Hello world,
Here’s your latest FP Picks update. We’ve got a great selection of fresh cuts fm Gretel, Dog Race, Esme Emerson & many 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
Self Esteem, Moonchild Sanelly – Big Man
Self Esteem and Moonchild Sanelly team up for gender-bending new single Big Man. The song marks the first release from the former – aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor – since her BRIT and Mercury Prize-nominated 2021 album Prioritise Pleasure and “explores the nuances of modern masculinity and gender roles”. Speaking about working with South African musician and dancer Sanelly, Taylor explained: “Me and Moon wrote a song from the perspective of a good boyfriend. The ones that are just chill and secure so they just leave you to it. The ones that don’t want a medal for doing the bins … The ones that don’t take your success as a direct threat to their existence. To me, this is real masculinity.”
Gretel – Far Out
Alt-pop artist Gretel has the dance moves on infectious new single Far Out and states: “Far Out is a big window into my personality and my favourite bits of the writing process; it’s aloof and came from a kinda sarcastic, rebellious place. There’s elements in the song that I never thought would make the Final Cut, like the loud, constant beeping, but once I started conceptualising the deadpan dancing in the music video, I realised those elements only added more personality. I had an idea a long time ago that I wanted to do a weird dance for a music video but I was waiting for a suitable song to whip out my moves.” Co-produced by pop wunderkind mura masa, check out the poignant lyrics on this melodic and distinctive track.
Yannis & The Yaw – Under The Strikes (ft. Tony Allen)
Yannis & The Yaw – the new project of Foals‘ Yannis Philippakis – has shared the second single to be written and recorded in collaboration with the late Tony Allen. “Under The Strikes was inspired by walking to the studio during Paris’s refuse strikes, where trash was piled three stories high”, Yannis has explained. “I was fascinated by the idea that we were born into the greatest period of history and yet, things were disintegrating at the same time .. there’s also a kind of coda at the end, a sense of farewell almost, which felt really poignant as it was the last thing we would work on of Tony’s.” A vibrant explosion of highlife rhythm and rousing brass, it constantly evolves courtesy of Tony’s loose yet always exuberant beats – and then it goes wilder still, with a crescendo of brass introducing a beautifully dreamlike coda.
Divorce – My Room
With a subdued yet gradually intensifying tension and a vulnerable heart, new single My Room is another step towards Divorce’s grand and adventurous ambitions. Of this uplifting track, vocalist and bassist Tiger Cohen-Towell states: “My Room is an ode to unconditional love. These lyrics are truly some of the most emotionally vulnerable I think I’ve written to date; it speaks of a deep desire to be relaxed about showing affection toward someone that you know extremely well. I think familiarity can be scary at times, and being truly seen can make you throw walls up between yourself and the people you want to be closest to.” Beautiful vocals & heartfelt lyrics from the distinctive Divorce – love it!
Human Interest – Better Press Repeat
East London alt-rock outfit Human Interest have shared a melancholic new single. Vocalist Cat Harrison explained: “Better Press Repeat was written during the first lockdown where I went through a phase of drinking box wine from about 1pm onwards. However, it’s not as depressing as it sounds –it was weirdly a fruitful time in my creative existence. There was nothing to do apart from feel what you were feeling, and if you were lucky enough to have an outlet, get it out. I was trying to capture that feeling of looking at the state of the world and feeling really disheartened. The title sums things up pretty well: we’ve gone and fucked it, let’s start again… BETTER PRESS REPEAT.” A real ear-worm and surprisingly upbeat for the subject matter!
Cardinals – Twist and Turn
Cardinals recently dropped new single Twist and Turn from their recently released self-titled album. “To me Twist and Turn is a song about how writing has become a highly therapeutic practice for us all,” said lead singer Euan Manning. “It’s got some poppy melodies and a danceable backbeat, the lyrics though, they’re all about grief. I wanted to have a song where the tambourine is the main instrument.” Perpetually pushing the boundaries of alternative music, the young band draws on the effervescent sounds of 80s indie music to craft a unique amalgamation of eclectic shoegaze and Irish trad folk. The six songs of the Cardinals EP were recorded with Richie Kennedy (U2, Interpol).
Gurriers – Approachable
Irish five-piece Gurriers have released the single Approachable, taken from their recently-announced debut album Come and See. The full-length – described by the group as “a noisy, guitar driven odyssey of our disillusionment with the modern world” – is set for release on 13th September, and was recorded in Leeds at The Nave Studios with Alex Greaves. “This is a protest song,” they explain, “written from the perspective of a right wing extremist and inspired by the concerning far right movement starting in Ireland.” The album will be followed by a lengthy UK and European tour for October and November that includes a night at MOTH Club, London.
Dog Race – The Leader
Dog Race have dropped new single The Leader, an icy, operatic fever dream that weaves dark cultish imagery and haunting baroque choral chants, alongside a folk horror themed video. Evoking a sense of foreboding and mystique with its ethereal layers, the band combine gothy post-punk, brittle indie-pop and cold wave to create a spectral sound that is increasingly distinctive as one of their own. Vocalist Katie Healy said: “The Leader feels like the perfect continuation from It’s The Squeeze, building on our newly defined sound yet teasing how much more we have to offer. It sets its narrative around a protagonist who is thrown into inner turmoil when confronted with a fee to cross into the afterlife, convinced she had already paid her dues.”
Esme Emerson – Fade Out
British-Chinese sibling duo Esme Emerson unveil their highly anticipated EP Big Leap, No Faith, Small Chancer alongside a celebratory debut headline show at Folklore on the 9th of October. Accompanying the release is new single Fade Out and of the track, they say: “Fade Out is about being trapped within the limitations of your own dread. It’s about how fear and anxiety can impact the people we love and shape the way we see the world. It’s about the betrayal of one’s mind, the manifestation/consequences of anger, and the panicked desperation to break free before you simply fade away into nothing.” “We have a shared brain,” Emerson Lee Scott laughs of his bond with his sister Esme. The British-Chinese siblings make music as Esme Emerson with the kind of rare creative alchemy that can only come from blood ties.
Beth Gibbons – Lost Changes
The melancholic track Lost Changes is taken from Beth Gibbons’ recently released debut solo album Lives Outgrown which is Beth’s most personal work to date. It’s the result of a period of sustained reflection and change — “lots of goodbyes,” in Beth’s words. Farewells to family, to friends, even to her former self. These are songs from the mid-course of life, when looking ahead no longer yields what it used to, and looking back has a sudden, sharper focus. The evocative video for Lost Changes is the directorial debut by acclaimed British photographer Juno Calypso, known for her hyper-feminine, humour-filled and deeply sinister art. A heartbreaking but beautiful track – growing old is inevitable but keep loving one another!
You can check out the whole playlist here. Please follow the socials below for our weekly updates and share about the place!
