Our moderators listened to every track we were sent this week and have picked their favourites for your listening pleasure this weekend:

Listening Post: Batch 542

'Ruminant Julius Caesar' is both a song about unconscious bias within research methodologies and science of deer social behaviour and organisation, but it's also about the importance of being the kind of human being who's truly open to others' perspectives. With it's staggered drums and driving bass and purposeful piano, it's a Bristol-feeling pastoral piece.

Ruminant Julius Caesar

Description:
Composer: Sonophoria
Performer: Sonophoria 
Producer: Sonophoria

Links:
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@SonophoriaMusic 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SonophoriaMusic  
Instagram: SonophoriaMusic https://instagram.com/SonophoriaMusic  
Twitter: @SonophoriaMusic https://twitter.com/SonophoriaMusic 

Mix 8

No Matter What

Harmony

Following the success of their deliciously dark and mesmerising debut album ‘Hollowing Out’, Cardiff multi-instrumentalists Red Telephone are back with ‘Delay The New Day’ on July 19th, kicking off a series of singles before they release their sophomore album of the same name in October. Building on their debut record's blend of melodic psych and darkwave, Red Telephone promises to further explore this fusion with the addition of cinematic influences in their upcoming releases. Their first single, ‘Delay The New Day’, delves into themes of indulgence and hedonistic distraction, examining how the allure of nights out and easy comforts can become laborious and repetitive. Driven by the quintet's knack for multi-instrumental intricacies, Red Telephone's latest work evokes comparisons to Arctic Monkeys' newer sound (like Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino or The Car) while staying true to the unique style they established in their critically acclaimed debut. 

‘Delay The New Day’ offers the first glimpse into Red Telephone’s upcoming album of the same name. Recorded semi-live in a short timeframe and featuring their first full-time drummer, this latest project aims for a more cohesive sound, capturing a specific time and place for the individuals and as a group. Primarily written in solitude by members Declan and Kieran on guitar and piano, the album places a strong emphasis on melody and lyricism from the outset. Thematically, it explores the challenges of balancing full-time work with being a musician, and the alienation caused by conflicting advice on how to succeed, straying from their original musical intentions.

Of the process they said “It’s about the paranoia, doubt and dissolution that goes with the territory of pushing yourself and trying to carve out a path where you hopefully get to survive on what you love doing. Even songs on the album that aren’t directly about this still tie into the theme, for example, Delay the New Day, which is about indulgence and hedonistic distraction at the expense of creating.”

Hailing from Cardiff, Red Telephone are a quintet featuring two sets of brothers alongside their first full-time drummer. They began their journey by releasing their first two singles as a double A-side vinyl on the Welsh cult label Popty-Ping, earning praise from Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq. Their critically acclaimed debut album, ‘Hollowing Out’, garnered media attention from Clash, BBC 6 Music, and Under The Radar, amongst many. 

Now, in 2024, with their second album completed and set to release this October, Red Telephone continue to make waves in the UK alternative scene with their potent blend of psychedelic rock and darkwave, drawing comparisons to indie trailblazers MGMT, St. Vincent, or fellow Welsh band Super Furry Animals. ‘Delay The New Day’ will be available across all major streaming platforms from July 19th, whilst their upcoming sophomore album of the same name is hailed for release this October.

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“Gritty, brilliantly dark and expansive. A deliciously dark, mesmerising and a dystopian-tinged sonic palette that could have been heard in Bowie’s Berlin in the late 1970’s. An impressive and masterful debut.” - Clash Music

“Very nicely layered. Has a bit of early 80s melodrama; a sort of Pet Shop Boys croon and a Krautrock halo.” – Steve Lamacq, BBC 6 Music

“They have the potential to soundtrack a generation.” – Drowned in Sound

“Something brilliantly dark about this, with their synth psych noir with a pulse. Real potential to go big.” - Chris Hawkins, BBC 6 Music

“With music as smart as their aesthetic, Cardiff’s Red Telephone are making neo-noir sounds that could have made it onto the ‘Drive’ soundtrack.” – Gigwise

Delay the New Day

Described by 6 Music's Chris Hawkins as "intensely beautiful"
Bloodlines is a song that means a lot to us, it came from a few layers deep, somewhere beyond our consciousness, like most songs do, they find an opening and somehow slip into the world, fully formed and teach us something about ourselves. Bloodlines is about all of those things that get passed along in our lineage not just our eye colour and lip shape but things that get written into our blueprints along the way like mental illness, trans-generational trauma and resilience.
www.facebook.com/theblackheartorchestra
www.instagram.com/theblackheartorchestra
www.theblackheartorchestra.com

Bloodlines

Tiny War

‘When The Radio Plays’ is the second single from indie pop duo Shapes Like People. A jangling disco track that provides contrast to previous release ‘Fireworks’, giving us insight into the collection of songs that will sit between the two on their highly anticipated forthcoming album.

