aka C-Beem made a statement that resonated with me, he said that how Hannya resists formal melody and creates soundscapes is quite a feat.

Hannya is no stranger to the faves, I’ve also featured her on my show and she’s also been on the Freakzone for BBC 6 Music, she creates in the avant-garde genre, if this is your thing, then please do follow her.

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LIZZIE ESAU – Bugs

I’ve kept an eye on Lizzie Esau for a very long while ever since the release of her track Bitter Weather, it was my track of the week way back in Faves 426. I’m very proud of her, as since then she’s gone on to grace the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury as a headliner no less, gone viral on TikTok, put together a killer live band no less and so much more.

My heart is full for her!

So, she’s back with an indie rock guitar driven track which combines electronic drums with acoustic ones, this song is about the duality of being an artist. This is reflected in the lyrics – referencing the red and blue pill – whether to be creative or destructive (Disruptive?) – it’s a dual edged sword and I guess that Lizzie’s at that point in her career now. She’s been doing this for nearly five years now, so it’s good to look back and see what’s happened and what’s next.

This shows that Lizzie’s momentum shows no sign of slowing down – reading her wikipedia page (Yes she has a wikipedia page) she has had a great 5 years since she started. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

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MISCHA AND THE BEAR – Deny

Going down the electronic route, this next one is very poppy in sound, I like the pulsing synths on this. You can tell there’s a bit of an 80s influence here, and that’s not a bad thing! The pulsing bassline, the drum machine, and the vocals which sit comfortably with the synths works pretty well, it makes me feel as if I’m in a Time Machine heading back to 1986 at the height of that sound.

Lyrically, this seems like the point of view of a computer, speaking about leaving parts behind, system corrosion, it seems like the computer is self aware and is feeling emotions…

Interesting!

It’s got that granular feel from the drums upward almost like how we had it in the 80s, and I get the feeling that’s intentional and I congratulate Mischa And The Bear on this.

This is Mischa And The Bear’s first submission to FOTN as far as I can see, they are an independent synth duo based in Dublin Ireland, I love the striking images on instagram!

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ROLLER DISCO DEATH PARTY – Another Saturday Night

Staying with the synth fest in the faves, this next one starts off with an arpeggiated synth, before dropping into an electro dance beat. Add to that the spoken word narrating a Saturday night out, the narrator has a Scottish accent and it’s endearing, she talks about how she loves her friends and she loves her life, over the never ending beat, this is the story of nights out for decades, you celebrate with your friends at the end of the week and just escape to the rhythm.

Roller Disco Death Party are a duo from Glasgow, they are Neal McHarg (synths) and Amelia Boyle (drums). They met through their shared community work, Neal works with PRYDE, where his work also focuses on youth empowerment through music. Amelia is the founder of Gigsafe, an organisation that creates a help point at live shows for anyone not feeling safe or harassed.

I wonder what biscuits they like?

Linktreel | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

SIIGA – Recovery

This is an epic one, it starts off slowly, and dreamy, but that’s part of SIIGA’s MO, the vocals are strong and deliver poetic lyrics:

“She’s on fire for you,
Your heartbeat splits in two
Fireflies like shooting stars
landing on my back,
Like the sun I’m burning inside out,
If this is love I think my heart’s about to crack.”

This is all sung over a ballad that starts off with synths then comes in with full instrumentation later in the song, there’s even a saxophone wandering around in the background somewhere, this has put me firmly back in the Time Machine taking me back a little further to 1985.

Gorgeous!

SIIGA is the alter ego of Isle of Skye’s Richard Macintyre. He specialises in dream worlds, with synths and saxophones, this looks like his third submission to FOTN and the 2nd time he’s made the faves. Congratulations.

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TILDATOONZ – Red Wine Music

This launches out of the hangar bay with a beat that comes flying so fast you just can’t catch you, it starts off with a piano part that is put through EQ along with the the drums and it just stutters along!

This is one to turn all the way up, it’s heavy on the drum n bass, and carries soul on the vocals. If I was to hear this live, the whole band would be rocking, you could bring a horn section, a live drummer who would be having the time of their life because the punches on this would be a whole workout in itself.

For me it’s the vocals that really stand out, the R&B/jazz/soul crossover adds the spice to the whole thing and it’s not unnoticed.

This track gets my chef’s kiss.

Tildatoonz is Jess Hattam, a singer songwriter producer and DJ from Brighton, who’s gained airplay on Radio 1 no less on their BBC Introducing Dance show with Jaguar, she’s also been known to venture out onto the stage to spin some tracks too, and by the looks of her instagram she’s killing it right now.

Linktree | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Bandcamp

TJTUCKER, MISU – Backwoods

To close out the Faves this week, this is our cover star TjTUCKER who combines hip hop with a bit of acoustic flavour in the mix, this track hits on different levels, for one thing I think that it deals with mental health and the struggles, especially with dealing with what life throws at you, this is referenced in the lyric:

“Some days I’m thinking about topping the top of the dome,
But don’t,
There’s more to live for,
A son I want 4.”

The wordplay isn’t missed here, a son I want for/4 he wants four sons. This track is hard hitting given that world mental health day is observed this month.

This is a very strong offering from TjTucker and Misu, the soulful vocals on this really provided the foil for this track. I can’t wait to hear more!

TjTucker is rapper and producer and the frontman of the genre bending Legends With No Name. I love that name! He’s played at festivals like Salemango Jazz, and played venues like Belgrave Musical Hall, not to mention having garnered support from Arts Council England, BBC Introducing and more.

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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.