FUTUREPROOF PICKS 09-04-26

Hello world,

Here’s your latest FP Picks update .. loads of great new music as always inc trx fm Antony Szmierek, deary, Jodie Langford & 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

Antony Szmierek – The Heron

Antony Szmierek returns with debut 2026 release The Heron and states: “Many of us are adrift in a world of short form slop and a punishing news cycle, but The Heron provides a manifesto for survival. Patience, self-reliance, looping piano and relentless bass. The lyrics imagine the bird as a sort of preacher. An antidote to modern malaise and a reminder to enjoy the stillness as well as the dance. You’ll never be alone again, my love.” Landing somewhere between dancefloor euphoria and late-night philosophy, Antony has done it again, turning everyday moments into something strangely profound. Great songwriting from this unique talent – check out tour dates cos he’s not to be missed!

Juni Habel – Stand So Still

Shot at Norway’s dramatic Verdens Ende coastline, Juni Habel has shared the captivating folk track Stand So Still, taken from upcoming album Evergreen In Your Mind. Juni states: “I don’t think this song ever decided whether standing still is good or bad. And I don’t know myself!” It’s a disarming admission, and it captures something essential about the album’s central preoccupations — the tension between stillness and momentum, connection and resistance, the desire to be present in the world and the difficulty of knowing exactly how. Co-produced alongside Stian Skaaden, the record strips things back to the songs’ emotional core. “We always aim to capture effortlessness – but the way of getting there is anything but effortless,” Juni reveals.

Kelsey Lu – Running To Pain

Kelsey Lu has shared Running To Pain, from the forthcoming album So Help Me God and the ten-track record features Sampha, Kamasi Washington and Kim Gordon. Accompanying the single is a video directed by BAFTA-winning filmmaker Savanah Leaf, which was developed collaboratively with Lu. Filmed across Lanzarote’s volcanic terrain, it stars French actor Garance Marillier and represents the opening chapter of a broader cinematic project tied to the album. Lu said: “So Help Me God was built slowly and intentionally across seven years of transformation. Sonically and emotionally it holds so many different worlds at once – devotion and desire, collapse and becoming- trying to make sense of what it means to break, to believe, to long for something without seeing it clearly, and to be reborn again and again and again.”

deary – Alma

London dream-pop/shoegaze trio deary have shared the mesmerizing new single Alma, taken from their recently released debut album Birding. Vocalist Dottie Cockram states: “I see Alma as an embodiment of our band. It has been with us for a long time and changed with us along the way. In the past four years we have grown into ourselves and have a much clearer idea of what deary is. In this song, I am talking to my younger self who made the decision to look after us and become a better person.” Guitarist Ben Easton states: “The album came from an isolated, almost hopeless space, and you can hear that in parts of the record. But there are also moments that are very self-loving and meditative, and a bit more uplifting.”

SLAG – Face Off

Brighton-based quintet SLAG have dropped their new single Face Off, taken from their EP Losing. Melding fuzzy riffs, warm melodicism, and muscular grooves, the track swerves from intricate verses into an undeniably huge chorus. Vocalist Amelie Gibson stated: “I wrote it about my face and how much time I have spent looking at it. It is written specifically to be enjoyed by me in my youth when I was mostly wasting said time. I came up with it by accident. The music video has nothing to do with anything at all besides an innate desire to look glamorous in a blank room with my girls.” The EP showcases their range, taking in everything from kaleidoscopic indie anthems to “shoegazing-y guitar explosions” and angular rock.

Amelia Quinn – Breathe

Hull based singer-songwriter Amelia Quinn has shared the captivating track Breathe from her just released debut EP Softening the Edges, out on Warren Records – an emotive body of work about love, relationships & living life to the full. Breathe, with its rich ethereal landscape, sees Amelia playing with the idea of surrendering to the moment & investing in the idea that all will be OK. The dreamy backing sets up an emotional whirlwind, simulating the feeling of letting yourself fall deeply in love, while the lyric touches on a sense of battling against anxiety of the unknown – thus reinforcing the overall theme of the EP, namely healing, allowing yourself to feel, & overcoming adversity.

Beth Orton – The Ground Above

Singer-songwriter Beth Orton has shared the epic new single The Ground Above. Orton states: “Linear time has no place in music. I find myself trying to iron out my brain like a map, to show what started where, I could spend forever writing notes in the margins, notes to self, finding archaeological artifacts, layers of soil and magic, the strata of love, sorrow and joy in relation to time, all that goes into the architecture of any particular song … What has kept me alive is a feral invincibility, barrelling through life, propelled magnetically as in a flying dream that won’t allow for time to get hold of my ankles and catch up with me. Grief had me say yes to life, to embrace and taste and devour. I know life to be as pointless and as meaningful as I can make it. I wanted to write some of this into a dream, a confluence of meaning and feeling.”

TV For Cats – Where Did The Time Go?

London’s TV For Cats make a big entrance with Where Did the Time Go? and Not Even Me, two irresistibly catchy earworms that explore the agony of modern life. “The vibe is the fucking darkest depths of the psyche, packaged in the stupidest, brightest box, with a big bow on it,” founder Sammy says. “When you actually look a little bit deeper, it’s fucking dark as anything.” Knowing this, these songs about doomscrolling and going sober hit harder and establish TV For Cats as a band with more than meets the eye. The band come to life on stage and member Georgia says: “Seeing people afterwards, having specific songs that jumped out at them that they really loved, that part is always really fulfilling.” Daisy agrees: “Introducing new songs is so exciting for us. We all can’t wait to play them to get that feedback from those who haven’t heard them yet.”

Jodie Langford – Dance 4eva

Following the release of her debut album Softly Spoken, Hull’s much-loved spoken word / party punk Jodie Langford shares a 3-track Remix Package of Dance 4eva. Taken from the album, Dance 4eva is a track that portrays the intimacy between two people on a dancefloor. With production duties supplied by Jodie’s musical sidekick Endoflevelbaddie, Dance 4eva tells of how songs can weave two souls together, enabling them to escape from the pressures of everyday life. Jodie states: “It’s always good to give people an option with some of the tunes we release & whether people like the steady House/Breakbeat vibe of the original, the up-tempo high energy DnB version, or a laid-back dirty Dubstep version, we think we’ve got them all covered!”