Just a quick reminder that we'll be hosting some fika at this weekend's Indietracks festival. Pop down to the workshop tent on Sunday at 3pm for some teas, cakes and probably a bit of music from a few Fika artists. Both Horowitz and Moustache Of Insanity are playing during the weekend and there might be one or two special guests as well. We'll have some cassettes and records for to buy as well. See you there!
Reviews
Lisa Bouvier "On “Hans indievärld” you can hear references to Shout Out Louds, My Darling You, Mixtapes Are Cellmates, Firefox AK, Those Dancing Days, and many more. The soaring trumpets and coy female vocals make this an almost perfect slice of indie pop." Swedesplease.net
Lost Summer Kitten
"I can't tell if the pitch on this is a bit wired because of the duplication process or if it is supposed to sound so wonky, regardless I like the ultra low fidelity of this. These guys/ladies have somewhat of an infectious bittersweet and melancholy pop sound which I find rather endearing. Handmade cassette to be listened to while eating cake (recipe supplied) and drinking tea (teabag also supplied). Come with digital download to... Ah bless them, they've thought of everything." Norman Records
Horowitz
"The three songs on 'The Knitwear Generation' are joyous. The title track is the best song I've ever heard about cardigans, but can we just skip onto 'Summer Promised Me Too Much', please? Because it's probably the best, most affecting song Horowitz have ever written. Lying somewhere between the heartbreak of Brighter and the sonic beauty of early Ride or Pale Saints, it's the sort of song that you'll play ten times in a row without realising it. And just when you think it's dying away, it takes off spectacularly again, before leaving you hanging onto a shimmering chord. I'm just about to play it again. Oh, yeah, and 'Play Me Your Song' is pretty good, too. A straight down the line pop romp, with some Pavement-y bits thrown in for good measure." A Layer Of Chips
Moustache Of Insanity
"This is part of a series of tape releases from Fika records that all come with a Christmas tea bag, a cake recipe, a pin badge and a free download. As you can imagine it's as cute as it sounds and oozes power nerd indie pop cool. Moustache Of Insanity have entered my radar before and i think they are a very charming entity. They mix classic strum-a-long indie pop cuteness with odd synth noodlings and cut up bits of found audio all performed on cheap (and most likely broken) casio's. Their recording quality could be improved (this tape is a double quiet affair) but it doesn't effect the overall enjoyment of the songs, in fact it enhances the twee appeal ten-fold. Like Television Personalities playing at the end of a long tunnel." Norman Records
Launch Gig
Thank you all for coming along to our launch party - we hope you enjoyed all the bands and the cakes on offer. We had a lovely time, so we're going to do it all over again for our next releases, sometime in June. Lost Summer Kitten:
Lisa Bouvier:
Horowitz:
Moustache Of Insanity:
More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetoma/sets/72157625951560847/
Horowitz - The Knitwear Generation
Artist: Horowitz
Title: The Knitwear Generation EP
Format: handmade cassette tape
Cat#: Fika085LP | Fika085CD
Release date: 26th February 2021
Bandcamp
Horowitz and cassettes have a long history. Back in the early 2000s, Pete was a member of Trilemma, a self-professed “glo-fi” outfit headed up by Rob Jones (Venus Beads/Exit Condition). Most of the Trilemma stuff, including their amazing Crowded Wilderness 7” EP on Kitchen Records, was recorded on a Tascam 8-track cassette machine.
Horowitz Cassettes
At the time, I was playing in a punky new wave band called The Mittens. The Stoke indie scene was and still is microscopic, so it was inevitable we’d get together at some point and start making music. Who else in Stoke understood D.I.Y aesthetics? Only the handful of souls who came along to the one decent night the city had to offer back then – John Owen’s Music Room. At the Talbot Hotel, we saw glitch electronica followed by math-rock, psychedelic pop (Of Montreal before they became Prince-aping sex monkeys were particularly good), jazz, grindcore – the lot. All the bands and artists were united by the common thread of D.I.Y. Amongst the multitude of records bands would be selling, I remember a fair number of cassettes on the merch table. Including my own. Influenced first by Trilemma and then the heady days of the Music Room, I started bashing out as many songs as I could on a 4-track cassette recorder. These were then dubbed onto more cassettes and distributed to whoever would listen.
