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, thanks to all the artists who submitted tracks this week. To the artists who made the faves, congratulations! Just a couple of reminders – please remember that as you have made the faves you cannot submit another track for 90 days. But do come and support other artists on the listening post next weekend.

As always you can submit a track for my radio show by sending me an email to del.owusu@gmail.com with a bio and an audio file – Clean radio edits only! Thankyou.

Now, due to unforeseen circumstances writing the reviews have fallen to me. I’m also fighting a raging cold, so this may not be a stream of consciousness review but more like a fever dream driven review sponsored by Heinz chicken and vegetable soup and powered by paracetamol.

ACANTHA LANG – Til I Get It Right

To open the faves we have a soulful cover of a country song. Acantha Lang approaches this track with Motown vibes, as well as Deep South leanings with those Muscle Shoals style horns. And don’t think I didn’t notice that organ underneath it all.

Lyrically this talks about still having faith in love and that being hurt many times before but she knows that there is hope out there.

This is a cover version of a song recorded in 1972 by Tammy Wynette, this is a totally different take on it.

Acantha Lang is a London based New Orleans born artist, who’s also grammy nominated as her website states.

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

BØDHI – LET IT GO

To a different side of the spectrum we go this next one is a drum n bass track that goes at quite a speed, what I like about it is that it’s quite fluid, the synth pads over the beat ease you into what you’re hearing really easy, but then it has some punchy bits in there too. I’m not 100% sure but is that a shuffle on the hi-hats? It gives it a little quirk to the track, very subtle so kudos to Bodhi on this. He does not come alone, he’s brought Katie Jones with him and I like the way he’s processed the vocals to to become their own synthesiser.

Bodhi took some digging around to find some background info – but according to Bandcamp he’s a producer from Brighton and Hove, he’s got some very striking artwork for his music.

Instagram | Bandcamp

DAN PYE – Funny Way Of Dying, Kid

Dan Pye comes to us with a dusty acoustic number, dusty in a good way as it carries a lot of in its title. I wonder if there’s an influence of Leonard Cohen here because it’s quite melancholy. There are references to John Lennon being on the radio, I like that awareness of the world around you in songs, and I reckon this is a deeply personal song – my thinking of this is reinforced by the fact that it’s the title track from a 5 track EP as well as being the opening song.

The addition of brass underneath is genius by the way.

Dan Pye is a singer songwriter from London whose music is categorised as being sweet alt folk pop music.

Instagram

JAY MOUSSA-MANN – Honey You Shrunk This Kid

Our cover star this week is Jay Moussa-Mann, and she brings us a track that fuses her vulnerable vocals over a drop of electronica, this isn’t dance music but the synths really bathe you in comfort. I really like her harmonies on this and I’m so glad she made the fresh faves – so this is my track of the week.

There are several things I like about this song, chief among them is the not so subtle pop culture reference to a film that people of a certain generation would remember straight off the bat.

Okay okay.

My generation will remember.

The reference made me smile, and I wish people would leave little easter eggs like this in their songs so people don’t forget about those long gone summers when films like “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” were blockbusters…The lyrics are about a relationship that’s changed and become alien, so this could be a number of things that are implied that the relationship was still at its testing phase and they were both not ready for it, and that she wasn’t ready for the shock of how it ended. This matches up with the ongoing theme of her songs in that she uses them to explore breaking away from the worlds that shaped her.

Jay has been on my radar a very long time, she’s also had lots of love from the BBC through introducing since 2018, which is always a good thing!

Instagram | Facebook | Bandcamp

JOHN SERRANO – What A Ride

I’ve been a fan of fan of John Serrano’s for quite a while now and it’s great to see him here on the the faves, this is a track that has a lot going on. This track could almost be described as prog folk rock because the way that it’s put together it’s not traditional folk – but then, looking up the backstory for this, it’s from a forthcoming album called “Neurofolk”. So, maybe he’s invented a whole new genre?

