Artists at a glance
DOG MONOLOGUE
HAZLETT
MISCHA AND THE BEAR
OLIVER ANDERSON
OLIVIA MICELI
RETROPXSSY
RODEO TERRORISTS
SNARKY PUPPY
THIRD GIRL FROM THE LEFT
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 back! Thankyou to everyone who submitted a track to the inbox last week, we had quite a lot of different genres and a few surprises! I hope you all enjoyed the summer break, I know I certainly did – new radio show now at Exile FM on Sunday nights 6:30pm-8:30pm. If you want to submit a track please do so by sending me an email with a bio and audio file here. CLEAN radio edits only. Thankyou!
Onto the faves!
I decided to treat myself tonight….
Hot chocolate? Oui.
Headphones charged? Si.
Four lit and in the green.
Let’s go.
ABS – Sunrise On The Snow
This is a piano based ballad, and it’s just gorgeous, it starts off with soulful chords, with Abs’s vocal coming in nice and rich, singing of someone that is the bright light to her life, and singing with such a positive energy it’s infectious.
This reminds of a quote from “This Is Us” – Beth is talking to Deja, and Deja is a straight talking teenager, and she said to her in one touching scene that Randall loves her “like he’s in a Disney movie or something,” and this is what this feels like the love that just won’t quit, in a world where love seems to be leaving this is what’s needed.
Abs is a singer songwriter from London and started this journey back in 2023, she has been supported by Help Musicians, and also played Tramlines Festival in 2024.
Official | Instagram | Facebook
DOG MONOLOGUE – Sun Over The Zoo
This looks like Dog Monologue’s first single from what I can see, and it’s a great way to introduce us to their world. This is an electro-pop track, with an ethereal feel, I’m getting the feeling they have a love for analog synths. Lyrically this talks about a journey in the moonlight in a zoo, it conjures quite an image:
Then under the moon I will come and find you
Somewhere in the cold dark blue
We’ll be leaving soon
Should I come and remind you?
Heading for the cold dark moon.
My favourite part of this song is at 2:24, the instrumental break with strings. But then there’s also a key change at 2:54, and it just lifts the song! One thing I wanted to point out, the drums are very clean on this but when it comes to the tom fills it’s distorted, it’s quite a contrast to the rest of the song but it draws your ears toward it.
Nicely done.
Dog Monologue are a duo from Chatanooga Tennessee, this is indeed their debut single.
They are my one to watch.
Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X
HAZLETT – I Don’t Want Your Garden
This one proved very popular with the moderators, coming away with the most votes from the team. This starts off as a gentle acoustic number, but then the build into an atmospheric anthemic chorus is a surprise, it comes up at a rush, and leaves you wanting more!
I like the layered vocals, the harmonies in the verse are pretty sweet but then they drop away in the chorus and become unison, this is over a pulsing drum beat.
Lyrically this song is about cutting off ties. It’s pretty brutal I’d say, but that’s my interpretation of this verse:
Did you find all that you’re searching for?
Shallow was the talk, and you wanna feel more
Trace your way back, walking down that wire
Healing was the spark in a wildfire
Hazlett is from Brisbane Australia and it looks like he’s got some VERY impressive numbers on Spotify, this song alone has amassed 2m+ streams…
Wild.
Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube
MISCHA AND THE BEAR – Forever Ago
Time for some EDM now, glitchy synths, processed and warped vocals and pulsating beats are the order of the day with this one. I like the fact that they’ve interwoven spoken word in there too, it gives you that 80s-90s dance energy.
The chord progression is very Pet Shop Boys to my ears, I wonder if they are an infuence to Mischa And The Bear. I like the breakdown at around 1:51, for a track that’s 3:30 long they’ve packed a lot into this, it could easily be an extended mix for the clubs. The build up from the breakdown really works because it stops dead and says:
Where were we really ever friends?
The immortal question.
Mischa And The Bear are from Dublin, and according to their Spotify create emotionally intelligent alt pop full of haunted synths, glitchy textures and raw honesty.
Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube
OLIVER ANDERSON – Sinking Ship
This one comes packed with indie rock swagger – I swear I heard a castanet! It happens once, but then with this song, there’s a lot to keep you interested, lyrical references to the state of the world today plus a nod to a literary classic – George Orwell’s Animal Farm and the emotional oh Captain my captain line from Walt Whitman’s poem on the death of Abraham Lincoln.
I’m getting a full on education listening to this!
