FIFTY3FRIDAYS: TO BE TAKEN WEEKLY
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It will come as little surprise that I have Fresh On The Net to thank for introducing me to many of the acts featured in these columns. Each week, artists of all styles and genres upload songs to the platform founded by Tom Robinson in 2009 to be heard by a team of moderators now led by the remarkable Del Osei-Owusu. Each week we listen to up to 200 new tracks and democratically choose 25 of them to form the week’s Listening Post. Readers in turn lend their ears and vote for their five favourite tracks. The 10 tunes attracting the most votes then become Fresh Faves and are reviewed by one of us moderators alongside a publicised playlist.
Fresh On The Net sets out to help independent musicians find new listeners and to help independent listeners find new music. Simple. Today’s Fifty3Fridays draws more great material from the FOTN well.
Having championed Southend-on-Sea’s finest, The Trusted, for some time I was delighted to see that the largely DIY band is finally getting some much-deserved mainstream recognition. Last summer saw festival appearances both at home (Lazydays) and away at Latitude where a certain prophesy that one day crowds would be singing back their words in a festival field somewhere was finally fulfilled. A September live session in Chelmsford for Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show ahead of Radio 2 in the Park added more icing to an enriched cake.
I missed covering The Trusted’s last two releases during my writing hiatus so it was a bonus when the latest single from the indie four-piece arrived in my Inbox. “Spin” is a musical sugar rush, encompassing much of what constitutes the band’s signature sound: chiming guitars, pacy rhythms, potent melody lines, measured verses leading to dynamic choruses, searching lyrics, a sense that this band puts heart and soul into its music and lives it for real. In “Spin”, lyricist and frontman Tom Cunningham’s ‘desperate appeal to mean something’ hits home to underline the emotional honesty that comes with The Trusted. A future crowd pleaser for sure.
Alt Picks is a recent innovation from the Fresh On The Net team. Each week the team individually pick tracks that make up the Listening Post but inevitably there are always ‘the ones that got away.’ So, we can choose up to two entries that then become the week’s Alt Picks. Last week I chose a song by Oxford-based singer-songwriter Camille Baziadoly, who moved to the city of dreaming spires from her native France some 20 years ago. Finding a vibrant and supportive music scene in Oxford, Camille began recording her songs and last year released an album called Fifteen.
Her Fresh On The Net submission, “Trail”, is the second track from a new EP, Skin on Fire, which is out next month. I was particularly drawn by the dream-like quality of Camille’s voice on this song which was prompted by an image in her head of an American desert, during a really hot day in the south of France one summer. Drifting between conscious and unconscious states, trying to follow marks made into the ground, she pictures being lost in the desert vastness. A combination of analogue synths, imaginative vocal layers and all manner of percussive effects add to the general mystique of the piece, creating a beguiling and intriguing whole.
With FOTN, you definitely learn something new every week. My second Alt Pick was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin native, the splendidly named Aubrey Van Gelded, about whom there is little online. Via Bandcamp I discovered that Aubrey is a four-time FAWM participant, multi-instrumentalist and photographer; FAWM being an acronym for February Album Writing Month in which songwriters compete to write and record a whole album in February. Does it help if it’s a leap year, I wonder? Truth be told, I am always a sucker for US basement or bedroom indie rock. Aubrey's song, “Cameron Figment”, made me think of the titular hero’s friend in Ferris Bueller's Day Off and has a little touch of Grandaddy about it, which cannot be bad either.
South London trio [The] Music of Sound also shares strong connections with the good folk of Fresh On The Net. Comprising band leader and grassroots music hero Dr Neil March aka Trust The Doc on keyboards, electronics and backing vocals, flanked by Elena Trent (flute) and vocalist Sherin, MoS has been described as ‘like watching two sweet little girls performing with their dad.’ Before we all break up into discussion groups to bemoan the curse of the patriarchy, this observation from a woke-free audience member at a live show was happily received by Sherin who added wryly that she is ‘definitely not ready to be a grown-up!’
Meanwhile the musical output of the synth dream pop trio continues to mature. [The] Music Of Sound has a new single out on Monochrome Motif Records today. “Tyche” invokes the titular Greek Goddess of chance and uncertainty. It has especially poignant roots as it was written in a week when two of the band’s friends attempted to take their own lives. “The song is about the stress of uncertainty and vulnerability and about not always seeing what's in front of us” explained Sherin. In broader terms, it also symbolises how the band feel about the current chaos in the world. Flowing piano and flute driven melody lines, sweet topline vocals and considered harmonies provide a soothing contrast to the solemnity of the band’s messaging.
Both Neil and Sherin are also active at the coalface of new music as FOTN moderators and we round off this FOTN-driven issue with an appeal by another of my fellow team members, Alan Dreezer. The self-described electro-pop singer-songwriter from Eastbourne, East Sussex has been making music since his early 20s, initially as part of pop duo, Tara 2. He made his debut as a solo artist in 2017, going on to release the album London E12 the following year. His latest venture – an album with the predictive title of Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes – is being supported via a Kickstarter campaign which he has launched along with a video for his latest single, “Apart.”
The song signifies a confident departure from the pop/soul sound of Alan Dreezer’s previous singles. He describes it as “influenced by the atmospheric textures of RYX and James Blake, this cinematic and emotionally raw piece explores the quiet heartbreak of an amicable relationship ending.” It is an impassioned performance with Alan’s expressive tenor wringing every ounce of emotion leading to acceptance of a situation that many will recognise.
You can read more about Alan’s Kickstarter Campaign on Fresh On The Net. The article has also appeared in Neil March’s excellent Trust the Doc monthly blog. If you would like to consider parting with a few quid and joining Alan on his journey, the link you need is HERE.
