FUTUREPROOF PICKS 30-04-26

Hello world,

We’ve got this week’s FP Picks update with loads of great new music as always inc trx from Enjoyable Listens, Soft Loft, Henry Nielsen & 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

Basht. – Perfume

Dublin alt-rock foursome Basht. return with emotional new single Perfume, taken from their forthcoming debut album Poor Advice. Vocalist and guitarist Jack Leavey says: “Perfume is about the relationship between father and son from the perspective of the son as he recounts his parents’ marriage falling apart. Ireland also has a darker history, shaped by the strong influence of the Catholic Church over private life, particularly in cases of unplanned pregnancy – where young couples were often pressured into marriage to preserve respectability and avoid shame .. This song reflects that reality, capturing how personal lives were shaped by external pressures, where duty could outweigh desire and a single moment could determine the course of an entire future.” The track unfolds in phases, each one deepening its emotional pull and reinforcing the sense of quiet inevitability running through it.

Man/Woman/Chainsaw – Nosedive

Man/Woman/Chainsaw have released their latest single Nosedive, alongside the announcement of their highly anticipated debut LP Cannonball. Vocalist Emmie-Mae states: “it’s a song about longing for both comfort and freedom simultaneously in a relationship through the metaphor of being an injured bird needing shelter. We turned it into a danceable upbeat track, which made the tone shift throughout the song as though you find a way to pick yourself up and fly away.” Soft vocals sit atop a steady drumbeat with strings interweaving throughout, leaving space for the listener to ponder the lyrics that describe the stressors of a relationship through imagery of a broken bird wing. The bridge unconsciously builds, leading to a final outro of group vocals and climatic string instrumental.

Soft Loft – Caught

Swiss five-piece Soft Loft have shared new single Caught, an anthem for anyone who’s ever played it safe when they shouldn’t have and taken from upcoming album Throw A Dice. The song reflects on that moment when you could have been fearless — falling in love but not daring to embrace it. Vocalist Jorina Stamm states: “Caught explores emotional immaturity in your twenties, that moment when you grow older and realize you should’ve been braver, that you should’ve taken the chance when it was right in front of you. It captures the frustration of feeling caught in the past, caught between memory and the weight of what could’ve been. Whenever something resurfaces: a song, a place, a thought, you’re suddenly thrown back in time, realizing that even after all these years, it can still throw you off.”

Glass Eel – Amends

After a self-imposed two-year hiatus from music, London-based artist Glass Eel returns with folk-psych rock track Amends, emerging from a need to reset, reconnect, and find confidence in releasing music. As she puts it, “I’m really trying to no longer think about that and just trust my own musical instinct”. Lyrically, Amends captures Western’s attempts to break free from mental loops. The kind that trap her in cycles of overthinking her creativity and output. Living with OCD, Western describes a tendency towards rumination – searching for signs, for certainty. The track reflects this internal tension “like a journey,” and she states “I’m leaning in a sort of psychedelic rock mindset. I imagine that as a bunch of cartoon animals marching through the forest. I wanted it to feel quite magical and otherworldly.”

Liz Lawrence – Black Ulysses

Liz Lawrence grieves her late sister on new album Vespers and shares beautiful and poignant first single Black Ulysses – “It is dedicated to my beautiful sister Jessie and her too-short life.” Vespers was written over a period of three weeks, just six months after Jessie died. “If you want to understand the change in me, from the person who made Peanuts to the person who wrote Vespers, then this is it. Grief changes you. I don’t recognise the person I was before … I wanted someone to be able to say to a friend who is grieving that they should listen to Vespers,” she adds. “I want people to come to this record. I want people to use this record. I want it to have purpose, to give comfort and catharsis.” What a stunning, heartfelt tribute to Jessie – we’re loving it.

Henry Nielsen – Beginning Of The End

Mid-tier 1970s styled singer-songwriter Henry Nielsen shares the track Beginning Of The End – a song about the cost of living life on your own terms. Pulling influence from seventies artists like Jackson Browne & Neil Young & others, Henry contemporises the genre, bringing it into the modern-day with a lyrical slant towards isolation & anxiety. The track is a superb introduction to this most thoughtful & intimate of artists. “I’m sorry, I forgot. We’d agreed to meet halfway” sings Henry with an air of honest disclosure that echoes throughout his work, all supported by a warm & distinctly analogue instrumentation featuring lap-steel guitar & soft organ fills that hold it all in place. Although Henry’s not the first artist to pair classic songwriting with a homespun style, his wise-eye for exploring the inner lives of the characters in his songs, along with a folk-rock sound, are uniquely his own.

MLEKO – Denouement

Manchester’s seven-piece MLEKO return with their latest single Denouement, a visceral, shape-shifting introduction to their forthcoming debut EP The Feast of St. Perpetua.  MLEKO have dubbed their sound “Gub Rock”—a deliberately slippery label that reflects their refusal to be pinned down. Drawing from post-punk, art rock, prog and beyond, their music resists categorisation, instead embracing a maximalist approach where sax and trumpet stab through dense arrangements, guitars churn, and rhythms hit with unrelenting force. Known for their intense, almost transcendental live shows—complete with their now-signature “Gubs” hanging from instruments—MLEKO have been steadily making their mark across the UK’s underground circuit, including a sold-out show at Manchester’s Castle Hotel.

untitled – Say It Again

untitled have pushed back on music industry noise with rock anthem Say It Again. Frontman and guitarist Danny says: “At the time we wrote the song, we had some built up frustrations about certain aspects of the music business, social media attention, and our inability to grasp how big the Restless song actually was. We just write stuff we love and it felt like our song became just numbers on a screen. It’s all new to us and honestly we are more comfortable writing and playing in our garage than with numbers, stats, and algorithms.” Fresh off a support slot with Suicidal Tendencies in LA, untitled have lined up a run of US live dates for the coming months, with plans to visit the UK later this year also in the works.

DIVIL – Thanks A Million

A mighty first release from Dublin newcomers DIVIL, new single Thanks A Million brings long lost friends together after a decade-long absence. Made up of childhood friends Danny Dempsey McMahon on vocals, Jocelyn Vance on guitar and Conor Cusack on bass, who had all drifted apart as adults, the trio reconnected on the night of Danny’s father’s funeral after almost a decade. Within weeks of finding each other again, bassist Conor was diagnosed with cancer. Music became a way for the Dubliners to reconnect, process their grief and support each other in ways words often can’t. Despite that weight, the band’s debut single is far from sentimental. True to the quietly deflective tone of its title, Thanks A Million carries a slacker edge, brushing heavy emotion aside with a kind of offhand shrug. Thundering vocals take centre stage as the stubborn bass and drums drive the track forward, regardless of what the lyrics confess.