FUTUREPROOF PICKS 30-11-23

Hello world,

Here’s your latest FP Picks update .. loads of great new music as always inc Dog Unit, Real Estate, Tom A. Smith & 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

Real Estate – Water Underground

Real Estate have dropped infectious new single Water Underground, from their upcoming album Daniel. Of the track, frontman Martin Courtney states: “This song is about writing songs. I think Water Underground is like the unconscious, the mysterious part of your brain where creativity comes from. The constant flow of music in the back of your head. You get an idea while driving or walking the dog or something and you want to hold on to it.” The songs that make up the album have been described as “effortless but artful” in a press release. It continued, saying: “They shimmer and radiate without hesitation or second guesses, and they connect the uninhibited wonder of Real Estate’s earliest work with the earned perspective of adulthood.” Great – got it on repeat!

Flat Party – Hindsight

Indie-rock outfit Flat Party have shared heartfelt, intriguing new single Hindsight, from their upcoming self-titled debut EP. It’s different for the band, but highly infectious with its jangly chords and more intricate structures. Vocalist Jack says ‘’Our generation is often seen as this group of people who moan for no reason, but it really does feel like we’ve got absolutely no power to try and shift things for the better… it’s ultimately about frustration, especially at the attitudes that are commonly directed to our generation about the state of the world and how ‘ungrateful’ we are.” Great songwriting on this thought-provoking track – love it!

Tom A. Smith – Fading Away

Tom A. Smith‘s back with a captivating rock ballad which uses his childhood love of space to set the scene for a journey of self discovery. Tom states he wrote it “in a completely different way than I usually do. Everything flowed so beautifully that the demo was completed in under 5 hours.” Once producer Hugo White stepped in to add his touches, Smith says the track “became massive.” Fading Away uses over the top sound to make listeners feel like they’re also floating through space next to Smith: the arpeggiating keys give the effect of zero-gravity 360º spins, and the bright guitars propel the track forward with intensity meant for an arena. Always evolving, Tom’s produced a heartfelt stunner – this boy can do no wrong!

Nightbus – Exposed to Some Light

Manchester’s post-punk outfit Nightbus have shared innovative new single Exposed to Some Light. The band state: “To expose something to light for us means to bring something to the forefront of your mind and current head space. It can be negative, positive or perhaps neutral. By being aware of this certain something or feeling it can bring about many things; the death of an ego or perhaps the birth of a new chapter. It’s a track that is drenched in unremembered nostalgia, with an underlying sense of dread and a dark synergy.” Great songwriting and, with its low synth vibrations and mystifying basslines, this intriguing track is a winner.

Tiga, Hudson Mohawke – Silence Of Love (ft. Jesse Boykins III)

New track Silence Of Love is from Tiga & Hudson Mohawke‘s upcoming collaborative album L’Ecstasy, out tomorrow. This dance banger features Chicago vocalist Jess Boykins III who’s previously worked with Little Simz, Sango & Kilo Kish and his voice brings a soulful breeze to this acid house track. The material on L’Ecstasy is said to capture a creative partnership founded upon a mutual love of “hardcore romance,” described by the duo as “a liminal state where the bounds between euphoria, melancholy and the raw power of friendship disintegrate completely.”

The Chemical Brothers – Goodbye

Goodbye, from tenth album, For That Beautiful Feeling, is a track heavy on dusty synths, sampled vocals, and clattering drum breaks from electronic duo The Chemical Brothers. In the hands of super producer and close friend of the band, Erol Alkan, the track became a nine-minute-plus ecstatic analogue techno stomp driven by a bassline that bounces through the speakers, confidently taking control of any dance floor it soundtracks. To complement the sonic experience of the original track, the English electronic music duo partnered with long-term visual collaborators of the band, show directors Smith & Lyall. The video is a kaleidoscopic journey where we see a couple going through all the phases of a passionate and intense relationship while being covered by The Chemical Brothers’ colours and infectious beats.

KNEECAP – Better Way To Live (ft. Grian Chatten)

Belfast rap group KNEECAP have shared their catchy new single Better Way To Live and it finds Fontaines D.C. singer Grian Chatten, fresh off his latest solo album, doing a sing-rapped hook over hip-hop production so colorfully funky it almost feels like a cartoon. Fontaines drummer Tom Coll is behind the kit for this one too, and the beat is by Toddla T. KNEECAP shared: “Better Way To Live is all about finding that little spark of joy in the monotony, in the day-to-day things that you barely bat an eye at. In-between the moments of that repetitive lift of the pint, or spark of a cigarette, there is an opportunity for bliss. Underneath that constant noise, there is a silence that can breathe new life and inspiration breaking through the mundane.” Great lyrics – love it!

ladylike – Southbound

Brighton four-piece folk-rock outfit ladylike have dropped beguiling new single Southbound, mixing folk and psychedelia to great effect. Vocalist and guitarist Georgia Butler says the track “follows a stream of consciousness approach to songwriting where we weren’t entirely sure of the song’s intent until we’d finished it … Southbound is sort of an ode to being in your 20s and witnessing the people around you attempting to find a spot to settle in.” Southbound takes listeners on a journey of internal monologues set to a back and forth of gentle folk patterns, intense guitars and deep psychedelic tangents. Distinctive, eccentric & ambitious – what a belter!

Dog Unit – Concrete Barges on the Banks of the Thames

Instrumental rock band Dog Unit have shared beautiful, atmospheric new single Concrete Barges on the Banks of the Thames which whisks listeners downriver from the city centre to its outskirt edgelands, where strange concrete objects wash up on lonely gravel beaches, while in the background the Eurostar speeds through rusting brownfield infrastructure at 200 miles per hour. Coupling post-rock with melancholic electronica, Dog Unit have wrapped up a year-long residency at Servant Jazz Quarters in London recently and will play their biggest headline show yet at The Lexington in Islington on April 18.

bdrmm – Mud

Hull-Leeds shoegaze group bdrmm have shared their new single Mud, released on Mogwai‘s Rock Action label. The essential fragility of Mud mirrors the lyrics – it’s about loss, and learning to move on. A song about memory, and how we try to retain the past, frontman Ryan Smith describes Mud as “a track about approaching loss. Trying to cope with the end before it has even happened. The memories created are in fear of being washed away, and by keeping hold of them. You’re doing more harm than good.” Recorded with long-time collaborator Alex Greaves (Working Men’s Club, Bo Ningen) during their album sessions at The Nave Studios in Leeds, Mud sees the band expanding further on their dynamic and sprawling sound.