Fast-forward to 2004 and the first Horowitz EP. 30 cassette copies. We just couldn’t let it lie. I wonder if anyone still has one? If you do, let us know! Anyway, we hope you enjoy this record as much as we enjoyed making it. A lot of love has gone into the Fika recordings project – a passion that mirrors our own love for cassettes – and we think it shows. Tack Tom & Lisa!
The Knitwear Generation
Fittingly, this song was on the first cassette album I ever put together back in (I think) 2002. The lyric probably sounds a bit twee, but I’m sure if you’re able to make out what I’m going on about underneath all the fuzz, you’ll see the humour! I love the chugging rhythm we managed to achieve using a drum preset on a Casio keyboard and some shaker and tambourine overdubs. Crunchy!
Summer Promised Me Too Much
Another old song from the cassette years (see what we’ve done here?) with one or two different words and guitar parts. I’m really proud of this. We were going for a Thames Valley vibe, specifically early Ride. We’ve never used an echo pedal on a Horowitz record but I think it works well, particularly at the end of the song when it really takes off. You might hear more of this sort of thing from us in future.
Play Me Your Song
A little pop song. Couldn’t resist doing some Malkmus guitar bits in the verses (all improvised on the spot, btw.) Went for a snotty vocal delivery and I’m glad – I think it fits well in the noisy chorus. Might do this one live :-)
Launch Gig! Feb 12th @ The Wilmington Arms, London
...with Horowitz, Moustache Of Insanity, Lisa Bouvier and Lost Summer Kitten.
To celebrate the announcement of our launch gig, we've made the whole of Lisa Bouvier's debut EP for us available to stream on last.fm. You can go here to listen to it in its entirety.
This is the launch party for the new diy indiepop cassette label, Fika Recordings. All four of our launch artists will be releasing a cassette EP tonight, so come along, there'll be cake!
Horowitz [UK] Horowitz are “the sound of the indiepop underground”. The two piece have penned some of my favourite pop songs over the past years, with both I Need A Blanket and Popkids of the World Unite guaranteed to get me shuffling my feet at any disco. After releases on indie staples Cloudberry and Thee SPC, we’re very proud to be releasing their next EP. http://www.myspace.com/horowitzband
Moustache Of Insanity [UK] I love this band. Over the past 18 months or so of seeing Moustache Of Insanity across the UK and Sweden, no other band has made me grin like a buffoon, jump about so much or make me feel quite so alive. Shambolic, adorable and utterly essential. http://www.moustacheofinsanity.com/
Lisa Bouvier [SE] Lisa Bouvier took the brave leap into the pop world 2007, having grown tired of compromises in various band formations. She quickly made a name in southern Sweden as its most frisky popstar with handclaps, vocal harmonies and a bloodied guitar that could get any pop club or living room dancing along to her catchy songs. This is Lisa's first solo show (though she'll be joined by her backing band of exceptionally talented Swedes) in the UK, before playing Oddbox and Big Pink Cake night's later in Feb and March. http://lisabouvier.se/
Lost Summer Kitten [SE] Lost Summer Kitten was born late in Lund, Sweden, sometime around December 2005. The duo have since been joined by friends to perform their tales of bittersweet heartbreak. This is their very first UK show! http://www.myspace.com/lostsummerkitten
Tickets are £5 advance from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/103538 Tickets will be available on the door (£6, £4 unwaged). Doors at 8, LSK on at 8:30pm.
For more details see http://fikarecordings.wordpress.com/ and here for the facebook event,
Fika003 & Fika004
We're rather excited to be able to announce our next two artists as Horowitz and Moustache Of Insanity. Both are complete indiepop legends and we're rather chuffed to be able to release new material from both. Yay! They'll be joining Lisa Bouvier and Lost Summer Kitten to play at our launch gig in London on February 12th... we'll be announcing full details very shortly.