Hello world,
Here’s your latest FP Picks update .. loads of great new music as always inc trx fm Blondshell, Tokyo Tea Room, Yard Act & lots 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
Sesame Girl – Wings Of A Butterfly
Australian alternative indie outfit Sesame Girl continue their upward trajectory with the release of their enchanting new single Wings Of A Butterfly, a shimmering slice of dream-pop that balances vulnerability, longing and quiet strength in equal measure. At its heart, the track explores the need for reassurance in relationships, challenging empty promises and searching for genuine commitment. “Wings Of A Butterfly is about asking for proof instead of promises. Someone can say that they love you and they’re not leaving, but that’s not really enough. I feel like the lyrics ‘I want you to prove you’re here forever’ sum up the sentiment of wanting reassurance through something tangible,” said vocalist Heather Duncan.
Tokyo Tea Room – Eyes Off You
Margate’s Tokyo Tea Room have shared their mesmerizing new single Eyes Off You which floats on a bed of shimmering synthesizers, driving basslines, and the ethereal, feather-light vocal delivery of lead singer Beth Dunn. Thematically, the single navigates the turbulent and fatalistic waters of toxic, obsessive love. It weaves a haunting narrative around a romantic attachment that refuses to break, even when it actively inflicts pain. “As the title suggests, Eyes Off You is a song about desire and the people who linger around in your thoughts,” guitarist/songwriter Dan Elliott says of the track. “I try to capture those fleeting moments of connection and evoke a sense of nostalgia, like a crystalised memory. Although the sense of longing is obvious, the song is really driven by optimism and anticipation, mirroring a period of personal renewal and looking forward, after a time of reflection”.
Die Twice – Jalapeño
Brighton-based Die Twice recently dropped new single Jalapeño, taken from their new EP Accept Me Like A Lie. It’s a song that smoulders, snaps and finally erupts, and its accompanying video only deepens the spell. Nobody plans to meet their future music video director on the tube at midnight with a guitar case in their face. But that’s how Die Twice met Milo Hume, the director behind Geese‘s Au Pays du Cocaine. “They had all these amps and cases and shit falling all over the place,” he says. “It was a total mess.” They got talking, and Hume was invited down to Brighton for the next one. Die Twice’s music can be described as dreamy, embellished with poetry and sensory details that make up for a rich, luxurious world. The visuals that accompany it aren’t any less fantastical.
Ebbb – Shallow Hits
London trio Ebbb recently shared the mesmeric and synth-heavy title track from their upcoming debut album Shallow Hits. Although it initially comes off as a jumpy indie pop track, Shallow Hits carries darker undertones. As the band explain, the track is about: “chasing quick dopamine highs to escape emotional emptiness, and how that can lead to destructive patterns of self-sabotage.” The scope, variety and ambition of Ebbb’s debut album is hugely impressive. From sun-kissed calypso-esque electronic pop, latin-flavours, big, bold propulsives to drum ‘n’ bass timbres and church choir combined. A bold and singular debut record from a group who truly do not sound like anyone else right now.
Kurt Vile – Chance to Bleed
Kurt Vile‘s track Chance to Bleed, with its rootsy guitar playing and clever lyrics, is taken from his recently released album Philadelphia’s been good to me. He states: “Chance to Bleed is some new kinda higher energy rager. Recorded with my band of bros the Violators in Athens, GA… and then on down the road to Memphis, TN where we got town legend Greg Cartwright to rip with us (KV lead gtr on the left and Greg lead on the right!) I finished this jam out in L.A. with Rob Schnapf at the mixing board and by then it was flyin, baby. The video is a hoot: I invited my Memphis friends back out for that and there’re a ton of other legendary guests so keep your eyes peeled. (Yo, Schoolly D!) Love, KV.”
CUSP – English Country
Indie rock/britpop band CUSP have released the title track from their upcoming debut album English Country. Commenting on the album, produced by Jake Robbins, the band shared: “We could say a million things about what it means and our journey as a band to get to this point, but the main thing is we wanted to make a timeless record. A proper body of work that you can listen to start to finish and live inside. We couldn’t be more proud of how it turned out and can’t wait to finally be able to share it with you.“ The single is the kind of supercharged, instant impact, high intensity anthem that every band needs. Dan Stock’s vocal simmers with attitude in a song which turns pain into positivity by growing up, learning to change, and making peace with the person that you were.
Blondshell – Heart Has To Work So Hard
Blondshell (Sabrina Teitelbaum) has shared the single Heart Has To Work So Hard, which deals with the fallout of a fractured friendship. Employing her signature monotone and stirring lyrics, the track mimics the sound of an overworked heart and charts the fallout of a fraying friendship: “You give me paws / You get me scaring strangers / You get me criticising / You make this feel like labour / My heart has to work so hard when you’re around.” Blondshell states: “This song is really about friendship and betrayal, getting stuck in a dynamic and letting things fester. It’s about pain and confusion, no one trains you for the ups and downs of a friendship between two women, but it’s also about a love so enduring that you find compassion no matter what.”
Cutscene – Shrine (Give Me a Chance)
Manchester-based Cutscene announce debut EP A Piece Of Life with the single Shrine and state: “The song was inspired by the idea of someone fleeing from their wedding ceremony as they are saying their vows. We wrote the song to show the potential fragility present in all relationships. The song’s structure switches lyrically between the perspective of the person who is uncertain about a future together, and their partner who is living in an artificial world fueled by a craving for the perfect relationship. This obsessive drive led to the song name Shrine, a place or thing which is venerated or prayed over, while the pop cliche (Give me a chance) emulates the sugary sweet nature of idealised love.” A cracked, staccato rhythm guitar sets the tone while a topline that sounds like taking a bend at 60mph is plastered over and gives the listen its refined edge.
Agatha is Dead! – Strangers
Berlin-based quartet Agatha Is Dead! return with their new single Strangers. It traces the dissociation from a life we thought we knew — a growing doubt in our own perception, and a quiet sense of danger within what used to feel like home. It’s about not knowing whether it’s the world around you that’s become unrecognisable, or your own mind. Driven by shadowed basslines, skeletal rhythms and a cold, circling guitar figure, the track moves with a quiet inevitability — less an outburst than a slow unravelling. It lingers in the space between recognition and doubt, where identity itself begins to blur. Or, perhaps more simply, it is the uneasy realisation that you have arrived somewhere you were never meant to be.
Yard Act – Redeemer
Yard Act have announced their upcoming new album You’re Gonna Need a Little Music, and shared its first single Redeemer – spooky and driven by a start-stop bassy chug throughout, similar to Queens of the Stone Age‘s Don’t Look Just Keep Your Eyes Peeled, but swampier. Speaking of the themes on the album, vocalist James Smith says: “I think the album is about multiple realities and how individualism has led us, in the modern world, to question if there even is a shared reality anymore because everyone just believes what they want now.” The album represents a major shift in the band’s creative process; while their previous two albums were largely “laptop records” pieced together in transit, this new material was forged during an uninterrupted five-month period of studio freedom.
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