This is percussion heavy, creating a bed under the guitars, woodwind, and piano. This is very homemade, and I think that’s the selling point behind this track, sometimes you just need to go in and do it all yourself. But in this case, he’s not, he’s got Edward Givens helping out too. For the pure creativity on this track I’m awarding it my chef’s kiss.

Instagram | Twitter/X | Bandcamp

KAT EATON – Not Pretending

Another track that’s got an old school soulful vibe to it, and it’s good ear candy! This has got a nice little shuffle to it, something I wish there was more of in music nowadays. Kat Eaton brings vocal fire to this with backing vocals and even a tasty guitar solo to bring up the middle 8. This is the kind of song you’d expect to be performed on something like Later With Jools Holland with the actual Rhythm And Blues Orchestra doing the business, otherwise that horn section would go to waste!

This artist is my one to watch.

Kat Eaton is a Welsh born Sheffield raised and Yorkshire living R&B/soul artist, having seen some videos on YouTube it looks like she’s having the time of her life when she performs and why not?

Official | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

LUNAR BIRD – Blue Chamber

Lunar Bird last made an appearance on the faves in batch 459 and were also a recommendation made by Neil as one of his favourite discoveries when I interviewed him six years ago. Wow that’s a long time ago! This track has a nice synth lead that plays the melody and makes me recall analogue tech from the 80s – I do like that sound!

Lyrically this song potentioally could be about being put in a safe space with all the madness going on in the world, protecting a friend from a relationship that could go wrong:

You know, you can’t live your whole life
Holed up in love
But I don’t really wanna know
What’s happening outside
I don’t need to have fun with them
I only want to watch the shadow
Of your hair on the wall
In our blue chamber

I have questions.

All of this is wrapped up warmly in a dreamy vocal and instrumentation, and makes me close my eyes and lose myself.

Beautiful work.

This track is brought to us by a band from Wales who make dream pop from outer space.

I kid you not.

This is on their Facebook profile.

Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X | YouTube | Bandcamp

RENEGADE BRASS BAND – Try My Luck

I haven’t heard from Renegade Brass Band for a minute! This marries up hip hop with their signature brass band sound, it starts off with the lower frequencies cut off before dropping in with a tuba leading the way. The beat is heavy and has a swagger to it, while the rap hits you hard in the chest you could imagine Renegade Brass Band leading the way through a crowd to the stage playing this good and loud.

The rap is standard Renegade Brass Band stuff, rapid fire, not letting up for a breath and powering through with intelligent couplets, and that’s what makes them one of my favourite discoveries on FOTN.

They are a 12 piece band consisting of 8 horns and two percussionists, and a turntablist, and according to their site they have a new album coming out in March.

Looks like they’ve been busy.

Official | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Bandcamp

SALAM NOIR – So Called Game

Salam Noir seems to be a bit of an enigma I can’t seem to find any info on them other than a website that shows that they have their fingers in many pies. This is a smooth hip hop track using a 70s style beat and jazz vocals and strings to come up with a slick production, it’s a steady track with a rap flow that keeps things laid back – very smooth production.

Having nothing to report on where this artist is from or where else to find their music…

I’ve got nothing.

However they do have a link to a site that says they make music for students worldwide, which is quite intriguing.

Official

TILDATOONZ – C’est La Vie

To close out the faves we have a track that means that’s life, it starts off with an acoustic guitar playing a Bossa nova groove. Don’t be fooled though as that Bossa nova switches to a drum n bass groove which glitches dropping in and out on the beat – this got me twitching my feet slightly, and I can imagine this going down a storm on a sun drenched beach somewhere.

All in all this is flavour packed with percussion to noodle it out and the jazz chords give it spice I like the sax solo it’s very simple but lands pretty well!

Tildatoonz is the mind behind this track, she’s from Brighton, she has been featured on BBC Radio 1 Introducing, she’s from Brighton and is currently crushing it.

Instagram | Facebook | Bandcamp

PS from TR: 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.