When The Radio Plays

45 (I Think About This All The Time)

Keep Swimming

In The Morning

IODINE

Useless

This EP tracks a journey from lost to found through electronic belters that make you want to get up dance and heart-wrenching acoustic ballads. Tide take me down is about moving through difficult times and emerging the other side standing proud.

Tide Take Me Down

During the mid-1960s operation FOXGLOVE- a highly classified, five-man black ops task force designated to investigate reports of unnatural aural phenomena recorded at a secret governmental research site Breechlands.
Our agents attempted to establish contact with a highly advanced energy source at the site.
Upon contact, the agents were immediately consumed by a subharmonic spike of immense magnitude referred to as The Outerlude before disappearing without a trace, along with the energy source.
Some 60 years later the unit reappeared at the very source of the aural anomaly, having not aged a day.
Subsequent tests and countless hours of interrogation concluded the agents had no recollection of the incident whatsoever.
Upon further probing they were revealed to have a substantially heightened knowledge of astronomical star map data, far exceeding the information available to the 1960s, and surpassing much of what we know of the universe today.
Due to the information these men hold, and the potential threat to national and worldwide security, it is in the planet's interests that our tests continue to unearth who, or what, gave them this knowledge.

The Outerlude

Buttercup is a track about feeling really far away from yourself and trying to do things to bring you closer to yourself… And when all else fails you just gotta have a dance party

Buttercup

Bonnie & Clyde MP3

Runaway

Keyside - Runaway

In Time We Shine

THE POPPERMOST RELEASE NEW SINGLE “I DON’T WANT TO KNOW”.
Autumn rolls around again, bringing with it the “slightly-delic” stylings of a brand
new single from Glasgow’s The Poppermost entitled “I Don’t Want To Know.”

In an epic and unexpected diversion from the straightforward “Mersey-pop” of
Poppermost past, this Joe Kane-penned, performed, and produced (he even made the
tea!) number could be considered the “anti-Good Vibrations.” No mere retro-curio, it’s a
hazy, lolloping hymn to breaking down and baring up to the uninvited realities and
downright strangeness of the here and now. A fully-fledged folk-pop fable.

Following on from the cult classic debut LP “Hits To Spare” (Think Like A Key) and last
year’s homage to classic French picture sleeves “Les Poppermost EP” (Disques
Rogue),“I Don’t Want To Know” is the first fruit from the “Fabracadabra” album sessions.
A 14-track longplayer is incoming, having been whittled down from over 30 recordings.
All this

Recorded and mixed by Joe Kane
Mastered by Rare Tone Mastering
Artwork by Ethan Alexandrian
Photography by Rick Alan
Promo video by Liam Elliott

Joe Kane sings and plays:

 Ludwig Downbeat drum set
 Rickenbacker 4001 bass
 Gibson J160e + Framus 12-string
 Onisac Enohpipe
 Reed organ
 Challen piano
 Amp/trem Glockenspiel

The Poppermost - I Don't Want To Know

Mum Does The Washing

"Sounding Amazing" - JOHN KENNEDY, RADIO X
"I've not stopped playing this for days" - STEVE LAMACQ, BBC RADIO 6
"A Spellbinding Song" - FRESH ON THE NET 
"Is this the best new band in the UK?" - THE ZINE
https://open.spotify.com/album/0TvNA6FqYazWm2hGX74WKU

What Have You Done?

Fresh On The Net is a music blog hosted by Tom Robinson and Team Freshnet, offering independent artists an open door and a level playing field for their music. Our inbox is open at http://freshonthenet.co.uk every Monday to Thursday morning - if you share a track with us there it will be heard by every member of our moderation team.

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Listening Post: Batch 542

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