Hello world,
Here’s your latest FP Picks update with loads of great new music as always inc trx fm mary in the junkyard, Dead Rat Society, GIFTHORSE & 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
The Guest List – Something Real
Manchester’s The Guest List recently shared their new single Something Real and vocalist Cai Alty states: “This is the song that best represents what we want to say and be. It’s about finding something meaningful in a world where trolls, comment bots, algorithms and whistleblowers dictate public understanding. Where suffering is normalised, and where our most hateful impulses are nurtured. We hope that people find this song as genuine as we do.” The track opens with an incredibly catchy and upbeat riff and following this groovy riff, Cai’s vocals begin – every release he grows more, gaining the confidence he deserves and leaning into his unique and identifiable voice.
Ain’t – Grazer
South London alt-rock outfit Ain’t have dropped their epic new single Grazer, taken from the upcoming EP How They Faked The Moon Landing. Vocalist Hanna Baker Darch said: “I’ve always thought it cowardly when people assume popular culture is unprofound; the mere fact we are animals making art is inherently mystical. Grazer kind of vents this opinion, using hellraiser as an example. It’s been downplayed as another pulpy, ridiculous slasher franchise – and it is, but it’s also got these insane parallels to concepts in Deleuze and Guattari‘s philosophy: frank cotton is literally a body without organs, and he is also a desiring machine. It feels increasingly necessary to stress the importance of creativity – not just high-brow works – when artistic expression is increasingly under threat from AI.”
Tooth – Medicine
Tooth find themselves delving into the mellow and almost gothic parts of their soundscape on new single Medicine – a track that captures the intoxicating feeling of being completely consumed by another. Vocalist Tom Pollock states: “We wanted to take the chaos of Sonic Youth but dilute it with a bit more structure and melody, and make it catchier. Lyrically, it revealed itself as a love song about an incessant lust for someone. This ‘someone’ was pretty vague in my mind, but it has a rawness of emotion I was fond of.” With confirmed slots at The Great Escape and Dot to Dot festivals this spring, Tooth continue to refine their reputation as a vital new force in the second-wave emo and garage rock landscape.
My First Time – The Kids Are
My First Time have released their debut, self-titled EP, featuring sobering new single The Kids Are – a track about drug-addled escapism. Vocalist Isaac-Stroud Allen says that the EP “represents the first painful encounter with adulthood – The frightening realisation of the mundane and mediocre life that may await you. Denial, met with an inescapable need to feel wanted, are your only true remedies. When everyone tells you that these are the best years of your life, but all you truly want to do is escape them. This EP examines the dull thump of reality and the futile pursuit of success, love and fame. A world where you’re desperate for the chalice to overflow, but instead you’re left with only the gruel.”
she’s green – mettle
Minneapolis shoegaze outfit she’s green recently shared their haunting new single mettle – a dreamlike trance that brings you back to Earth with powerful noise and tender sentiment. Frontwoman Zofia Smith states: “mettle channels the frustration and discomfort that stems from what often feels like constant bad news in the world today, while also being an anthem of resilience, of courage to take action and to bring about positive change. It’s not over yet, we’ll make it out” – Smith’s delicate vocals call out hopeful beliefs surrounded by layers of guitars, the juxtaposition only making the track sound raw in human nature and cutting optimism. she’s green are set to support Chapterhouse on select dates of their upcoming North American tour, marking Chapterhouse‘s first in 16 years.
GIFTHORSE – Love Is a Landslide
North London’s GIFTHORSE return with a 3rd single – an insanely catchy chorus is the focus on this latest offering that see singer Naomi Mann lament about first love & coming to terms with ‘what is to be’. Spoken parts greatly help with the narrative by adding to the song’s intimacy, while a brasher production in the music compared to previous releases, lands the band’s sound in a more alternative landscape. As with all their output, references to others who have gone before are out there for all to see, but the cyclical nature of reinvention in ‘pop-music’ (& pop culture) seems to be everlasting so why not, especially if the song & melody are resonating with the audience. With a busy live schedule coming together for the summer, here’s a band you definitely want to see if you’re chasing the zeitgeist of what’s on the horizon – excellent stuff!
Dead Rat Society – Open Your Mind (Tooti Frooti Ice Cream)
A patchwork of sounds knit together nicely on this latest track from London’s Dead Rat Society. Klezmer flavoured horns set up an old skool beat over which samples from an old American anti-drug advert play alongside vocalist Ed Harris’s J5 / Dela style rap, which explores the pros and cons around societal taboos on losing your mind when (or when not) under the influence. Having seen this fiercely independent band live, I get their mash up of punk, electro, hip-hop & grunge rock which goes down very well with a grassroots audience – and with strong support over the last year from Radio X’s John Kennedy, I’ve just learnt they’re playing Brighton’s Great Escape in May… I look forward to that one!
Francis of Delirium – It’s a Beautiful Life
Francis of Delirium reveals upcoming new album Run, Run Pure Beauty and shares the uplifting single It’s a Beautiful Life with bright guitars and an irresistible chorus. Beneath the euphoric energy lies a thoughtful observation of everyday life. Vocalist Jana Bahrich builds the song from fleeting moments and small scenes that reveal both beauty and loneliness. She explains: “A coffee I had with a pianist who was about to play a Philip Glass piece at the Philharmonie in Berlin, watching a couple break up on a New York City park bench, walking past a choir rehearsing in a basement, and examining a loneliness that feels ingrained into daily life. I’m not denying pain but trying to find the beauty alongside it.”
Lauren Auder – no outline
London-based composer, producer, and singer Lauren Auder has released her new single no outline, taken from her upcoming album Whole World As Vigil – a track that was written after the end of the relationship that has informed much of the content of the upcoming album, capturing the emptiness of the post-breakup period. Auder shares: “no outline is the most literal track on the record in some regards, when going through a major break up the world itself fills ready to be swallowed into the gap left in your life. The song is built around one refrain, that acknowledges that feeling but refuses to let it shape the world forever.’
mary in the junkyard – Crash Landing
London trio mary in the junkyard have announced their debut album Role Model Hermit, due out July 3 via AMF Records, and shared its lead single and video Crash Landing – a powerful ballad that details the fallout of a previous relationship and the fragility of two people who are cracking under the strain. The track finds vocalist Clari Freeman-Taylor at her most direct, while Saya Barbaglia and David Addison provide walls of opulent string arrangements and a trip-hop groove. “It’s about fear and how men often rely on keeping their emotions secret, and how you have to crack them open. To be the only one that’s seeing one side of someone, it’s trapping,” Freeman-Taylor says in a press release.
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