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.

A word from Del: Hey everyone, welcome to the first batch of faves for 2026, and what a batch! Thanks to everyone who submitted.

If you want to be featured on my show The Songbird Sessions on Exile FM send me an audio file and bio to del.owusu@gmail.com – clean radio edits only.

So, last minute, I’m stepping in to write the faves. I have my cuppa. I’ve changed it up and I’ve got ginger biscuits.

Four lit and in the green.

Let’s go.

CRAWFORD MACK – Boxes

We hit the ground running with a track that goes at a fair pace, what I like about it is the drums especially. It’s got a pretty sweet groove made up of hi-hat (closed) kick, everything around it is being played at half time. Smart move! There’s also what I suspect is a mellotron type synth in there though mellotrons are not strictly synths. This reminds me a little of Radiohead but not so miserable! It’s the textures that take me there.

Lyrically this song calls for a revolution – don’t follow the path that everyone takes – it even references the Mona Lisa showing that sometimes we have to think beyond what to see to get where we want:

“Don’t bite your tongue a hundred ways to stop you going crazy
Don’t waste a single drop of breath on ifs and buts and maybes
Stand your box and let it out cos it will liberate your mind.”

Crawford Mack is a Glaswegian singer songwriter who specialises in jazz folk and rock, he’s currently studying in London.
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EVADNEY – Plié

This is so moody, combining electronica, hip hop beats and a bit of classical composition to make something truly epic! The pads set the tone in the intro plus the ahhhs, giving it an angelic chamber choir – but hold that thought because it also transitions into a gospel choir so it’s passing through!

Wow.

This is dramatic, with the synths playing an important role drawing your ears in different directions, you could just imagine a modern ballet being set to a multimedia production of this.

The last verse caught my attention:

Dance me till my blue is royal,
So that I know
Really I’m a sleeping giant,
Morning rises come and wash it away,
Away.

This could be talking about mental health, being caught in the middle of it all, but then in the dead of night you’re lost in dance and you feel a little better…

I’m not sure.

But whatever this is it set off so many questions in my mind.

Evadney has a whole range of musical influences – old school soca courtesy of his parents but then this on a spectrum – Kate Bush? Grace Jones?

I can hear the drama of this in his songwriting.

He’s got the nod from Clash, and featured on the Glastonbury Emerging Talent List, and being featured on the BBC.

This is from his third forthcoming EP “It’s Dreaming”.

This track gets my chef’s kiss.

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EXPOSED BRICK – Bob

Off to Liverpool we go, this track features some great synths! What I like about this track is the key changes added in contrast to each other, it’s a really smart way of writing! This is cleanly done. But I don’t want to focus on this, I want to focus on the subject matter of the song, this was written about Stephen Lewis aka Exposed Brick’s sister. This was the nickname his brother in law gave her, and he sadly passed away, so this is a tribute to him, now I wondered if the name was in relation to Blackadder? If you’re a fan then that’s probably a deep cut reference right?

What is it with Liverpool and annoyingly good music?

That’s it I’m moving.

Exposed Brick is based in Spain and has an extensive catalogue on bandcamp.

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HANNAH LOU LARSEN – I’m Sorry

The combination of synths – very 80s by the way – and Hannah Lou Larsen’s layered vocals is what drew me to this song. The melody is so sweet! But at the same time, this is a song about a friendship/relationship that’s gone south, she’s taking the blame for not being around for someone, even though it seems the relationship/friendship was going okay initially, but that’s only revealed toward at the end of the song. The sweetness of the instrumental superimposed over the lyrics in this context is a great songwriting achievement!

Hannah Lou Larsen really impressed me with this, and to this end she is my one to watch.

Hannah is a Danish born Oxford based singer songwriter multi instrumentalist and producer. Looking at images that I’ve found she uses field recordings, which I love the idea of! You never know what you can find that will give you inspiration.

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HAPPY DUST GANG – Love Is The Key

Time for a bit of quirky indie pop now, the guitar riff at the beginning is catchy as hell, and this is a theme that continues through the track. The chorus shows this as well, because there’s a counter line that answers the chant of Love Is The Key. The message even is pretty clear about this at the end anyway, given the world we live in now, it’s crazy and definitely in need of love.

The switch between spoken word and singing/shouting is bang on, and this could go down well live, that’s my prediction.

It’s funny that it’s a year ago to the day since I reviewed Happy Dust Gang!

It shows you how fast things come around, and from my record this is their second time on the faves.