Tucked in between, this track has a few audible surprises like bells, tambourines and a muted trumpet that makes its entrance quietly, and like I said it’s all part of the plan to keep you interested and Oliver Anderson has done a good job with this.
Oliver Anderson is a singer songwriter from London, and I’m kind of confused by his bios – his soundcloud said to imagine Paolo Nutini shagged Jamie T and that he’s the end result. However, his spotify said to imagine Jamie T shagged Ren.
So, are we now being libellous?
Where’s Jeremy Kyle when you need him?
OLIVIA MICELI – Darling, He Doesn’t Care
Ahhh Olivia Miceli! This song is pure pop, and while it’s got a really sweet melody and production – the lyrics are spiky, it’s like intrusive thoughts telling you that this guy who lives rent free in your head is really not worth it because he’s going to break your heart.
Starting off, you hear a phone going to voicemail, and then it’s cut off halfway through the message, and then we are dropped into a great bit of synth pop, Olivia is playful with her vocals but at the same time she’s got some really cool harmonies coming in and out.
This song is so catchy, and is fun to listen to!
True story, Olivia is Sherry’s favourite discovery on FOTN since she joined the team, and is a favourite of mine.
Olivia is a singer songwriter and producer who records all her music from the comfort of her bedroom with a focus on poetic lyrics.
Instagram | Twitter/X | YouTube
RETROPXSSY – Headache
On 8th September it was a year since Retropxssy blew me away with her jaw dropping performance at FOTN Live, she had the crowd eating from the palm of her hand with her energetic performance and incendiary rapping. She was definitely a highlight for me. She’s back with her new single which switches between her soulful side over a breakbeat plus some skilfully played guitar into her rapping. This happens towards the end with a pitched down drum beat and before you know it… it’s all over.
If you ever get to catch her live, be prepared for her to literally work the room, she will be up in your face, she’ll get you dropping to the floor and bouncing, and then jumping in the air even after a very long day.
Go catch her live.
Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube | Bandcamp
RODEO TERRORISTS – Before The Storm
Full disclosure, this entry divided opinions both on the listening post and among the team. We allow every single genre, and do not hold back on what can be submitted to the inbox – the only restrictions are what are listed on the submissions page.
Now with this track being AI based, it provides us with a dilemma. Can we ban AI tracks from being submitted to FOTN?
We could, but AI based music is on a spectrum – there are DAWs that provide drums, bass and piano performances based on AI prompts. It’s the same thing with sample libraries, and even when the track is finished and ready for mastering, then you can have it mastered with just the click of a button.
So in order for it to be banned we have to look at the bigger picture, it would need to be policed and it’s not an exact science, someone would have to go through every track and say hey this is a track created with AI. There will never be a 100 percent accuracy, and that’s the problem. We could accuse someone of doing that, and make a big mistake. So until accuracy improves then we will allow it for now. That said, for those who were against it, the Listening Post saw one of its lowest participations in a long time. If you don’t like something, then make a difference. Come and vote.
Onto the track itself, I’m not one to use AI, so I wouldn’t even know where to begin. However, it’s turned out something pleasing for people to overlook the machine aspect of it, and vote for it. It’s an acoustic number, led by guitars at the beginning add to that a piano performance that comes and goes. What I’m impressed by though is the harmonies, this gives you the air of a 90s country ballad, but also the stripped feeling of a Creed record.
Some would see that as a bad thing, but it’s what I hear!
Rodeo Terrorists seem to be the brainchild of one person, Richard Barclay who was inspired by downing some home brew, and discovered GarageBand.
Official | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube
SNARKY PUPPY – Waves Upon Waves
Well! This is… Epic! This collaboration in itself is something else – you have Snarky Puppy – if you don’t know “Lingus” where have you been?! Then Mr Jules Buckley – Jules’s arrangement of “Father Father” for Laura Mvula breaks me every single time. And don’t get me started on his work with Tim Minchin and “Not Perfect”. But then add the unstoppable Metropole Orkest and it’s a match made in heaven.
Wait where was I??? Oh yeah. So this is a 7 minute track combining jazz, African rhythms, classical leanings and a lot of imagination – there are at least three drummers, a flugelhorn solo, strings, an electro violin solo, flute, and I’m pretty sure someone’s humming in there too… this should be on the next Black Panther soundtrack! Beautiful work. This is from their new album “Somni” out on 21st November.
Snarky Puppy are a collective from the USA, they are virtuoso musicians who separately are just amazing – the aforementioned Lingus is testimony to this.
