Batch 553

Any artist is welcome to send us a track via freshonthenet.co.uk anytime between Monday lunchtime and Wednesday evening (or when we receive 200 submissions, whichever is sooner) - and all our moderators, including Tom Robinson, will listen to every track. This is our full inbox from the week beginning Mon 9th December 2024: from Friday afternoon you'll be able to hear our shortlist and pick your favourites on this week's Listening Post which will appear at freshonthenet.co.uk/batch553

If a track you submitted does not appear in this list, it’s probably because another of your tracks appeared in our Fresh Faves or on the BBC Music Introducing Mixtape during the last three months — we ask that artists featured on either wait three months before resubmitting to give others a chance. 

We also don’t accept short previews or SoundCloud Go tracks that can only be heard as 30 second previews, and tracks made private after submission, which cannot be included in playlists. You will be able to resubmit the track in future. Tracks (and remixes of tracks) that have been previously submitted, and tracks from banned artists will also be removed.

Christmas songs and the like are also not eligible for the Listening Post, although we will collect these into a playlist that will be published on 24 December.

Full Inbox: Batch 553

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 553

Thanks to everyone who came by Fresh On The Net at the weekend to check out Listening Post XXX and tell us which tracks they liked best. Here, in alphabetical order, are our readers' top favourites. Our reviews are written by Fresh On The Net's DEL OSEI-OWUSU - and you can read them at http://freshonthenet.co.uk/faves553

Fresh Faves: Batch 553

Deterrents - Hopeless With a Gun

The wacky adventures of Inspector Looso - New Fetchflix TV Show

https://soundcloud.com/user-461764443/sets/the-wacky-adventures-of

Inspector Looso is in Morocco having a very bad day while trying to resolve a murder case. 
He was desperate while he thought the following:

“I need a drink
I really need a drink
A full glass of liquid courage would be just what I need. 
A shot of fluid inspiration that would help me resolve my case. 
I know, I promised. 
I promised my wife I would stop drinking.
I promised my daughter I would stop drinking.
I promised my son I would stop drinking.
I even promised my dog, for what it's worth, to stop drinking, but I need to drink.
I’m so thirsty like never before.
I need a drink whatever it is.
I am stuck with my father’s Citroën 2CV in the middle of the desert.
Out of water asking myself if I should drink my own pee, drink the cooling fluid from the car radiator or lick my own sweat. 
Damn, this stupid car is air cooled so there's no radiator or water in it.
I really need to drink.
There's this bottle of cheap whisky that was left in the trunk of the car.
If I drink that I will be drunk in the trunk by the end of the day.
Moreover, I promised to stop drinking.
How about flaming the whisky?
That would taste better than my pee or licking my sweat and remove most of the alcohol. ”

So did Inspector Luc Looso. He survived long enough to reach the next village and continue working on his murder case.

“This story is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

Music & Production: Syrel
Photography: Generated with DAL-E

Musical note:  Was I influenced by George Gershwin in a Philip Glass minimalist way? Maybe the 1960-70 British composers? You may know better than I do.

The wacky adventures of Inspector Looso

I Need A Drink

Blackdoubt! Masters

Cope

On 26 June 2024, Bristol-based contemporary folk project Fritillaries will release Thank God I Have The Songs (Cuculi Records), launching a new era for songwriter Hannah Pawson as a solo artist. Following widespread praise for her self-titled debut album in 2022, including Folk Radio’s Album of the Month and a nomination for FATEA’s Debut Album of the Year, this highly anticipated second release was recorded in collaboration with producer Rowan Elliott (Tamsin Elliott & Tarek Elazhary/Hands of the Heron) at The Roost in Bristol.

Little Sparrow

Every Stage of a Genuine Heartbreak

Teddy

Partners in Crime

Cern

Girl on the Screen

As song about the joys of good friends and travelling. Written during a road trip to Cornwall in 2021. Read more on my Substack: https://substack.com/home/post/p-152615937

How Did We Get This Far?

