A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

Vinyl

Adam Ross - Littoral Zone [12"/CD]

Artist: Adam Ross
Title: Littoral Zone
Format: 12” ecomix vinyl | digifile CD | digital
Cat#: Fika099
Release date: 24th May 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

24th May 2024 will see the release of Littoral Zone, the second solo album by Adam Ross - a musician described by Folk Radio as "one of Scotland’s most talented singers and songwriters".

The album is produced by multiple Scottish Album Of The Year Award nominated composer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Wasylyk and released on London record label Fika Recordings. Arts bodies Creative Scotland and Help Musicians have supported and funded the album in recognition of what is shaping up to be one of the most exciting musical collaborations of 2024.

The album is a heavily lyrical collection of warped 70s-esque indie-folk ballads inspired by Adam’s relocation to the coast. The title, Littoral Zone, is a term used to define where the sea meets the land but also a nod to a style of direct, literary observations about the people, landscapes and states of mind Adam has discovered since moving there. The lyrics cover themes of nature, politics, faith, love and death and are surrounded by Andrew’s deft production featuring luscious string ensembles and brass.

The writing of the album saw Adam move away from guitar and onto piano, having bought a slightly battered upright piano from a local antiques warehouse as a first priority after moving house in 2021. Chords, melodies and musical ideas were recorded on Adam's phone before lyrics were slowly built up during his walks on the beach and clifftops around the village of St Cyrus where he now lives.

Songs like Free Will and Union Gary chart and exaggerate the at-times ridiculous minutiae of day-to-day life, with the latter musing on British foreign policy via the prism of an unkempt garden. The Going and I Get It Wrong pay tribute to the natural beauty and mystery of coastal landscapes while Brambles falls into the musical tradition of the murder ballad, with a story loosely based on an amalgamation of true events. The album's darker edges can also be discovered in Shrinking and Ego which dwell on aging and self-doubt, however Apogee looks to counterbalance such themes with a pure outpouring of love.

The album sees Adam at his most musically ambitious and precise. In contrast to his more lo-fi and DIY previous work, Littoral Zone is a painstakingly crafted record which celebrates collaboration. Andrew Wasylyk's production and multi-instrumentalist performances bring sonic sophistication which is further heightened by Pete Harvey's heart-stirring string arrangements. Gillian Fleetwood's yearning vocals are a constant highlight throughout the album, as is Rachel Simpson's exquisite brass playing. Ultimately, Littoral Zone is an album of stories and Adam's lyrical knack shines throughout.

Mammoth Penguins - Here [12"/CD]

Artist: Mammoth Penguins
Title: Here
Format: 12” gatefold LP on orange smoke vinyl / digipack CD
Cat#: Fika100
Release date: 3rd May 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Mammoth Penguins are a 3-piece indie powerhouse, showcasing the songwriting and vocal talents of Emma Kupa (Standard Fare) backed up by the noisiest rhythm section in indie pop.

May 2024 sees the release of their fourth album Here on Fika Recordings. After 2019’s big, bold and confident There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win, and the initial shock of the global pandemic cancelling a trip to SXSW in 2020, the band returned to the studio in the summer of 2021 to start recording.

The new record leans into a raw pop-punk power-trio sound more than ever, with a deep growl in layered guitars and bursts of percussion and harmony. The songs and artwork explore themes about finding a place for yourself and familiarity with people and places. Although it turns back towards a classic three-piece sound, the band weren’t restricted by that palette, adding finishing touches of percussion, extra guitars and backing vocals in short bursts in a garden shed, and also bringing in gorgeous strings to sweeten the title track.

The sound builds on the band’s first album, Hide and Seek, which was released with the much-loved and sorely missed Fortuna POP! in 2015. The follow-up LP John Doe in 2017 was an ambitious concept album, exploring the feelings of loss and anger at a man who fakes his own death only to return years later, expanding well beyond the 3-piece rock‘n’roll template, with washes of strings, synths and samples.

The ‘Penguins have been smashing it at some high-profile support slots in the lead up to this album release, including at Allo Darlin’s joyous reunion at Islington Assembly Hall (Oct 2023) and Muncie Girls last ever London show (Dec 2023). They play the Leicester Indiepop all-dayer and Wales Goes Pop in March, before heading out on tour in support of the new album in May.
Those big singalong choruses need your voice shouting back from the crowd with joy and defiance. 

