FUTUREPROOF PICKS 13-02-25

Hello world,

Here’s this week’s FP Picks update with banging new tunes as always inc tracks from Saya Gray, Fiona-Lee, Mandrake Handshake & 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

Jazzie Young – Waiting on You!

Rising LA-based artist Jazzie Young reclaims the power she’s lost to a love in limbo in her mesmeric new single Waiting on You! Using soft synthesizers and driving drums to find her way through, the track is another reassuring reminder that pop music is still breathtakingly alive. Jazzie states: “Waiting on You! is a song about a crush and the anxiety and excitement that can bring up in you. The stomach butterfly feelings you get when you like someone but aren’t sure how they feel about you, so every interaction has a loaded energy to it.” With a lo-fi, airy feel and relatable lyrics, Jazzie creates an intimately nostalgic atmosphere charged with emotion.

ELLiS·D – Drifting

Brighton goth-punk ELLiS·D has shared new single Drifting, taken from the upcoming EP Spill and it’s an explosion of whiplash riffs,  psychedelic break downs, false endings and rip-roaring returns. The interplay between vocals and instrumental develops into a feeling of conflict throughout the track, one which absolutely suits the more gothic inspired tone which the song centres around. ELLiS·D states: “Drifting is by far my favourite track to play live. It has been through a fair few iterations, gets everyone going and always ends up going somewhere slightly different with each performance.” Of the EP, he says: “The Spill EP is a not so subtle expression of conflict between personality and character. An uneasy alliance of nervous apprehension and joyful abandon. Throwing myself dramatically onto the funeral pyre one moment, only to get up and frantically twist my limbs about the next.”

Benefits – Divide (ft. Shakk)

Benefits have dropped new single Divide, featuring Middlesbrough rapper Shakk, taken from their upcoming album Constant Noise. “Divide is a punk song about society at war with itself over every conceivable issue,” vocalist Kingsley explains. “It’s angry about everything from war, inequality, misplaced patriotism and poverty; to greed and the industrialisation and monetisation of hate. It’s an attempt to bring together everything that Benefits in 2025 represents, both sonically and lyrically. We wanted to merge heavy electronica, traditional punk and protest, to create an assault on the senses in the best possible way. Along with producer James Adrian Brown, we threw beat after beat at it and brought in our friend Shakk to add pure fire and heart. It’s a piece about division but done in the spirit of unity.”

Fiona-Lee – To Make Me Feel Good

London-based alt-pop artist Fiona-Lee has shared impassioned new single To Make Me Feel Good, taken from her upcoming debut EP Nothing Compares To Nineteen. She states: “I wrote To Make Me Feel Good when I was going through a hard time with my body image. It’s a song about the idea that you shouldn’t need someone else to make you feel like you’re enough as you are. I think it’s even worse for young people now because it’s so easy to compare yourself to others online, and I think many of us search for validation through social media and romantic partners.” Powerful vocals & important message on this authentic alt-pop belter.

The Slow Readers Club – Boy So Blue

Manchester’s adventurous songsmiths The Slow Readers Club have dropped their stunning new single Boy So Blue. Energetic, cautionary, audacious and intricately crafted, the complex and richly emotive floor filler is the latest single to be taken from the four-piece’s upcoming seventh studio album, Out Of A Dream. The track follows the drama of previous singles Technofear and Animals. Cloaking upset with uproar and seeing the sorrow behind a brave face, the precarious balance between introspection and glorious sonic abandon has been set. The band state: “The electronic element of our sound evolves from song to song and album to album. As we’ve always been drawn to the sounds of early Depeche Mode, Erasure, New Order and LCD Soundsystem, we decided to put those influences front and centre.”

Mandrake Handshake – Hypersonic Super-Asterid

Oxford’s Mandrake Handshake have shared a re-recorded version of debut single Hypersonic Super-Asterid, taken from their upcoming debut album Earth-Sized Worlds. The band state: “Hypersonic Super-Asterid’ is the Mandrake Handshake origin story; the protease fibres that make up our genetic code. Prompted by a Stereolab live set and the visions of a utopian society it inspired (naturally), the creation of this song marked our progression into Mandrake Handshake-dom: a damascene vision of our musical future like rays of light bursting into our eyelids. Being the first single we ever released, and played at every single live-show since, Hypersonic Super-Asterid now comes to you revamped, re-juiced, and in techi-colour widescreen surround sound for the very first time.”

Clutter – Kraut

Stockholm-based Clutter have dropped new single Kraut, taken from their upcoming debut EP Clutter Loves You, blending grunge and post-hardcore influences through distorted guitars and fuzzy vocals. The track, which premiered on BBC Radio 6 Music with Tom Ravenscroft was the first song the band recorded together and state: “Kraut is a straightforward, endless cycle of static guitars. The simple build is accompanied by emotion filled vocals and a melancholic synthesizer. It’s a dreamlike krauty death dance and it’s one of the first songs we ever wrote together. Hilda wrote the lyrics on her endless way home from one of the first real parties she ever attended and we wrote the music together in our old school. Recorded in Oves tiny childhood bedroom, we were all hovered over a little synthesizer and improvised the noises at the end. It’s nostalgic and captures a feeling of adolescence we all will undoubtedly lose.”

Mood Bored – Wet Faced & Ugly

Dutch shoegaze outfit Mood Bored have shared hypnotic new single Wet Faced & Ugly, taken from their upcoming EP Too Much? The band state: “Wet Faced & Ugly is one of our favourite new songs. We poured our hearts into this both musically and lyrically. It’s small, it’s explosive, It sounds exactly like our brains. We feel like this song was kind of a turning point for all our new songs, we found a new kind of way to write and to feel the music.” The track is a dreamy soundscape of stellar production, compelling instrumentation, and haunting lyrics. Wrestling with feelings of hope and self-loathing, it’s a testament to Mood Bored’s dedication to honesty.

Saya Gray – LIE DOWN..

Indie-rock artist Saya Gray has dropped melancholic, heartfelt new single LIE DOWN.. taken from debut album SAYA, which asks impossible questions about life and love, gifting us a song that emotionally reels and heals at the same. Meshing a unique brand of synth-pop with indie-folk and alternative rock, LIE DOWN.. is strong in its mathematical percussion yet vulnerable in its euphoric stacked harmonies. The track canvasses the idea that after we’re gone, do our memories remain etched into the minds of those we leave behind, or are we doomed to fade away? Flawless vocals on this emotive track – just beautiful and the track is accompanied by a gorgeous visualizer evocative of film noir.