FIFTY3FRIDAYS: A FRESH THING GOING ON
Today’s Fifty3Fridays draws its inspiration and material from Fresh On The Net, the new music platform founded by Tom Robinson and now helmed by the mighty Del Osei-Owusu. It’s great to be part of the site’s moderation team and to hear the weekly selection of tunes uploaded to the platform for us to listen to and make our choices. The latest Listening Post is now live and you can listen and vote for your favourite 5 songs between now and Sunday evening, something you can do every week bar Christmas, Easter and summer holidays.
Having reviewed the Fifty3 curated live show at The Bedford, Balham last week, it’s more of a catch-up issue today, looking back on the past two weeks. Each week reader votes from the Listening Post determine who makes the ten Fresh Faves, accompanied by a playlist and set of reviews. It was my turn to review the previous week’s Fresh Faves which coincidentally included artists I have covered on Fifty3.net before – Freya Everest, Long Island, Olivia Miceli – plus some new to me. Here is a taster – two artists who demonstrate the diversity of the FOTN platform. You can read the full set of reviews on the FOTN site here.
A first time Fave, Lisa Cooke hails from the East Midlands and describes herself as ‘Accidental artist. Now I am doing it on purpose’ on her YouTube channel which is populated by countless ‘Shorts’ but just two official releases so far. Lisa seems active and popular on Instagram but that’s about all I have bio-wise - her website is under construction too. Lisa may be someone who has returned to music after a break or is literally here by accident. Either way, she has made quite an impression.
“Quiet In The Hurricane” proved to be very popular with FOTN readers, polling second. It is a stirring piano ballad, a torch song to the overwhelmed, anyone unable to cope or looking to find identity; a bit like recognising being there for everyone except yourself. Lisa contributes lead and all background voices on the song with producer and co-writer Nick Trepka supplying all the instrumentation in what is a lush production with a touch of the theatrical about it. Lisa employs an emotive tone with sincerity and great control to it.
Equally new to the Faves is Japanese-Australian musician Rieko Makita whose compositions intersect with classical, jazz and ambient music while she has a parallel career as a classical pianist. Her original works explore themes of migration, belonging and memory and she has appeared at prestigious venues including Sydney Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall, plus a live session for BBC Radio 3. Rieko’s PRS Foundation-funded debut EP, Where is Home? comes out next month, reflecting her experiences across Australia, Japan and the UK in search of home in our interconnected world.
“A Forgiving Summer” is a rich and colourful piece of music, opening with a modulating piano figure over a filigree soundscape. It makes way for a minor key exposition steeped in nostalgia, maybe tinged with regret. You imagine this section as a romantic movie closer until a flurry of piano notes signals a mood change which turns into a blizzard of cascading tones before the main theme returns and gently plays out. Simply blissful.
Alongside the weekly Listening Post and reader-voted Fresh Faves, Fresh On The Net also hosts a feature called Alt Picks which highlights songs chosen from Fresh On The Net entries that did not make the Listening Post. Each moderator can pick 2 songs every week. Here are the songs I chose as my FOTN Alt Picks w/e 19 Sept plus the two from last week's Alt Picks.
JULIE HICKLIN & FUTURE ANALOG – Broken
A sultry, sinuous vocal from Julie Hicklin interwoven into the track with unusual phrasing gives this tale of a broken relationship through loss of trust a deliciously dark feel. Allied to Future Analog’s richly evocative synth textures, words and music become one. Equally I loved the way the guitar adds a steelier edge and reaches an emotive crescendo towards the end of the song. Julie first connected with Paul Aston aka Future Analog via electronic music sites and forums. They started working together towards the end of last year, resulting in 3 tracks including “Broken” which appear on Future Analog’s album, Paradise Lost, released last week.
KATE KOELL - Ice Cream Changes
Kate Koell offers the perfect riposte to men including “cool guys in bands” who dismiss music made by women as somehow being less artful. Set to a sweet, synth-based tune and themed around the classic I–vi–IV–V chord progression, my only worry is that Kate’s frustrations countered by her smart, droll turn of phrase are a little too absorbed into the mix. I highly recommend the lyric video on YouTube below. Based ‘between Leeds and Liverpool’ (she must love the M62), Kate is a relative newcomer with “Ice Cream Changes” her second ever release. She is classically trained but, after founding a Leeds venue to support emerging musicians, decided her own face did not fit among the traditionalists and boys in bands. This led her to self-produce a project of” girly, playful, unapologetically uncool pop.”
SUMMER NIGHT AIR AND AKO - Algorithms Of Loving Grace
There is an air of retrofuturism about this lovely slice of electronica. The mood of the piece took me back to OMD’s 2013 English Electric album with the computer-speak vocal parts reinforcing a sense that this is the future as imagined from the past. Or a future yet to happen? Either way, is AI really on our side? The recurring synth motif that opens the track anchors everything while the middle section is beautifully mellow. I can listen to this over and over again. Summer Night Air is the North-East pairing of Paul Heathcote and Alex Thompson, who met at nursery school and 20 years later started an ambient music project with an objective to recreate the feeling of long, happy, summer nights. “Algorithms Of Loving Grace” is a remix of the original track by fellow North Easterner, the experimental dance music/digital art maker, ako. The trio collaborated on a recent EP, Algorithmic Sunsets.
JACK BENJAMIN - Sea Dreams
Jack Benjamin is a new name to me but this little acoustic gem has a seasoned flavour to it. Maybe it’s the salt air. Whatever, you can almost hear the waves lapping in “Sea Dreams”. Jack has a supple timbre to his voice and a fluidity in delivery so his words waft along easily in a dreamy haze. His acoustic guitar accompaniment is wonderfully melodic and I especially like the way it is embellished towards the end with some filigree electric guitar, subtly applied. Though now resident in the south of the county, Jack is a North Devon native who was immersed in music from an early age. He takes his inspiration for his songs from the natural world around him; in this case from samphire growing on rocks by the sea! The song evokes a sense of longing for the sea and celebrates sharing times with a loved one in a quietly impressive debut release.
FIFTY3 FRIDAYS SPOTIFY PLAYLIST SEPTEMBER 2026
As my old Russian language teacher used to say, “You should know this by now.” On the first Friday of every month, I publish a Playlist on Spotify which reprises all the songs included in this column over the previous month – in order, should you wish to check! The latest F3F Spotify Playlist features all 13 tracks from our September issues – well, nearly all as unfortunately, “I Am The Night”, the wonderful song from Marina Rolink & Willem Mckie is not available on Spotify so I have substituted “If/When”, an equally beautiful solo song from Marina.
To compensate for taking a week off, I have also added 8 bonus tracks from Lily Ward, Owen Duff, Nicky Phillips, Long Island, Okasa Sun, Freddie Dickson, Amelia & The Housewives and Kitty Perrin to the latest F3F Spotify Playlist representing some of my favourites from September Fresh On The Net submissions. You can listen to the Playlist here, or head to Spotify @TonyHardy53, for this one and many, many more of its kindred. Our Fifty3Fridays Spotify Playlist September 2026 opens with the pensive “Nightmares” from City Limits and closes with one of those ace bonus tracks, Kitty Perrin’s conversational “Look Alive”.