Mammoth Penguins are Emma Kupa (guitar, vocals), Mark Boxall (bass, vocals) and Tom Barden (drums, vocals). Reminiscent of the pop melodies of The Beths, the indie dissonance of Land of Talk, and the guitar forward slacker rock of Weezer, Mammoth Penguins marry heart-ache indiepop with spiky guitars and Emma’s frank confessional songwriting.

Press for There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win

“Standard Fare were never what I’d call twee, they were firmly in the indiepop scene and, even though Mammoth Penguins is a much more twee name, there is more oomph in the performances and arrangements, which makes for a nice mix of brawn, brains and heart. Speaking of, Emma’s heart remains on her sleeve, and her voice — both strong and vulnerable — conveys all the yearning and regret found in her lyrics. And the songs, like “I Wanna” — with its chorus of “I love you, I love you, I love you / Fuck it all, fuck it all, fuck it all” — are eminently relatable earworms.” Brooklyn Vegan

“[Kupa] has an unerring eye for the foibles of modern romance and details the mechanics of love and loss as well as anyone since the Wedding Present's David Gedge, only with a more sensitive touch. There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win is one of the finest examples of simple and true indie rock around” All Music [8/10]

“There Is No Fight We Can't Both Win is another great collection of universally empathetic songs from a great songwriter that really ought to get a hearing beyond the indie world that is its home” Backseat Mafia [8.5/10]

“one of several moments on the album that remind me of their former Fortuna POP! label mate Steven Adams, and where this type of thing is concerned that’s about the highest praise I have to offer anybody. There’s No Fight We Both Can’t Win – smart, melodic, indie pop/punk about the trials of love and friendship, it’s a great record if you like that sort of thing.” Echoes and Dust

“Mammoth Penguins clutch memorable melodies out of seemingly fresh air. They have a very standard guitar, bass, drums set up which lacks somewhat in colour but the simplicity is used to create naggingly familiar hooks” Norman Records [8/10]

“for indie-pop overflowing with heart and replete with an oft-excellent command of melody, There’s No Fight…  delivers in spades” The Soundboard [7/10]

“Mammoth Penguins have come on in leaps and bounds here. This is simply a great album” God Is In The TV [8/10]

“Over the course of this album, Mammoth Penguins again show that they have the ability to create delightful pop music, much in the style as bands like The Pastels - I Wanna and Put It All On You - being prime examples” Even The Stars

“The 11 songs on There’s No Fight We Both Can’t Win revolves around the theme of love and relationships but Mammoth Penguins manage to avoid the album feeling stale. The band accomplish this by writing tunes you can really lose yourself to, lyrics that you can let wash over you and moments that just really engage you” Rush on Rock

“Heartfelt and honest...there's an attitude here that many similar bands are lacking in” Distorted Sound

“While there are some definite pop rocking numbers, my early time with the LP has me falling for “There is So Much More;” it’s a really soft tune, giving the album some diversity so it doesn’t wear on you…not to mention there’s no such thing as a bad Kupa performance” Austin Town Hall

“From the moment I heard Emma Kupa sing ‘I love you, I love you, I love you, fuck it all, fuck it all, fuck it all’ on ‘I Wanna’… I couldn’t help but become a Mammoth Penguins fanboy” Balloon Machine [track by track preview]

“an awesome pop record” One Chord

Alison Eales - Four for a Boy [7"]

Artist: Alison Eales
Title: Four for a Boy
Format: 7” vinyl EP | digital
Cat#: Fika101
Release date: 8th March 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Following the release of her debut solo album Mox Nox last year, Four for a Boy is a four-track EP of songs co-written by Alison Eales and her long-term collaborator Garry Hoggan.

Like its sister record Mox Nox, the EP was recorded and mixed by Paul Savage at Chem 19 studios, mastered by Reuben Taylor, and features artwork by Rhian Nicholas at The Passenger Press – but in a departure from the approach to the album, Four for a Boy keeps its arrangements sparse in order to showcase Hoggan’s gift for melody.