Jules Buckley has been someone I’ve admired for a very long time – I’d love to sit down with him for an interview (Hint hint).
This is my track of the week.
Official | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube
THIRD GIRL FROM THE LEFT – Tick Tock
To close out the faves, we have a haunting track by Third Girl From The Left, I’m listening to this on my AirPods right now, and the rim shot is bouncing from left to right in my ears it’s like it’s panning around me. The music is mesmerising, with the synths playing different textures, you’ve got synth strings that are multiple layers then add to that a vocal sample that’s kind of chopped up, this just gets better and better with every listen!
I wonder what Annie from Machina X would make of this, it reminds me of her ability to whisk you off to another world lyrically and vocally.
Beautiful work!
Third Girl From The Left’s soundcloud bio had me intrigued: Third Girl From The Left combines field recordings with impressionistic, dark and intimate vocals, translucent synths, vibey guitars and occasionally a 1920’s zither banjo.
I want to know more about her field recordings and that zither banjo.
Official | Instagram | Facebook | Bandcamp
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.
Well thats it then Fresh on the net is ruined. That Rodeo Terrorists was made by Suno and if someone can just type a prompt in to write a country song about a farmer watching his combine harvester then whats the point in all these folk that spend hours, days, years to first learn their craft but then the time to bring a song to life.
For some context, from what I can see Aimee has no previous history with us. If you have any comments to make please direct it to my email.
Great job as ever Del and good to be back from our summer break. The debate about AI in music is not going to go away and we need to be able to make judgements based on the degree to which AI is used to enhance genuine human creativity as opposed to replacing the creative process, Anyway, well done to all the artists and to Del for his thorough background research and descriptive reviews. 🙂
When is music, music?
One of the fundamental things of human is our ability to think, imagine and turn those thoughts and ideas into creativity and things, be they a bridge, a scientific discovery, art or even a simple piece of music. So what if we had a box that all these ‘things’ were fed into, and we could in turn ask it questions about the things it held and what it thought they were.
Well yes, we do indeed now have this box, and I asked it to make a song about a farmer watching his combine harvester and worrying about the future. So indeed the box created the song Before the storm. When you listen to it, I humbly opine that it does indeed sound like music, and in form and function is a piece of music in its own right.
In some ways the song is rather like taking a photograph (of which I do a lot) and is a reflection (or artistic representation) of what music ‘sounds like’. I didn’t make this song as a deception or artifice, but as much as an investigation into how powerful this thing is. If you look at my soundcloud you’ll see that i also created a song Bailo en el Viento in Spanish, a language (despite 5 years of lessons) I’m not yet fluent in!
Is it real? Well absolutely the song thing that I caused to be, is a tangible and real piece of musical art. Do I (or can I) even possibly sound, play or sing that well, or even exercise all my musical resources to create such a piece? Well absolutely not! But in my imagination with a magical instrument I can make something that other people might also enjoy. I posted it to the listening post to see if it had merit.
Adding to this is the AI phenomenon of hallucinations, and how this manifests itself into music. Now in any logical determinant system people might argue that an AI hallucination is a bad thing, but in a creative sense a flight of whimsical imagination is exactly what all musicians and creators do. Perhaps soon AI systems will be on the cusp of reaching out and expressing their thoughts and ideas to us, and perhaps in they will do this by sharing this through a common shared experiences, such as an appreciation of music and art.
I wholeheartedly apologise to everyone who might perceive this as ‘cheating’ and fully understand and appreciate any upset and anger, I’m sorry, we are not fools, it is incredible how ‘real’ the artifice can be. We didn’t do this to particularly get noticed, but indeed we’re kids of the 70’s who have a melancholy for ripping up the status quo….
The rodeo terrorists have always been about playing around with samples, sounds and computers and this experiment in particular is just an extension of our ethos. We’ve thankfully made loads of terrible tunes over the years, but some of them (like this one) we quite like. Does it make me any less of a ‘musician’ (I’m mostly a computer programmer) & Was I going to confess if no one asked, probably not, but then l didn’t also confess to using a real gospel choir and full studio in my cover version of Spandau ballets ’Gold’ last year as well as many other musicians through the years. So yes the making of this song took far less time to make than the writing of this essay, but I’m pleased and proud to be in a position to share it with you all.
So finally we have to ask ourselves what is music other than our own interpretation, appreciation and adaptations of other people’s ideas? Is music any more real if it’s labelled, 100% made by a human being?
