Hello world,
Check out your latest FP Picks update for a host of banging tunes fm Studio Electrophonique, Lande Hekt, Westside Cowboy & many more. If you like what you hear please follow and share this playlist, it helps us keep doing our thing by getting the algorithms on our side. Also please support the artists featured in any way you can!
Until next week
Helen (Futureproof) x
Lande Hekt – Favourite Pair of Shoes
Bristol’s Lande Hekt has shared the jangly hook-laden new single Favourite Pair of Shoes – a spacey, reverb-drenched hit. Lande states: “I wrote this song when I was listening to a lot of The Bats and The Chills. It probably sounds nothing like any of that Flying Nun stuff but that was what was inspiring me at the time. Despite the lines that lean towards despair, I think this is quite a hopeful song. It’s about rising out of a pit of hopelessness and doing something really positive.” The upcoming album Lucky Now leans into ’80s twee-pop and jangle-pop, with influences from The Pastels and Tallulah Gosh. This ecstatic, soaring sound is the perfect vehicle for Lande’s lyrical pivot toward finding gratitude and joy.
Courtney Barnett – Stay In Your Lane
Aussie songwriter Courtney Barnett strongly advises that you adhere to traffic regulations on new single Stay In Your Lane, propelled by a raucous guitar riff and Barnett’s signature drawl – “Gotta get this off my chest / This never would’ve happened if I stayed in my lane, stayed the same way.” The track comes alongside a creepy video from filmmaker Alex Ross Perry, which sees Barnett in the centre of some kind of surgical ward, performing while wearing a blood-stained hospital gown. Other patients lounge around, wrapped in bandages and gazing ominously into the distance. On October 22nd, Barnett performs the track on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Stereolab – Fed Up With Your Job
Stereolab have released the tracks Fed Up With Your Job and Constant and Uniform Movement Unknown on a new double A-side single. Fed Up With Your Job is a twinkly, sleek daydream that coasts on breezy riffs. On the other hand, Constant And Uniform Movement Unknown floats with more ominous undertones. The two complement each other well, showcasing Stereolab’s knack for creating vibrant moods. The two songs are both available digitally, and have also been given a vinyl release, limited to 3,000 copies.
I, Doris – Beach Body Ready
Menopausecore icons I, Doris have released an ode to body-positivity, summer, and self-love on their latest double-single Beach Body Ready/Corps de plage prêt – joyfully punk and choosing to hit the surf rather than drown under insecurities. I, Doris state: “We wanted to make a song that reminds everyone their body is already beach-ready — no crash diets, no filters, just you and your fabulous self. And why French? Because everything sounds cooler in French… even cellulite.” The video for the track showcases band members having a fun beach day, laughing, and running along the shore with a surprise cameo from Hull’s riot grrrl sensations WENCH!
Ellur – Disintegrate
On new single Disintegrate, Yorkshire artist Ellur delivers an atmospheric, cathartic reflection on the cost of people-pleasing — a genuine emotional reckoning charged with tension and self-awareness. Building from quiet, contemplative moments underscored by sparse percussion and gentle piano into a powerful eruption of guitars and drums, it’s a striking display of vulnerability and control in equal measure. Ellur’s unflinching portraits of life in her early 20s mark her as one of the most authentic and compelling new voices in British indie and what an absolute belter this new track is!
Westside Cowboy – Don’t Throw Rocks
Manchester-based four-piece Westside Cowboy announce second EP So Much Country ‘Till We Get There and share the nostalgic single Don’t Throw Rocks which makes use of delicious, nostalgic guitar tones that alternate between twinkle and wail. The band state: “Jimmy’s [Bradbury, guitar/vocals] lyrics on this deal a lot in time and change, and how it, more often than not, moves out of our control and without niceties. We wanted the music to reflect this too. With each section, we wanted to add a new gear, to increase the intensity until it couldn’t be held onto anymore. I guess that’s where the outro comes in. This felt like the natural first single for ‘So Much Country…’, we all kinda knew once we’d heard it back.”
Sugar – House of Dead Memories
Sugar return with the first new music and shows in three decades and we give you the single House Of Dead Memories. The alt-rock band, led by Bob Mould in the between Hüsker Dü and his solo career, burned brightly for a few years in the early ’90s but hasn’t performed or recorded since their final show in January 1995. After teasing their return with the launch of new social accounts last week, Mould, David Barbe, and Malcolm Travis have revealed that they hit Oakland recording studio Tiny Telephone in June to record new material. Mould states: “Sugar was a phenomena. No one could have predicted the results. We held onto the wheel and did our best to enjoy the wild ride. Sugar was part of a pivotal era in popular music, and a special time in my life.”
Chiedu Oraka – Last Laugh
Hull’s witty hip-hop titan Chiedu Oraka is one of our finest national storytellers and he’s had an incredible year, with new music, critical plaudits, and opening for stadium giants Coldplay. New single Last Laugh is taken from his upcoming EP Undeniable and Chiedu states: “Last Laugh is my way of clapping back at the people who didn’t believe in me when I first started rapping. Back then, nobody took me seriously, not promoters, not fans, not even people on the street. But I turned that doubt into fuel and built the career I have today. This track is high-energy, produced by the acclaimed duo Dot Inc, and I can’t wait for you all to hear it.” As a Black man in Yorkshire he’s had to work hard to establish his own narrative, and existing outside the London bubble hasn’t been easy.
Studio Electrophonique – Break My Heart Again
Studio Electrophonique (aka Sheffield-native James Leesley) has dropped a self-titled album. Loneliness, longing and loss linger in the album’s 11 tracks most of which he wrote on a 1981 Casio MT-11 and recorded with a Tascam 8-track reel-to-reel tape recorder. Add some vintage guitars and you’re whisked to a mesmerising, day-dreamy world that is the ideal backdrop to an album wrapped in poetic melancholy. And whenever the guitars are joined by the organ and the tambourine, as in Break My Heart Again, your heart doesn’t so much break as swell. Reminiscent of The Velvet Underground, we’re loving this captivating cut with its heartfelt lyrics – just gorgeous!
HAAi – Stitches
Stitches is the latest evocative single to be lifted from Australian producer HAAi‘s new album HUMANiSE, melding evocative straight to the heart melodies, framed in house and electronic textures smudged with an uplifting and heady psychedelia. The track’s described as “a naive love letter to yourself, your lover and your friends. The people who evoke the strongest feelings in you and who make you feel the most human.” HAAi said: “Throughout the album, I kept thinking about a machine with a human heart,” adding that she had been “inspired to return to my songwriting roots and use my voice more in my own music. It took a long time to get there, it’s such a vulnerable thing to do,” she continued, “but for this album, it was important for me to allow this ‘human heart’ to be front and centre.”
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