The songs

The lead track is Minuet, a minimalist love song that pits its protagonists against zombies and nanobots and which is accompanied by a lyric video by magician Billy Reid.

Rain Song, with its drip-drip-dripping ukulele and piano, captures the experience of suffering with depression, while the shining autoharp and accordion of The Earliest Blue expresses the hope of recovery. These are also accompanied by an animated lyric video.

The EP closes with Play Along, a plaintive reimagining of the Carpenters’ Superstar.

Alison Eales

Alison is a long-standing member of the band Butcher Boy, playing piano, accordion and other keyboards as well as arranging for choir and brass. She is also a member of Glasgow Madrigirls and has collaborated with bands including The Color Waves (USA), The Very Most (USA), The Just Joans (Glasgow), Featherfin (Norway) and The Powdered Earth (UK).

Her debut solo album Mox Nox was released on Fika Recordings in March 2023.

“Delightful is also one of the apt descriptions for Alison Eales’ Four for a Boy EP, a sweet collection fuelled by ukuleles, accordions and charming vocals. It could be the ideal antidote to tough days.” Snack Mag

“Four songs is all you get and four songs is that you need when you are in the company of Alison Eales. Her eloquent sentimentalism stole my heart a long time ago and I won’t be asking for it back anytime soon. Pure class”. Blues Bunny

“supremely talented” Glasgow Music City

Steven Adams - Drops [12”/CD]

Artist: Steven Adams
Title: Drops
Format: 12” vinyl LP | digipack CD
Cat#: Fika098LP | Fika098CD
Release date: 10th November 2023
Bandcamp | Spotify

“A national musical treasure" The Guardian

Steven Adams, formerly of The Broken Family Band releases new album DROPS on Fika Recordings in November 2023.

Since calling time on TBFB at the height of their success, Adams has released half a dozen albums under various names (Singing Adams, Steven James Adams, Steven Adams & The French Drops), his witty, incisive lyrics and melodic sensibilities taking in DIY indie rock, folky introspection, and off-kilter pop hooks. 

Originally from South Wales, Adams now lives in East London.

“Every record I’ve made has been in a hurry of some sort” says Adams of his new album, “and with this one I took my time”. DROPS is the first album to be credited to him as a solo artist since 2016’s Old Magick, his first new music since 2020, and his noisiest record to date.

Armed with a new batch of material, he began by upping sticks to the Welsh countryside to experiment with drummer Daniel Fordham and bassist David Stewart - both formerly of psych oddballs The Drink. The trio then took the songs to Big Jelly, a converted chapel on the south coast, with co-producer Simon Trought (Comet Gain, Johnny Flynn, The Wave Pictures) to lay down the basic tracks for DROPS.

Eschewing a full band set up (“I wanted to concentrate on one thing at a time”), recording sessions in East London followed with Laurie Earle (Absentee) on guitar and Michael Wood (Hayman Kupa Band, Michaelmas) on keyboards.

Adams then took the recordings home and to the French countryside, to work alone.“I finally got my head around home recording in 2020, while things were a bit quiet. Once I worked out how to record things I realised I didn’t have to think about time. I could let the songs evolve and change once we had the basic tracks down. After a while I started to think of them as paintings; trying something one morning, painting over it in the afternoon and attempting something completely different… it was about enjoying the process, making some bangers, playing around... and giving Simon the producer a mess to sort out when it came to mixing the record". Whenever Tom from Fika Recordings checked in to see how the album was progressing Adams would reply, “it’s taking ages but it’ll sound like it was recorded in an afternoon”.

The result is a dynamic and spirited collection of songs, with Adams's love of 90/00s US underground rock (Pavement's Bob Nastanovich is a fan) to the fore.

DROPS is a sonically compelling piece of work: from bleak/exultant opener Out to Sea and the motorik Living in the Local Void to the weirdly funereal Fascists (where Adams imagines the “little skip in our steps” that we’ll have upon outliving some baddies), and Day Trip's psychedelia in miniature. There are also moments of tenderness: the avalanche of empathy on closing track Cheap Wine Sad Face, and I Tried to Keep it Light’s “worse things could happen… I don’t know how, but give me time”.