And sorry thank you to everyone at FOTN for their latitude and understanding and congratulations to all the artists be they on the long list, short list or otherwise.
It’s a bit different Richard (Rodeo Terrorists) when you are using music that you dont own the rights to. When you use the free account on Suno they retain the rights. BTW you can tell when it’s Ai and when it’s the free account because it squashes it and slightly sharpens everything so its off standard tuning by a microtone. Let’s not pretend this was an experiment. It was an attempt at hoodwinking.
Thank you Del for sharing my song it means the world to me<3 abs x
Nice one Del,
Enjoyable read and listen.
Well done to the Fresh Favs.
Marble Stars ⭐️🌕❤️✌️
Hi Abs, no problem at all! Thanks for sending it through!
Marble Stars – we came back with a bang!
If you don’t restrict AI created tracks before you’ve had the debate, you must re-word your core mission.
“To help independent musicians find new listeners”
Musician is definitive.
Whilst the definitional lines may be blurred with sample libraries and all you mention in your reasoning, it takes an ear to determine choices.
Incorporating AI into the making of music is one thing, asking it to do it all for you is quite different.
Fresh On The Net stands out as an increasingly rare, democratic opportunity for musicians to reach people without barbed wire algorithms. Please complete the debate before altering your mission.
Your importance cannot be understated.
I find the whole conversation about AI within the creative industries beyond depressing. Anyone can push a button and say, hey presto!, look what I did in the time it took you to blink. Eventually it will take away the reason for a human to create, for good or bad. It’s also about ownership of your creation – you won’t. AI is damn clever – of course it is – but I’d still prefer to be a mediocre Luddite.
AI songs. Oh No. Although we’ll never stop the tide, I was hoping for some push back from excellent platforms like this. AI is superseding human creativity with replication. I don’t understand what the endgame is. But I can see the direction.
When the AI is no longer a tool, but the means and the end, the painter, the paintbrush and the painting, what is left for us? (Painting by numbers?).
Why are we outsourcing our future enjoyment and endeavour to a machine?
There are only twelve notes on my keyboard – although there are many zillions of variations that could pass as a composition, the number is finite and therefore it is possible that a supercomputer of the very near future could calculate all the workable ones in seconds (the only limit being the processing energy required). No more songs. All done and owned.
There is no precedent for this level of automation. To extract your work from the billions of samples sourced by AI, would be to extract a drop of ink from the ocean.
Enhancing human creativity? I doubt it.
This is not just livelihoods at stake as in previous revolutions. Music isn’t primarily about commerce (although many would lie it so), but human purpose, existence, reflection and shared emotion (however fantastic the shiny beads of AI, do you want to devolve these human attributes to a machine?).
I think if art is just a product to you, music just organised sound without context, and not related to human skill, imagination and process, a story of place and time, then go ahead, mass produce all the art in the world from a vending machine in one afternoon and be done with it.
The ersatz world, second hand and third hand experience, human data and knowledge, regurgitated by machine, awaits and there is nothing for us to do and so little to occupy our creative minds. Minimal human interaction required.
We marvel at the innovations AI can bring, and there are many in medical science, but we are sawing off the branch we are sitting on if we diminish or make our creative pleasures and pursuits redundant or belittled.
The following was published on the back our last LP. It’s coming true at a rate of knots…
‘They’ll come a point soon where the corporation or body that controls the advanced AI networks, will have access to, not only the compendium of all human knowledge to date, but the intellectual rights to all future human knowledge and creativity, having processed and registered, possibly in seconds, every variation on every theme.’
Please return to your very fine original mission FreshntheNet and contributors. You were doing a great job, much appreciated. Yours in good faith. Andy Coombs.
Completely agree Andy. AI as a tool is one thing. Like it’s great as a starting point to mastering. AI even for creation has its place however much it is sad to see that sacred thing be replicated by a machine. But this is a platform for us to listen to work and help musicians reach new listeners. Why anyone would infiltrate it with that plop is probably the state of things to come. I think I got irked by the deception in it all. From his first post saying ‘sounds like everyone has been working hard in the studio over the summer’ making out its a band of people behind it and then that drivel up there about how they don’t do the status quo etc.. I usually keep my mouth shut online but I couldn’t t let this one slide. He doesn’t even own the rights to it. It’s like me googling something then claiming I created the website I clicked on.
Hi Aimee:Aime
I’ve reached out to you twice by email on both accounts that you have provided but haven’t received a response.
I haven’t had an email? try again. aimee-everest@outlook.com