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, first of all I’d like to say a heartfelt thanks to the FOTN team for helping me since the beginning of the year to help keep this ship afloat. Without your help I couldn’t do this! Secondly to artists who have submitted tracks thankyou so much for keeping this interesting. Thirdly to our readers – thankyou so much for coming to support us! Please spread the word about what we do here.

I would like to make an appeal to everyone who make the faves. As you can tell, the faves aren’t decided by one person, and I’d love for you to be actively involved, we open the listening post early on Fridays purposefully for this reason and keep it open until 6pm on Sunday evening, please help your fellow artists – it’s not a competition – we purposely ask artists not to tell their friends to come and vote for them as that would defeat the point of what we do here. If you can come and check out the first listening post when we return and vote for your favourite 5 tracks that will be helpful.

Shares and likes are nice, but if we rely on just shares and likes alone we wouldn’t be able to function. I will tag you on social media as a reminder of course. Thankyou!

If you choose to share this, please tag the correct instagram accounts, @fotnblog and myself as the writer my account is @platinummind

Thankyou!

Onto the faves.

ANNIE ELISE – Make A Wish

What I like about this track is the emphasis there is on the electronics, it draws your ears towards the track as a whole! The arpeggiated pattern at the beginning is what caught my attention from the beginning. Add to that Annie Elise’s voice sounding nothing short of exquisite as it’s put through its paces in effects. This song has such a space age quality to it. But then at the same time there’s also a retro feel to it because I could swear there’s the famous E.Piano 1 voice from the Yamaha DX7 somewhere in there too. Now this could be considered an easter egg as the lyrics say this:

Close your eyes and make a wish,
Remember that you wanted this,
If you want to reminisce (Reminiscing about years and sounds gone by?)
You will need to sit and finish
Every little thing you ever started
You can’t do anything half hearted

Whether this is intentional or not it still drew my mind there.

This is from Annie Elise’s EP Magic – She originally messaged me on instagram about submitting a track to FOTN and I’m so glad she did. Annie Elise is originally from Amish country (I have so many questions!), now based in New York City, she’s studied violin, and is apparently famous in China…

Yeah I think we need to sit down for tea and biscuits.

Instagram | Facebook

BURR ISLAND – Clarity

The way this song begins has a distinctly summery feel, it’s a folk song from the outset. This starts off with guitar intermingled with piano before bringing drums bass and guitar – then a lovely string part. What really attracted me to this song initially is the harmonies. Because Burr Island is a duo, you’d think there’s more than two of them singing those parts -there isn’t, looking at the credits but boy do they make it sound more than that!

This song’s lyrics are poetic – it sounds like self doubt taking over and the writer is putting their trauma from this into words – we’ve been there and it’s relatable.

Burr Island are originally from West Country now based in London they are best friends Tom England and Oskar Porter, their bio leaves me with my jaw dropped open – they’re former actors, who have had the nod from Noel Gallagher and also supported The Modfather Mr. Paul Weller, Robert Plant of that little band called Led Zeppelin and Ocean Colour Scene.

Nothing major then…

Official | Instagram | Facebook

DREW FRIEL – Four Bed In Birkenhead

I love the way this starts off – The drum beat kicks off then the rest of the track comes in sped up – innovative arrangement! This song is a tribute to life in the Wirral, specifically Birkenhead, the vocals even have a slight Scouse adjacent accent. There are references to things about the region, like the tunnel that connects Birkenhead to Liverpool, the terraced housing, and even more.

All in all this is a quirky catchy indie pop song!

To say Drew Friel is drawing from personal experience is an understatement. He’s Manchester born and Merseyside based, he’s been releasing music since 2024, and this is his first time on the faves.

Instagram | Bandcamp

HAPIN USUWO – For You

This is the second time that Hapin Usuwo has made the faves this year, and I’m so happy to see him here again. This song is from a new EP called The Empress, and it is typical of his sound, soulful but with a psychedelic fuzz around it. Again, Hapin approaches his songwriting by matching the sounds to the lyrics:

If I had a time Machine,
I’d fix all the worst parts of me,
For you
I can imagine,
Fly with you by my side
Pink sky blue and white highlights
Can you imagine?

There are sci fi sounds within this, I get the feeling that vintage synths were played with to within an inch of their life to get the end result here. This is one of my favourite submissions of the year very good job!

Hapin Usuwo is an artist from Nottingham he’s also on EDBL Recordings, from which this is released.

Instagram

ISLA MAE – Round Round

Isla Mae’s skills on writing and arranging on this is pure genius.

Why do I say this? Well, for one thing she’s using every skill she has at her fingertips keeping it simple and complex at the same time. The thing that caught my attention at first her lyrical dexterity -She hits the track at speed, and this is a phrase I heard recently relating to Billy Joel’s style of writing. Roger Daltrey wanted Billy to write a song for him because he always wrote songs that had chewy lyrics and this is a good example of that – the words fall on the rhythm, and has a pattern indicative of having a hip influence too. The song has many layers arrangement wise and that’s what impressed me so much.

Isla Mae is a singer songwriter from Cambridgeshire with her sound deeply rooted in folk, having played at festivals like Camp Bestival, Cambridge Club Festival, and Ely Folk Festival.

Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

ISQ – On Shoulders Of Giants

In my emails I get artists who submit tracks for my show and I always encourage them to submit their tracks to FOTN as there’s a community that will be receptive to their music. Irene Serra, aka ISQ is a good example of this, and I’m glad she did, this is a song that is packed of jazz folk goodness. take for example the guitar parts that are fused here – you have an acoustic part as well as a jazz guitar which plays a beautiful solo. I really enjoyed listening to this and it got better and better with each listen, I also appreciate a drummer who goes to brushes just to keep the whole rhythm section simple.

All of this to draw my attention to Irene’s vocals. AND WHAT A VOCAL! If you add scat vocals even just a tiny little bit then you have my heart. But one thing she’s not overpowering with her vocals, she’s giving us a subtle hint at what she’s capable of and I’m so grateful to her for gracing us with this.

Now for some reason my memory clicked with Irene’s name and it’s taken me until now that I have come across her before – she was interviewed for my site by my jazz correspondent at platinummind (Yes I have a jazz correspondent!) Sammy Stein, check out the interview here.

ISQ is pronounced like disk, Irene Serra is a jazz vocalist of Italian descent, Danish upbringing and Londoner by choice, she’s played iconic venues like Ronnie Scott’s, Barbican, Union Chapel and Pizza Express Jazz Club.

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

LUKE DE-SCISCIO – Women From God

Luke De-Sciscio brings a song that’s full of atmospherics, this has vocals, guitars and synths that swirl around you, it’s haunting, and the video for this adds to it. Luke is in a church, black and white visuals, and his vocals soar on this making it a very emotional piece. From what I can work out from the lyrics, Luke has found solace in a woman who is seemingly from heaven – it’s not your typical angel fallen from the sky it’s more than that, and has more depth.

All I can say is that it’s very much a moving song.

For this reason Luke De Sciscio is my one to watch.

According to Luke’s bio he was raised on olives and Abba (I’ll hard pass on the former but thumbs up to the latter). He was born in Swindon and lives in Bath where he’s spent most of his career writing on a canal boat.

Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Bandcamp

THE HAPPY SOMETHINGS – Figure It Out

The Happy Somethings make a welcome return to the Fresh Faves with a song that’s part of their signature sound – wibbly wobbly timey wimey indie pop. They never disappoint me with their songs, with their lyrics that bear a hint of humour and a unique outlook on life and the world at large.

In this song, surrounded by guitars coated in wahs and and a sprinkle of distortion The Happys tell us to figure things out when it seems that things aren’t going the right way, it doesn’t matter who you are where you have been they are putting their trust in you when you don’t have trust in yourself to do the right thing. It’s sage advice at the end of the day.

One thing I’ve known about The Happys is that they like their sound to be intentionally unpolished, and it works. Again, it’s that drawing on of sounds that will make you sit up and listen. Someone even commented that this song had them dancing in their seat, and getting out their disco ball that they rarely use, for me if you can make someone sit up and pay attention with your music you’ve done your job.

The Happy Somethings are from the Midlands, and have always been supportive of FOTN, Joy having served as a moderator previously, and keep their identity ambiguous, I like this as while they keep their identity anonymous they still maintain an online presence making sure it’s easy to find their socials and music.

Please take note!

This is from their new album coming out on 7th August which I’m in the middle of reviewing.

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

THE MUSTARD SEED – The Birds

The band formerly known as Dom Clark Trio, The Mustard Seed come to us with a track that’s dreamy and jazzy at the same time. We have a track with a double bass that’s being skilfully played on top of lovely guitar chords, the strings being played sound really dreamy. It makes you float away! While I listened this originally at moderation I was walking through Greenwich Park, and it was early in the morning. For those of you who have never been there it’s so peaceful first thing, and it’s beautiful – It’s a sanctuary in the middle of chaos being right by the roads heading into Central London at the top and then the hustle and bustle of the Cutty Sark and Greenwich Market at the bottom. This provided the perfect moment of calm for me, and for this reason this track gets my chef’s kiss.

Now, the link to London is where this wraps up nicely as Dom Clark is none other the trumpet player for long time friends of FOTN Cable Street Collective, and it makes me want to know what is hidden behind those doors at CSC what other talents are lurking there! The reference by the way is that Cable Street Collective are named after a battle that took place in Cable Street which saw the people of East London force back Oswald Mosley’s fascists when they organised a march in the area. It just goes to show you what a collective can do when they’re very different to each other but come together to achieve one goal.

Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

TRAVIS HALL – A Day

To close out the faves we have a track that’s slickly produced – R&B/soul and production reminiscent of Quincy jones, especially with the additional strings and stops and starts. Travis’s voice soars on this, and he captivates you from the outset when listening to this track – and this is because Travis Hall is not only a soul singer but he’s also an opera singer.

This song declares is a declaration of love, and the realisation that it’s what Travis has been looking for and the reality hits him, and how things look and feel different when that realisation hits and he’s looking for reciprocation.

The thing that gets me with this song is the production value, you can tell that Travis is influenced by the greats, Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, and Philip Bailey of the mighty Earth Wind And Fire, and it’s pulled off stunningly here.

For this reason this is my track of the week.

Travis Hall is a singer songwriter from Atlanta Georgia, who has just released his debut album HeART Museum.

Instagram | Facebook | Twitter/X

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.