Adams says: “I'm preoccupied by the passing of time and the way it affects how we feel. This record is about time and bewilderment and trying to make sense of things".

Press for Drops:

“characteristically compelling” Uncut

“instant melodies, Adams’ intimate voice and observational lyrics… urban Britain has generated its very own equivalent of Stephen Malkmus” Mojo

“wry, heartfelt indie-pop that should resonate with anyone who enjoys sympathy in their music” Record Collector

“Adams has delivered his most satisfying album since the heady days of the Broken Family Band… clever, funny, inviting” Americana UK

“Drops still demonstrates Adams’ facility for social observation, gorgeous melodies, verbal dexterity and wordplay – with some trenchant social and political themes thrown in for good measure” Folk Radio

“Among the highpoints are opener Moderation, with some fine reverb guitar and the classic New Wave sounding Heads Keep Rolling” Neon Filler

“your favorite parts of modern indiepop sounds fused with the fuzzy pop of greats like Grandaddy” Austin Town Hall

“a spirited and witty collection of spontaneous sounding indie” Norman Records

Stanley Brinks - Good Moon [12"]

Artist: Stanley Brinks
Title: Good Moon
Format: 12" album on opaque moon coloured vinyl
Cat#: Fika096LP
Release date: 20th October 2023
Bandcamp

The prodigiously prolific Stanley Brinks’ (f.k.a. André Herman Dune) latest solo album Good Moon is a collection of love songs, of drinking songs, caught in the dusk as the sun retreats and the moon takes centre stage.

The good moon comes after the full moon, when everything comes down and you can finally get some work done - be it building a house, or a boat, or recording an album…
It's the most achieved album Stanley Brinks ever made.

Good Moon follows a series of acclaimed albums with The Wave Pictures, a pair of folk shanty and old-time calypso albums alongside Norway’s The Kaniks, and is scheduled for release shortly after another new record from Stanley, Iron Eye, this time alongside longtime collaborator and touring-partner Clemence Freschard.

Freschard appears on drums throughout Good Moon, with backing vocals from guests including anti-folk legend Jeffrey Lewis, The Burning Hell’s Mathias Kom, The Moldy Peaches’ Toby Goodshank and Maltese multimedia artist Alexandra Aquilina.

Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. 

Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne. Several albums and Peel sessions  later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks. Under this moniker he has recorded more than 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on several occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.  

Freschard & Stanley Brinks - Iron Eye [12"]

Artist: Freschard & Stanley Brinks
Title: Iron Eye
Format: 12" album on transparent red vinyl
Cat#: Fika097LP
Release date: 6th October 2023
Bandcamp

Iron Eye is an irresistibly charming collection of late night tales, woozy ballads and uptempo sing-alongs. Clemence Freschard’s beautiful vocal tones lend this a rich, French indiepop/chanteuse vibe, complemented by Stanley’s wistful timbre and characteristic warm instrumentation. Iron Eye follows a succession of collaborative albums in Lion Heart, Tequila Island and Pizza Espresso in recent years.

In West Africa, where the only water you can find is in the Ocean, Stanley Brinks & Freschard put on their best carnival costumes to get to the bottom of every bottle of rum they could find. 
They found a lot.

Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York.

By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne alongside his brother, David-Ivar. Several albums and Peel sessions later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks.

Under this moniker he has recorded well in excess of 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on numerous occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.

Freschard grew up in a farm in French Burgundy. Aged 18 she moved to Paris, where she baked pies and cakes in a cafe. There, a local musician and regular customer called Stanley Brinks wrote a few songs for her to sing. Homeless in Paris, she saved up just enough money to get herself a ticket to New York. There she found an old electric guitar and started writing her own songs. In 2004 she moved to Berlin, where she recorded her first LP, "Alien Duck". Her second album, "Click Click", recorded in 2006, features electric guitar by Stanley Brinks. On her third album, she plays the drums herself. On her fourth “Shh...” she also plays the flute, and she breaks out the washboard on her fifth “Boom Biddy Boom”.

