FIFTY3FRIDAYS: BACK WITH NEW MUSIC
Back from Norfolk now and while we were away new music champions Fresh On The Net returned from the summer break with an incredibly strong Listening Post emerging from a bumper Inbox. As you might imagine, the 10 songs picked by readers as their Fresh Faves were equally stellar. I've chosen three of those songs to feature here but it could have been easily several more. Today's FOTN Listening Post is similarly fulsome so please take some time to log in at the weekend, have a listen and vote for your own Fresh Faves. Headphones on.
So, we start this week's song selection with the first of the aforementioned three picks with an artist who has been a regular here both, as now, in her birth name and in her earlier incarnation as March. London-based singer-songwriter Kitty O’Neal notched up another Fresh Faves appearance with her latest single, having scored in May with “Can I Let This One Go?” She is working towards a November debut album titled Here I Go Again Feeling It All to add to her two notable self-released EPs issued over the last four years.
“Not At The Same Speed” opens with barely heard snippets of other songs (from the new album?) interspersed with what sounds like the turn of the dial on an old radio. As the song develops, the combination of piano and vocal puts me in mind of the collaboration between Simon Raymonde and Stephanie Dosen in Snowbird which led to the mellifluous 2014 album, Moon. We find Kitty in reflective mood looking for an answer to the age-old question of duality in love, expressed this time as encountering love at different speeds. Lyrically she makes a characteristically frank assessment of the uncertainties in love underpinned musically by some pleasing chord progressions and a fitting instrument breakdown at the end. And some fine whistling too!
Next, an artist whose work can often be heard on Neil March's excellent Trust The Doc show on ExileFM (Saturdays from 5-7pm). Andalusia native, John Serrano is a greatly inventive multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who is something of a musical workaholic, given the range of projects he tackles simultaneously and seemingly without a pause. He is a prolific artist with 7 albums released since 2021 including the Alive trilogy and last year collaborated with Monochrome Motif Records label boss, composer and producer Andrew Hartshorn on the single “Retail Reverie.” John’s work melds a range of influences including folk, jazz and blues, giving his work a freshness and innovative edge.
Featuring Mexican artist Zurdeik duetting with John, “Garden Of Sin” is the first single from The Green Light, described as an “autobiographical rock opera - a concept album based loosely on The Great Gatsby, where real events and fantasy blend together.” Augmented by a stellar horn section, John impressively contributes the remaining instrumentation himself. His voice works particularly well against the higher register employed by Zurdeik and ranges from whispered beginnings to urgent protestations. This is a song of lost love that intrigues throughout with its melody shifts and the kind you will want to return to again and again.
Two names new to me complete a triumvirate of wonderful songs drawn from last week’s Fresh Faves. Glasgow-based folk artists Marina Rolink & Willem Mckie have joined forces after solo and band work, with Alma and Quick respectively. Having met through music and finding themselves spending more time with each other, writing and recording music together seemed an inevitable outcome. It is certainly a welcome one. From what we hear on this first release from the duo, it feels that this folk pairing is set to bloom.
“I Am The Night” celebrates home and family with a sense of belonging which extends beyond a physical place. It can be found in the people you love. Themes of loss, belonging, womanhood, the passage of time and legacy are gently worked through vocal interplay between Marina and Willem which is simply wonderful. There is gracefulness in the duo’s layered harmonies and a togetherness that comes of kindred spirits while the repeated chorus lines – “I am the night, I turn into morning light, I know better than to fight” – endorse an inner strength behind the song’s delicacy. A melodic delight.
Photo of Cello by Ben Knight
Moving on, we find a new release from independent Brighton artist Cello who we have highlighted here before with her energetic and assertive singles, “We Do What We Want (When We Want When We Want To)” and "Like A Tiger". The post-punk songstress is progressing towards a debut album, Kung Fu Disco, which should land early next year. I hear that two songs from the upcoming album have already been chosen for the soundtrack of a major American film release. No name or cast members yet, though.
Out today, Cello’s latest release “Forever” is the latest cut from the promised album which is rapidly earning the tag of that otherwise over-used phrase, highly anticipated. The song shows a different side of Cello; sweet and dreamy, more laid back with an 80s indie feel. She describes it as a “neon-tinged teenage heartbreak” which sees her considering time, life, death and how love transcends it all. The anchor of a four to the floor beat, together with bass and chugging guitar gives Cello a solidified backcloth over which to lay her bittersweet musings.
Olivia Miceli is a wholly DIY independent artist who writes, records and produces all her music from her bedroom studio. The Stoke-on-Trent based all-rounder creates particularly relatable songs which openly connect with listeners, qualities that have led to extensive radio coverage at home and abroad. Olivia bravely defied superstition by releasing her brilliant song “Friday The 13th” on the same day in February. She went on to deliver a new album, her third, fittingly titled A Romantic’s Worst Nightmare last month.
The songs on the album equate modern life with a romantic’s worst nightmare incorporating lived experience of dating, serial non-texters, unrequited love, comparison culture and more. Taken from the album, “Everybody Wants Him” has a lovely, circular melodic structure and a brightness that belies the disappointment of wanting someone who everyone else in her circle seems to equally covert. Lyrically it’s a sugar rush of emotions, candid and self-deprecating, laying her insecurities out for all to see while the quality of the production is something Olivia can rightly take pride in.
Finally, this week, a quick plug for Eastbourne-based electro-pop singer-songwriter Alan Dreezer whose Kickstarter co-funded album, Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes, we have supported in this column. Alan has a new series on YouTube which seeks to provide some answers to issues surrounding the making and marketing of music by independent artists. In the first episode of Sharing What Really Works, he outlines the value of submitting music to Fresh On The Net to help you understand where you are as a songwriter and artist.
I’m sure that any unsigned artist, songwriter, producer or independent musician looking to grow their audience, avoid common mistakes and build a sustainable music career would benefit from checking into Alan’s series. The first episode is below and the second episode in the series intriguingly titled How Rick Rubin Changed The Way I Make Music is also out now.