Ebb & Flow

This is the instrumental version of 'Lessons of Love' featuring the beautiful jazz trumpet of Matt Ellis Devitt. The track is taken from 'The Family Grave remix Songs About Love', a collection of remixes of the ten tracks released as 'The Family Grave play Songs About Love' album this Autumn. 

You can find the full remix album on Bandcamp as a pay-what-you-like download until Xmas  https://thefamilygrave.bandcamp.com/album/the-family-grave-remix-songs-about-love     (Lessons of Love is also a free download here on Soundcloud)

Hear the original version of 'Lessons of Love' here with its famous monkeys  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtCKxhrdaq4 

also available on the Songs About Love album - out now everywhere https://recordu.lnk.to/The_Family_Grave_Play_Songs_About_Love

Remix Songs About Love (instrumental remixes)

The Family Grave remix Songs About Love

Lessons of Love (instrumental) feat. Matt Ellis Devitt

Indie, rock, 80s retro, new wave guitar based grunge pop thang!

Not an Enemy (lyrics)

Took a trip to another dimension 
Looked around for a space in time
As I peeked from the 4th walled curtain 
I could see an invisible line

All the stories were science fiction
But the truth is a changing thing 
Wide awake when I thought I was dreaming 
Couldn’t hear the alarm bells ring 

Ooh ooh ooh 
We should be lookin for love
Ooh ooh ooh 
We should be lookin for love
Lookin for love
Not an enemy

Now it feels like the loop is tightening 
I reflect on my thoughts again 
Still I search for truth and meaning 
But all I see is hurt and pain   

Ooh ooh ooh 
We should be lookin for love
Ooh ooh ooh
We should be lookin for love
Lookin for love
Not an enemy
Lookin for love
Not an enemy
Looking for love 
Not an enemy 

Happiness begins with kindness
Happiness 
Happiness begins with kindness Happiness
Happiness begins with kindness Happiness
Happiness begins with kindness
Kindness

Not an Enemy

A lilting guitar motif, hip-hop inspired rhythm section, and sultry, Sprechgesang vocals drive this song to the lakeside with the top down. “Listen” offers unexpected optimism through the introspection, and warm rays of sonic sunshine for dark and uncertain times.

Music: Roberts / Read / Project Blackbird
Lyrics: Nagel

ALAN ROBERTS – electric guitar / EDDIE DUBLIN – drums / JAMIE VARLEY – backing vocals, keyboards / JON READ – backing vocals, double bass, percussion / MING NAGEL – vocals

Recorded at Zephyr Studios (Leicester, UK) and Four Winds (Burrough on the Hill, UK).
Engineered by Dave Tidmarsh and Jon Read.
Produced and mixed by Dave Tidmarsh, Jon Read, and Project Blackbird.
Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper at TurtleTone Studio (New York, NY, USA).

Single "cover" art is a detail taken from True Names by Chloë Bates, designed by Lydia Wood.

Lyrics:

sun and shadow make a double
I’m the shadow, you’re the sun - it’s a conversation
dance back when we stumble
skip a beat, make our peace, find a double in the one

sun’s a hand on a wet dress
a warm chill shiver taking wing upon my spine
what do you feel when you undress?
who decides when we’re out of time?

listen
we’re falling into clouds of gold
drowning
deep in sky’s the limit hope

water dapples in the sunlight
like a herd of Appaloosa running on the lake
time: a knot getting untied
ripple loose – here’s a different truth, another shape

sun and shadow make a double
beyond two, sway becomes a rhapsody in new
I close my eyes to the bright blue
in the strobe behind my eyes, it’s a solo show, all I see is you

listen
we’re falling into clouds of gold
drowning
deep in sky’s the limit hope

listen
we’re falling through the sun into the gold
drowning
wherever there is music there is hope

listen
we’re falling through it all to the unknown
drowning
wherever there is music there is hope

Cope

Sunstack Jones