The Ballet - Daddy Issues [12"]

Artist: The Ballet
Title: Daddy Issues
Format: 12” LP on transparent vinyl
Cat#: Fika095LP
Release date: 26th May 2023
Bandcamp | Spotify

“The amiable embrace of ambivalence distinguishes Greg Goldberg and Craig Willse’s output as the Ballet from the work of their funny musical uncles, like the Magnetic Fields’ implacably ironic Stephin Merritt, the Hidden Cameras’ riot auteur Joel Gibb, even fairy godfathers Pet Shop Boys.”  Pitchfork [7.6]

Formed in 2005 by Greg Goldberg and Craig Willse, The Ballet marry wry poeticism with pop romanticism and a queer DIY ethos to create literate, infectious pop gems. The band self-released their first two albums: ​Mattachine! ​(2006) ​and Bear Life​ (2009). These records caught the attention of indie-label-legends Fortuna Pop!, who released their third album, ​I Blame Society,​ in 2013. After FortunaPop! closed shop, The Ballet partnered with Fika Recordings, who released their fourth album, the critically acclaimed Matchy Matchy, in 2019.

The Ballet have been joined by a few other musicians over the years including Ginger Brooks Takahashi and Michael O'Neill, who left in 2007 to join JD Sampson in MEN, as well as guest appearances on previous albums from Linton of The Aislers Set, Ramesh from Voxtrot, Scott Matthew, and Kaki King. 

In addition to citing Stephin Merritt as a formative influence, Goldberg—who writes and home-records all of the band’s songs—draws from an array of pop artists and periods; from 60’s bubblegum to 80’s synthpop and 90’s indiepop, fusing these genres in sophisticated and novel ways. 

On the Ballet’s new album, Daddy Issues, listeners may spot musical nods to the Velvet Underground, Frankie and Annette, Squeeze, Billy Idol, Lenny Kravitz, the Gothic Archies, Belle and Sebastian, and New Order, among others. Goldberg gravitates towards upbeat tempos, major keys, and basic chords, using these restrictions to craft simple, catchy melodies while also layering instruments in a way that keeps the ear engaged and rewards repeat listening.

The relatively light and smooth sound of Daddy Issues sets the tone for Goldberg’s unorthodox approach to his subject matter. As with previous Ballet albums, Daddy Issues offers a detail-rich examination of contemporary queer life, with a particular focus on the stigmatised desires, pleasures, and relations of gay men. Many queer artists have responded defensively to stigmatisation by asserting the political or psychological value of queer sex. Goldberg’s approach is different. Rather than defending queer sex, he aims to capture some of its complexity and nuance.

On Daddy Issues, Goldberg’s songs describe the appeal but also the challenges of promiscuity and non-monogamy (“Eenie Meenie,” “Two Boyfriends”). His songs find humour in the mundane “dangers” of queer life (“I’m on Drugs,” “At the Bathhouse”) and in the queer juxtaposition of perversion and gentleness (“Daddy’s Boy,” “CumDumpMike”). 

An extramarital affair is treated with the levity of a teenage crush, and masculinity is characterised as both hot and somewhat tedious (“A Married Man”). The narrators of Goldberg’s songs are hedonists who go dancing all night, use illicit substances, and have anonymous, public sex, but they also express loneliness, regret, melancholy, and self-loathing (“Since You’ve Been Gone,” “The Fountain of Youth,” “I Don’t Feel Like Dancing”). To use such negative feelings to stigmatise gayness is homophobic, but so is denying their existence. Daddy Issues avoids both these pitfalls, instead capturing the co-existence of ecstasy and agony with humour, tenderness, and a lack of judgment.

The album’s title references a popular psychological diagnosis for people who are supposedly looking for surrogate fathers in their sexual or romantic partners, but it also suggests the issues of so-called daddies (older gay men). Rather than offering an ethnographic or autobiographical account of what it’s like to be a daddy, Daddy Issues offers a meditation on the role of daddy, inviting listeners to imagine themselves in relation to it in various ways, while also questioning its coherence and stability. 

After all, nobody is born a daddy; it is something one becomes (or doesn’t become), feels like (or doesn’t feel like), and is seen as (or isn’t seen as), if only for the duration of an album.

