Every week the team individually pick tracks that make up the listening post but there are always “ones that got away”.

These are the alternative picks and some words by our moderators on each one. You can find the tracks in one playlist here.

Artists feature this week:

ANNABELLE TIFFIN
AETHER SPEAKER
LDASHD
FLAM X JIMMY STEELE
GRIM 17 X INVISIBLE SQUIRREL
OF IYRN
HYPER SYNC
BROKEN BEAR
ASHLEY VALENSTEÏN
ORANJ SON
MATILDA SCHYBORGER
MOODY MOODY
RIVER ROOTS
TH’SHERIDANS
JOEJAS
TERRY NAYLOR

ALAN DREEZER:

ANNABELLE TIFFIN – CURRENTS

This acoustic/singer-songwriter cut builds and builds whilst lyrically painting a well crafted picture.

AETHER SPEAKER – END CREDITS

This moody,floaty really original track has a lot to admire about it.

DEL OSEI-OWUSU/PLATINUMMIND:

LDASHD – We On A New Wave

I wonder what this would sound like with a live drummer and a jazz orchestra going on, plus a turntablist for tricks and giggles? This got my toes tapping from the outset. This would be the kind of thing you’d hear on BBC Live Lounge.

FLAM X JIMMY STEELE – Earthwork

We don’t get much jazz sent to us so I’m always really appreciative when we do get some, I love the sax playing, not to mention the use of brushes on this track, very sparse, and keeps things interesting for the ears.

JOHN MICHIE:

GRIM 17 X INVISIBLE SQUIRREL – Bitter Shine

Soulful, gravel-cut vocals slide in like they’ve been awake too long. There’s a dry heat desert-born, cool to the performance. Underneath, the music pulses with mechanical, cinematic precision. Tight, hypnotic, slick, and claustrophobic. By the end, it feels less like a song and more like a late-night drive you don’t quite remember starting.

OF IYRN – Turn It Red

The track is built on soft washes of sound like sunlight reflecting off slow-moving water. Guitars shimmer, glow and drench you in warmth and space. The drums and percussion are light and patient, lush touches of mellotron and violin, everything breathes. The vocal is smooth yet glides with a quiet ache. Subtle harmonies rise in the background like a warm breeze. Very atmospheric, very lush.

NEIL MARCH:

HYPER SYNC – Assurance

Love how this mixes Hyper Sync’s self-professed love of Joe Sample with a bit of Bill Sharpe like The Crusaders and Shakatak mixing it up but making contemporary instrumental Jazz of the poppier variety.

BROKEN BEAR – Pride Before The Fall

It’s a tough week when FOTN regulars like Laura and Paul aka Epsom’s Broken Bear miss out on the Listening Post. Pride Before The Fall is a slowish triple time Alt Rock track with trademark snarling fuzztone guitars, pounding drums and Laura’s distinctive voice in centre stage.

PAUL KERR:

ASHLEY VALENSTEÏN – Nothing Ever Happens Here

Nothing Ever Happens Here from Leith based electronic artist ASHLEY VALENSTEÏN opens with a disorientating scratchy, chittering rattle that sounds like Gregor Samsa’s Nokia ringtone. Then Ashley’s voice drops in, flat and beautifully human, asking to meet in the Tesco car park. There’s a wink of The Flying Lizards in the electronics: playful, twitchy, defiantly off‑kilter. The attitude is pure pre‑Spotify playful indie, the kind of track that snags on your skin and refuses to let go. Ashley sidles up beside you in the frozen food aisle and mutters under her breath that the mundane is actually absurd, and convinces you that it’s so, so much better than sliced bread.

ORANJ SON – Daffodil

Daffodil, from Liverpool four‑piece Oranj Son, takes the afterglow of a summer afternoon and makes it bloom. Guitars shimmer like August sun through a Mersey mist; synths hover like steam‑fuelled ghosts; and Kieran Linford’s voice drifts in and out like Julian Cope on a magical‑mystery detour to the Bombed‑Out Church. One moment you’re staring at your shoes, the next you’re lifted over the rooftops. Warm, spectral, unmistakably scousedelic, Daffodil lingers in the air like early‑morning fog.

SHARON PEARCE:

MATILDA SCHYBORGER – Nellie

A fast, feel-good alt-rock track with driving drums and electric guitar, where lyrics about friendship and standing by someone gain urgency from the pace, adding an extra sense of momentum to the song.

MOODY MOODY – Versions

A moody alt track – thoughtful and tense – where the repeated ‘Versions’ feels like someone sorting through different sides of themselves, with bursts of guitar adding emotional punch that made the highs and lows hit harder.

SHERRY SAHAYARAJ:

TH’SHERIDANS – Painted

TH’SHERIDANS Painted is a bright, indiepop tune that sounds like nostalgia .It’s got that warm clear, joyfull melody.

RIVER ROOTS – Spring

Spring is a gentle track, both the duet vocals compensate each other giving colour to the track. It gives that warmth with all the harmonies and the earthy, folky vibe.

TONY HARDY:

JOEJAS – WiiiZARD POOLS

London rapper and producer JoeJas aka HairyMuffinMan switches from mellow reflection to rapid, hard-hitting flow on this bouncing track from his Left Handed Bandit album. It’s a confident avowal to “keep that child like wonder raw”, to enjoy things that make you happy whether young or old. And to… keep dancing!

TERRY NAYLOR – HOLY WAR

Seasoned songwriter and musician Terry Naylor delivers an anti-war song with steely intent, building from a sombre piano ballad opening and moving through some interesting modulations before lyrical guitar adds embellishment. Musically there is a bit of a mid-Genesis feel to things while Terry’s protagonist in the song is seen as both perpetrator and victim in the futility of war.