Hello world,
Here’s your latest FP Picks update and we’ve got banging tracks from Orlando Weeks, Amelia Quinn, Liz Lawrence & 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
Humane The Moon – Tear It Down
East London indie artist Humane The Moon recently shared new single Tear It Down, from the upcoming second EP Debris Joice. Known for his raw vocals and grungy instrumentation, Humane The Moon’s new track is a quintessential indie-rock sound, reminiscent of bands like Fontaines D.C., Radiohead, and The Strokes. He states: “The purpose of the EP is to broaden it and tear down what it was. Isn’t always a bad thing, it doesn’t always end in debris. It can light new fire and start rejoicing in it .. Tear It Down is sung from a pessimistic internal voice. Seems we all have that nauseating hum between the ears; you get used to blocking it out. So writing from that perspective was surprisingly cathartic. Puts some distance between it and you.” Great vocals and songwriting on this infectious tune.
Amelia Quinn – Midnight
Hull based singer-songwriter Amelia Quinn finds influence from the 90’s alt-pop scene with her infectious new single Midnight – a track written by two friends unable to sleep & pouring their emotions into a song about an inability to move on from past relationships. Singer-songwriter Amelia states: “Midnight is for anyone who thinks everyone is moving on quicker than them… you can take as long as you need, if you’re still angry that is okay.” Influenced by artists like Mazzy Star, The Sundays & The Cranberries, we’re loving this impassioned, catchy slice of alt-pop with Amelia’s beautiful vocals describing a situation we can all relate to!
Tom A. Smith – I Don’t Want You To Have To Remember Me For Longer Than You Ever Knew Me (ft. swim school)
We’re always glad to add Tom A. Smith to the playlist and on this one,Tom’s deep vocals contrast with the floating vocals of Alice Johnson from swim school. The track kicks off with distorted vocals of Alice, as she sings out the title of the track. In an instant, Tom A. Smith’s instantly recognisable voice is introduced, with the rest of his band complimenting his tone at steady pace, as Tom works his way through a story-like verse that recounts an emotional conversation. He states: “This is, in my opinion, the best and most personal song I’ve ever written. I’ve met Alice and the swim school guys and really love everything they’ve done and think our vocals complement each other perfectly. She was so innovative when working out her harmonies to the point that I can’t imagine it without her.” A total earworm but we think every track from Tom is the best until the next one appears – what a talent!
JAMIE WEBSTER – 24 Hours In A&E
JAMIE WEBSTER has dropped poignant new single 24 Hours In A&E – an evocative track describing the intense experience in an NHS waiting room. Jamie has gone beyond his main stage indie-folk persona to pick out spoken word, New York new wave and hip-hop influences as he works tirelessly from his new Liverpool docklands studio. It sees the artist embrace new sonic ideas while holding true to his socially and politically-driven preoccupations. He states: “So many of those working so hard to keep us fit and healthy have come to help us from overseas and things will only get better if we all call for the changes we need as one working-class community. In my eyes the issue has always been with the people upstairs designing the engine, not the people on the ground making the cogs turn.”
Sycamore Tree – Scream Louder
Icelandic alt-rock duo Sycamore Tree have just released powerful new single Scream Louder and it’s a call to break free from being the same as everyone else and to find who you are. Energetic and emotional, this melodic track is the story of two young people from Iceland escaping their dull lives for the wild outdoors – a great way to show how everyone wants to escape and find a connection. The haunting vocals build into an explosive chorus with a wall of distorted guitars, punching drums and soaring vocals bringing an 80s rock flare to the soundscape as the words Scream Louder repeat with a visceral sense of intensity and pent up rage. Wow wait for this raucous anthem to belt out at you – can’t wait to catch them live!
Yannis & The Yaw – Walk Through Fire (ft. Tony Allen)
We have another track from Yannis & The Yaw (Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis) which features the late, great Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen and this time it’s the powerful Walk Through Fire from recently released album Lagos Paris London. The track takes the best of both worlds; fusing Yannis’ animalistic vocals and intricate riffs with Allen’s infectious beats. The album is a high-spirited, loose-grooved exuberance completed by the complex rhythms and unhurried style of the man who inspired it. It’s a communion with the past that provides an escape in the present day. What an absolute belter and if you haven’t checked out the album yet then what you waitin’ for?!
Orlando Weeks – Good To See You
Former Maccabees frontman Orlando Weeks has dropped new album LOJA and here’s the track Good To See You. He credits his live drummer Luca Caruso as a central part of the track’s success: not only drumming with feeling and precision, but also playing melodica and Mellotron as well as helping with vocal arrangements. It sees Orlando reflect on a period of significant change in his life, following his move to Lisbon. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder…”, he has shared, “or it gives everyone longer for their anxieties to fester and balloon. I suppose this is a song about giving enough rope.” Of the album, he states: “I think the move provided a stirring of the waters. It threw up an awful lot of stuff and it gave us perspective and hindsight because suddenly there was distance. You can re-evaluate the things you were too close to, those things that there was no point spending time thinking about because it was the day-to-day bubble you were in.”
I, Doris – Not Done Yet (ft. Dunstan Bruce)
Radical kitchenpunk legends I, Doris have teamed with anarchopop icon Dunstan Bruce of Chumbawamba and Interrobang to spread the mummycore gospel in their latest track Not Done Yet. Mellifluous harmonies weave through retro synths as Bruce’s Herculean voice chants, “I’ve still got fire in my belly, rage in my heart, it’s just my knees are getting weaker and I’m scared of the dark.” Bruce’s classic spoken-singing is the perfect complement to the softer harmonies of the Dorisses, and some great instrumentation ties it all together. It’s a witty tune mocking the idea that people become invisible as they age. A total toe-tapper for sure and a fantastic message – we’re loving the lyrics that speak of a determined refusal to give in!
Liz Lawrence – Oars
Liz Lawrence recently shared the new album Peanuts and we give you the infectious track Oars. It’s a track with a summer feel laced throughout it. The beat in the background was an odd effect that sounded like a whoosh; then the chords are reminiscent of The Beach Boys. Lawrence also opts to sing a bit higher on this piece, making it much more fun and engaging. Liz has made a cohesive-sounding album with so many different styles of music at play which is nothing short of a triumph and describes Peanuts as “Cate Le Bon meets Primal Scream going off on one about landowners. It’s learning the names of different trees and sweating over being polite in emails. It’s a petition to stop Elon Musk from space-junking up the atmosphere so we can’t see the stars anymore and it’s a big deep breath after going under.”
Wunderhorse – Silver
Wunderhorse have recently dropped the single Silver, taken from their new album Midas. Frontman Jacob Slater has explained that the song is about “that ugly side of yourself that you try to keep a secret, but you know it’s there because it makes your skin crawl sometimes. It gets you places but fucks you up in the process. Everyone has elements of their makeup that they’d rather not admit to or keep locked away and never look at.” While the seeds of Silver were sown before the album took shape, it was completed while they were Stateside recording in Minnesota’s Pachyderm Studio, and captures the unpolished, raw live energy that’s channeled throughout the new LP. The lyrics detail a raw sense of self-loathing and it’s one of Wunderhorse’s most emotionally personal tracks.
You can check out the whole playlist here. Please follow the socials below for our weekly updates and share about the place!