Alison Eales - Mox Nox [12"]

Artist: Alison Eales
Title: Mox Nox
Format: 12” vinyl LP
Cat#: Fika094LP
Release date: 24th March 2023
Bandcamp | Spotify

Alison Eales is a long-standing member of the band Butcher Boy, playing piano, accordion and other keyboards as well as arranging for choir and brass. The band have made three studio albums: Profit in Your Poetry (2007), React or Die (2009) and Helping Hands (2011). All of these albums have been well-received, with React or Die featuring in The Times’ top 100 pop albums of the 2000s. The band have also released two EPs. A compilation album, You Had A Kind Face, was released on Needle Mythology in 2022, along with three new songs, with tracks mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road. Butcher Boy have supported bands including Belle and Sebastian, Scritti Politti and The Wedding Present.

Taking inspiration from sundial mottos, Mox Nox is an album about the passing of time – most specifically, the transition from day to night. Its twelve songs explore experiences of all-nighters, anxiety, travel, frustration, and friendship. The album combines acoustic and electronic instrumentation with samples of environmental sound, resulting in an indie pop record that is by turns playful and melancholy and that is likely to appeal to fans of Saint Etienne, The Magnetic Fields, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stereolab, Jake Thackray and Kirsty MacColl.

With support from Creative Scotland, the album was produced by Paul Savage at Chem 19 studios. Cover artwork was designed by Rhian Nicholas at The Passenger Press in Glasgow, using a mix of traditional printmaking techniques. The design represents a sundial and was inspired by the cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, with its stylised Doomsday Clock.

Opening the album with shimmering wine glasses and dulcimer, Rapunzel is the oldest of the songs. It expresses the frustration of feeling isolated and not fully engaging with life. This theme is continued in the second track: Ever Forward is a lyric about being trapped in a dilapidated seaside town as the seasons change, delivered over a string quartet expertly arranged and recorded by Pete Harvey (Pumpkinfield).

Originally conceived as a song about falling in love for the first time, The Broken Song eventually transpired to be a song about the onset of anxiety. The approach to writing this song was unique on the album – it was left deliberately unfinished to create room for experimentation in the studio. Track four, Shadow Blister, is also unique, as the lyric was the result of a challenge to use as many sundial mottos in one song as possible. Negligence is possibly the most personal song on the album.

Closing Side A, the single Fifty-Five North has parallels with Ever Forward, but while both songs are about struggling with the change of the seasons, this song is rooted firmly in Glasgow and expresses how a place can be both transformative and overwhelming. The song features sounds sampled from the Glasgow Subway, with a rhythm track made from the sounds of the train doors closing, and a melody made from the ping of the turnstiles.

Side B opens with Through Hoops, a song about the tensions inherent in friendships between people who are almost too alike. Upbeat and energetic, the song features flute improvised by Diljeet Kaur Bhachu (Kapil Seshasayee). By contrast, Half-French Kiss is a tiny, atmospheric song built around a chromatic music box and bowed cymbal. A Natural History of California was inspired by a single line of cello played by Maya Burman-Roy (James Grant, Idlewild) and images of San Francisco by night.

Mox Nox, like Shadow Blister, is a lyric built around sundial mottos, including the title itself (‘Night, shortly’). Opening with glockenspiel played by Joanne Murtagh (Remember Remember) it builds one instrument at a time, featuring strings, flute, autoharp, dulcimer and kalimba.

A song about walking away from outgrown friendships, Goodbye features guitar played by Basil Pieroni (Butcher Boy), a musical callback to Rapunzel, and an improvised robot choir. The album closes with Come Home With Me, a lyrical counterpoint to Rapunzel with a manic musical setting. 

“It’s a thing of beauty, this record. To do her justice, I won’t compare her to individual artists, but speak (write!) of a sonic palette that binds electronica, chamber pop and folk with gorgeous indie pop, most importantly with the songs to develop all the wonderful ideas going on here” God Is In The TV

Darren Hayman - You Will Not Die [double 12"/double CD]

Artist: Darren Hayman
Title: You Will Not Die
Format: Double 12” black gatefold vinyl and double digipack CD
Cat#: Fika089LP | Fika089CD
Release date: 4th November 2022
Bandcamp | Spotify

Following a stream of thematic and conceptual albums over the last 15 years Darren Hayman has recently returned to a more introspective, personal kind of music. Darren received critical praise, awards and government grants for albums about the witch trials in the English Civil War; the mid 20th-century boom in new towns; forgotten rural communities; and the political writings of William Morris.