They are a trio from London, I really have high hopes for them!

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MT JONES – Gentle Reminder

Time to go a bit retro with this next one, it’s very Motown, and I like that, MT Jones hits his falsetto range with this so I’m hearing influences from Smokey, Prince, D’Angelo, it’s all packed in there.

The strings opening set the tone at the beginning and giving lovely passages through too. The only thing missing is the crackle of the vinyl record!

This song is a love song, where MT Jonesstates his love implicitly and that it will be a love for the ages.

This song was co written in collaboration with Jonathan Quarmby a name that I’ve come across a few times over the years, he co founded AWAL (Artists Without A Label) and he’s actually on my list of people I’d like to interview!

MT Jones has a very busy February ahead with live dates all available on his website.

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NADIA SHEIKH – Waiting

Nadia Sheikh has become a permanent fixture on the faves now, you can always rely on her to have a banger locked away, and this is no different. This is a perfect slice of indie rock, her vocals shine through, but she’s got a soulful tinge to it this time around. It might be because of the drum groove giving a little bit of James Brown off beat rhythms there – that’s sneaky but I love it.

This is a song about patiently waiting for a lover that Nadia’s observing from afar – I say patientlly because she’s waiting for the stars to align and for their worlds to collide, it paints a very effective picture. As always Nadia doesn’t let anyone down with her songwriting.

Nadia Sheikh is a British Spanish singer songwriter, she’s achieved a lot one of my favourite things about her is that she supported Texas and PJ Harvey!

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NX PANTHER FT. G-HERC – Lightning Bolt

NX Panther! What can I say about NX Panther? Rapper. Producer. Label boss. Singer. Songwriter. Good friend. FOTN mod. Videographer. I’m probably missing something here, but she wears many hats and wears them well. I actually played this on my show on Sunday, and my first thought was that she approaches her tracks with a regality, she speaks like a Queen, hits every syllable with authority, and takes you behind the curtain of where she’s coming from. The beat glitches along perfectly, and she switches from different elements, the lead part rapped and then you hear little adlibs to punctuate it too. I love the fact that she’s got an orchestra hit in there too.

G-Herc comes to the mic and spits bars too, and this is a perfect match, they match each other pound for pound on this, and I’m glad that they made the faves.

NX Panther is a busy artist, she also kills it live having opened the FOTN Live Festival at the Lower Third In 2024, really electrifying the place, an experience I won’t forget too soon.

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SONNEN BLUME – Making Coffee

This is a great bit of dream pop – from the moment it opens, with gentle guitars, and you are taken into that hazy spot in your mind.

The opening line is so cool, you can see the music video for it already:

“We made a tennis court in your back garden,
Serving over the washing line.”

It’s all very dreamy you can just imagine a handheld camera tracking through a big house in the country, and hazy footage like on old tape.

But these are all memories triggered by making coffee and trying to let go of them are hard, and while initially I thought this was something from a long time ago, there’s a reference to a time in 2017, and you don’t get many songs that reference a specific time period nowadays, I like that!

Sonnen Blume are a duo from Staffordshire, they have their second album coming out in March named “2”.

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STEVIE TODDLER – Too Far

To close out the faves… I don’t even know where to begin with this. All I can say is that when I first heard it I was on the train home from London and this one and one other caught my attention immediately, I just had a feeling that this inbox was going to be one of my favourites. This was the trigger for it.

So, this is what I had to say about it when I reviewed it for my track of the day last week, Tony calls it my stream of consciousness writing!

this track just made my day. It’s a dreary day in London and it’s been drizzling on and off. I have been keeping an eye on the inbox for @fotnblog as we reopened today (Yes shameless plug), and this was in the batch. This combines some nifty bass work and vocal dexterity that kept my ears tickled, I’m not going to lie, the synth part that punctuates the rim shot just makes you want to dance, the beat is laid back giving you a bit of a jazzy hip hop feel, and it instantly puts a smile on your face. There’s a sneaky two string bass part at 1:13 that made me think of the late great Herbie Flowers and what he played on “Walk On The Wild Side”. This song goes through some really tasty transitions, even Stevie’s vocal gets the effects treatment and the guitar solo to play out this track makes it my perfect choice for today. I need more.

Hold on one tick… *flips a switch on the panel*.

Yeah. That looks good.

Congratulations Stevie Toddler. This is my track of the week.

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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 – or on my BBC Introducing Mixtape – 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.