Hello world,
Check out this week’s FP Picks update for a banging mix of fresh cuts from walt disco, Nrvs, Rosellas & 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
Greg Freeman – Cahokia
Greg Freeman recently shared the single Cahokia, taken from his album All Set The Bone. It’s an upbeat and anthemic rock song that casts Freeman’s post-Neil approach in a brighter context than usual thanks to its gigantic major-key chorus, even if the subject matter is less than optimistic. The song is inspired by the American civilization that rose and fell during the Middle Ages, intended as a metaphor and warning for our current situation. “These are the days of one thing after another,” Freeman sings. “Well if doomsday came and went for everybody else, I wonder.” Freeman calls All Set The Bone a “reflection of a lot of change, and a lot of tension.” It’s a box of political and personal yarns spread across four sides, “inhuman events” and grief pulled into a “perfect tsunami.”
Nrvs – Microwave
Mysterious outfit Nrvs continue their story with this pysch-rock banger that’s full of atmosphere & angst. Lyrical imagery about incarceration reflects on their time being banged up for peaceful protest… “it’s all about mental confinement” they say … arguing that we all go through that from birth even accusing the dis-liberties of life in late-model state-captured capitalism of being the cause. On first listen, there’s something about this record for me that echoes where Lydon’s PIL were during their inception & for me it stylistically traverses time very successfully with bags of attitude and fervour to match. Following on from their previous Eno-esque track The Tanks Are Coming Out, this latest cut illustrates further how these guys think, taking no prisoners along the way & standing by what they believe – keep it real I say.
walt disco – Don’t Do This Alone
Glasgow five-piece walt disco have shared the cinematic single Don’t Do This Alone, from their self-titled album, and have described it as ‘a song about the desperation of hunger and want that can eat you up, and the hope that comes from admitting you need help from those you love’. It’s a line that lands with weight, especially given the band’s recent history: years of transition, identity struggles, industry volatility, and the emotional turbulence of your twenties. walt disco aren’t just writing about chaos — they’ve lived it. Built on modular synths, swelling choral arrangements and a sense of cinematic tension, Don’t Do This Alone feels like a confession whispered into the dark — a portrait of spiralling, self‑doubt, and the quiet bravery required to ask for help.
Bess Atwell – The Act
Indie folk artist Bess Atwell has announced her signing to Nettwerk, and released her new single The Act, a bold and candid piece of indie-folk which sees Atwell explore the experience of leaving home and learning how to start over somewhere new. “This song was written when I had just moved to Quebec, where I lived for 9 months,” Atwell explains of the track. “It was a birds-eye view of the relationships I had chosen to leave behind, not just physically. It’s an empowering song for me that basically says ‘I didn’t want to have to do this alone but I absolutely can.’” As her platform expands, Atwell’s core appeal remains beautifully unchanged: she writes songs that feel like vulnerable, meticulously detailed secret confessions shared between close friends.
Westside Cowboy – Well Done Kid, You Did It
Westside Cowboy take their self-appointed “Britainicana” tag and stretch it far beyond its novelty value. Americana, folk, post-punk, classic indie and scuzzy guitar rock are thrown into the same battered old van, somehow all fitting comfortably together. The result is an album that feels simultaneously familiar and completely alive. The crucial thing is that It Goes On never sounds like a band trying to prove they belong in the room. The track Well Done Kid, You Did It is one of the record’s most affecting moments. The album repeatedly circles around the uncertainty of being young and attempting to make sense of a world that seems increasingly difficult to navigate, but there’s very little self-pity here. Instead, the band find something uplifting in simply continuing. That emotional directness is central to It Goes On: the lyrics may leave room for interpretation, but the feeling rarely does.
Dermot Henry – (I Wish I Was) Ennio Morricone
Dermot Henry has shared (I Wish I Was) Ennio Morricone, which leads a new pair of A/B-side singles, and the announcement of a UK headline tour for November. The track is his first new music since debut EP Aiming Torches At The Sun was released earlier this year. Referencing the titan of filmic string arrangements, its lyric finds Henry weighing artistic ambition against everyday anxieties: “eating four desserts after spinning out about my cholesterol for an hour / playing Simpsons 3-D chess sweating by myself while you were crying in the shower”. OK, there’s some intense mind games to mull over there for sure but this track really cuts through with its emotive accessibility coming to the fore from the first beat – LOVE IT!
Rosellas – Suddenly Something
Following the success of their previous EP Shadow Dancing, featuring the tracks Beautiful Lonely and Better Love which enjoyed support from Radio X’s John Kennedy and BBC Radio 2’s OJ Borg, Manchester indie-rock outfit Rosellas are back with Suddenly Something – the captivating first track from their upcoming EPAcross All Skies. Produced by Oliver Shillito at Big City Jacks Studio, this rousing anthem is released via Glasgow based First Run Records. It has a nostalgic quality in the verses & describes the feeling of something unexpectedly taking hold of you, in a world where everything can feel fleeting or fragile. The band explain further: “The song was definitely the easiest to write off the EP. It came quickest & most naturally. ‘Fleeting moments’ was a big lyrical idea, like sunrise, daybreak… everything has a temporary quality. Beautiful things appear & then disappear just as quickly.”
Bunnie – Prodigal Son
I do like it when people push the envelope and so it is that a heavily overloaded synth sets the scene on this well constructed song from Brooklyn based art director cum songwriter Bunnie (aka Gaby Pesqueira). Lyrically about the various stages of relationship breakdown like anger, confusion, denial & jealousy, the mood switches from blame to forgiveness throughout the song, reflecting the many emotions that bubble up for all of us in such situations. First time of hearing this artist, they list Fiona Apple & Aimee Mann as points of inspiration for what they describe as their honest, sometimes sardonic lyricism with alt-rock sensibilities, often exploring themes of faith, disillusionment & introspection – I get it… and an exciting new artist to boot. Gowwannnn!
Blondshell – Fur Elise
Blondshell (aka Sabrina Teitelbaum) recently shared the single Fur Elise, taken from new album Violins. Across the song, Blondshell blends her signature loud and quiet structures, and explores the complexities of growing up in the lyrics. The title refers to the classical piano piece, with the song capturing the feeling of walking down the aisle and getting the feeling of being overwhelmed. “You’re trying to figure out what you want your life to look like, and what you want playing at your wedding, but you don’t even know where to start. You’re picking the wrong song,” she shared. The themes in the song align with that of the album as a whole, which tackles troubled friendships, religion, the body, and the efforts to heal.
CVC – Silver Blues
CVC (Church Village Collective) are back with new single Silver Blues about putting your worries aside and making the most of your time. It leans into the South Wales band’s retro psych-rock sound and is taken from their forthcoming second album of the same name. Songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Dave Bassey explained: “It came from a time when I was working 12-hour shifts and being knackered all the time. I’d have two days off a week where I would just be really up for recording. I’d start every morning by cleaning the whole house, which is where the lines about the ‘silver broom’ and stuff come from, and then sit at the piano and do the recording stuff all day. It’s got the harmonies, got the solos and got the synthesizers. I was thinking of an opener like on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, that thing of addressing the listener directly. I just wanted it to fucking smash open the doors, basically.”
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