FUTUREPROOF PICKS 22-01-26

Hello world,

FP Picks is back and ready for 2026 with loads of great new music as always inc trx fm Gretel, Storey Littleton, BIG SPECIAL & 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

Lava La Rue, Foster The People – JET LAGGED

At the end of last year, Lava La Rue shared the single JET LAGGED (co-written with Foster The People’s Mark Foster and Isom Innis), which saw the alt-pop polymath team up with 2000s faves Foster The People for a restless, dynamic dance-punk number. Described by Lava as their “sonic love child”, the track pulls inspiration from their time on tour in America, trying to make the most of every night while also being chronically sleep deprived. “I’d land in a new city and instantly stay out all night to try and beat the jet lag,” Lava has explained. “The delirium from sleep deprivation put me in a euphoric state that made people think I was on something, and it was kind of an inside joke knowing I was the most sober person acting the least sober.”

Heidi Curtis – Undone

Having written and performed songs for a long time in her North Shields home, at the end of last year Heidi Curtis finally shared first single Undone and states: “The last five years has been amazing for honing my craft, but also for inner development of myself. Now that I’m stepping into the industry, I already have a better understanding of who I am and what I want to be.” Sonically, the music wears its influences on its sleeve; Fleetwood Mac, Kate Bush, Jeff Buckley are clear touchpoints, but the most common denominator is that elusive timelessness in the songwriting (as well as great vocals). “I’ve always been really in anything that’s old, vintage, whether that be like music, objects, people,” Heidi suggests. “I can talk about anything old and whimsical and magical all day.”

Sailor Honeymoon – Armchair

Korean punk trio SAILOR HONEYMOON dropped the single Armchair in November, a sharp-tongued anthem that takes aim at complacency and condescension, and the old-guard attitudes that still shape most industries, including music. The band have evolved into one of Korea’s most talked-about punk acts, known for their raucous live energy, distorted loud guitar sounds, and inclusivity. The track channels that intensity into a wiry and witty song that sneers at self-satisfaction and false authority. With driving guitars, garage-tight rhythm, and a chorus that hits like a refusal, it’s a catchy callout for anyone still speaking down at them from a metaphorical throne.

Gretel – Darkness, be my friend

London-based songwriter Gretel shared the beautiful single Darkness, be my friend at the end of last year and stated: “I wrote Darkness, be my friend the day before we went in to start re-recording my next project the new unfamiliar way – I was scared and didn’t know if I had what it takes. It was dark but it was exciting. Recording live in this way challenged me way more as a musician than before, and it’s given me a huge desire to go forward and get better and tricksier with it in future. I feel like I’ve only just been born.” This infectious track meditates on themes of insecurity, losing touch with your passions, and the anxieties of growing up.

Storey Littleton – January

Storey Littleton has announced the debut album At A Diner and lead single January starts out with an extremely fun “Leader Of The Pack”-style intro, then bursts into a lush, gorgeous piece of singer-songwriter pop. Mikaela Davis plays harp on the song, and Stereogum‘s Chris DeVille points out that it’s got serious Natalie Prass vibes, which is exactly right. The album is driven by finger-picked acoustic guitar and surrounded by an ensemble that includes clarinet, French horn, and pedal steel. Those textures give the album its desolate, dreamy quality, creating a landscape that feels both intimate and slightly unmoored—just like one’s 20s are supposed to feel.

Howling Bells – Melbourne

Howling Bells have shared captivating new single Melbourne, a sublime slice of melancholic dream pop from the trio’s Strange Life album. Vocalist Juanita Stein explains: “Melbourne is a song about deep yearning and ultimately grief. It explores a unique inner conflict many of us feel when we leave our homes and families to start anew somewhere else. This aching can be especially intense when we’re faced with something traumatic and all we want is the safety and warm embrace of the familiar.” Instrumentally the song simmers along with strummed guitars, mellow basslines and jangly riffs, but soft at the edges giving the track a dreamier feel. This compliments the emotional weight that the song has and gives it Howling Bells’ unmistakably dark, cinematic blueprint.

BIG SPECIAL – SLUGLIFE

Big Special have shared powerful new single SLUGLIFE and frontman Joe Hicklin describes it as “a song about living low to the ground and going slow. Feeling guilt for needing a bit of time to pull yourself up by your boot straps. It’s about working through the self hate that can come through hard times.” It follows their recent collaboration with Sleaford Mods, The Good Life. Speaking about the collaboration to NME recently, Sleafords frontman Jason Williamson said: “Joe and Cal [Maloney] came on tour with us in 2023, just before they released their debut album. They sent me a copy of it and I just loved the Black Dog/White Horse single.”

Altin Gün – Neredesin Sen

At the end of last year, Turkish psych-rock band Altin Gün shared the details of their upcoming sixth album, Garip, and released hypnotic lead single Neredesin Sen. Garip — which translates to “strange” in English — serves as a tribute to Turkish folk singer Neşet Ertaş. The album sees ten of his compositions reimagined by Altin Gün, with Neredesin Sen being the first preview of the band putting their spin on Ertaş’ classics. “Both of my parents are from Turkey, from the same area he is from. It’s the music that I grew up with. When I was five, six years old, my grandfather always had cassettes by Neşet Ertaş and I used to listen to it all day long. Then I was too young to really understand the lyrics and the meaning, but I really liked the melodies,” says vocalist Erdinç Eçevit of Ertaş’ influence.

Shelf Lives – frissoN

London-based electro-bass punk band Shelf Lives are teasing their debut album Hypernormal with new single frissoN. The band explain: “It’s the 2008 financial crash. It’s the leaning into the collapse. Thank you, TechnoDaddy666, for helping us fight the aliens.” Of the album, they state: “We’re trying to stay sane in a culture that is overexposed, exploitative and performative. There is a focus on wanting to be seen and wanting to disappear, on rage and resignation. Hypernormal isn’t a concept album – it’s what happens when you write music in a world that’s falling apart, and everyone calls it content. We are all normies now. Kiss the frog.”