“You Will Not Die is about relationships of all kinds beginning and ending, but it's also about our interior lives and how we process change as we get older. I was thinking about mortality and the temporariness of everything but also thinking of that fragility as a very beautiful thing to try and put into music."

"I think of this record as taking place at night, in contrast to the daytime setting of Home Time. This is an album about empty dance floors, lacklustre parties and lonely night buses home." The record is entirely electronic and recorded on Darren's collection of '70s synthesisers. "These instruments themselves are very fragile and mortal, they corrode and decay and behave in erratic ways. They do however, remain alive, for now."

Darren is the only musician on the album and the music conforms to a strict set of self-imposed rules; only one voice, only 12 tracks, only one polyphonic instrument. ¨Through this control and limited palette I found new melodies and structures. I wanted these old machines to guide me towards my most human record.¨

'A Real Human Being' is inspired by Darren's experience of life drawing. "Modern life encourages us to reduce people to images, jokes, memes. In life drawing, you're treating the person as a form, watching where the light and shadows fall, and then you're reminded that they are real, alive."

In 'No Lime for the Gin', a group of old friends is reunited in middle age, holding a half-hearted party where the talk is dominated by their hopes and broken dreams. 'Turn My Grey Tick Blue' is a wry look at the anxieties of dating in the digital age.

'You Were Always Here' ends the album on an optimistic note. Finding love late in life, the narrator ruminates on how the bad things happened for a reason, and that perhaps we always end up where we're supposed to be.

"In recent years my life has had its own upheavals and it would seem weird not to have this emerge in my music," says Darren. Home Time (2020) was a bright, acoustic, set of songs but was, at its heart, a break-up album. "I wanted to make fun of myself and of this kind of record."

You Will Not Die is a much slower and more brooding voyage through similar waters. It is a seductive, soulful collection of songs and instrumentals that sits among Darren's most emotive and intelligent work.

“bold and unique" The Sunday Times
“Hayman has hit a creative purple patch… a treat” Mojo
“uniquely intimate and very satisfying”  - BBC

Press for You Will Not Die

“a meditative conversation with oneself, ruminating over various aspects of growing older, amorous connections taking various courses, and the two ideas being somewhat dependent on each other. Kudos to Hayman for letting this discourse take its natural course, rather than frontload the album with its catchiest songs (many of which come towards its end, with the placement reflecting a certain positivity, obtained through such contemplation)” The Quietus

“it sees Hayman at his most withdrawn and introspective, uncovering new truths hidden in well-worn themes. This is something to be celebrated: when a songwriter of Hayman’s skill turns the spotlight back on himself – and in doing so, creates a new world in miniature scale – it’s worth taking note” Folk Radio

“Sonically, Hayman has achieved some really engaging, electronic, synth-based pieces. From the ominous, bass-heavy We Are Repaired, to the bouncy and bright Don’t Haunt Me, there are plenty of little great moments.” NARC

Snack Mag interview with Darren

Biography

Best known as the singer-songwriter of the phenomenally successful and much-loved Hefner, Darren Hayman is now 15 years, and over 14 albums, into an increasingly idiosyncratic career path, where he has taken a singular and erratic route through England’s tired and heartbroken underbelly. Darren is also writing the best tunes of his career; increasingly complex and mature songs, he is a thoughtful, concise and detailed songwriter.

Hayman’s first two solo albums, Table For One (2006) and The Secondary Modern (2007), charmed the critics – with The Guardian opining that Hayman’s profoundly English songwriting was “the match of Ray Davies”. Mostly joined by his band The Secondary Modern – a loose, urban folk collective, underpinning Hayman’s concrete sorrow with rural violins and tired pianos – he has released a series of albums, largely focused on place. This allowed for the exploration of nuanced subjects in detail, with a trio of albums based in Essex (2009’s Pram Town and 2010’s Essex Arms) and culminating in 2012’s The Violence, a 20 song account of the 17th century Essex witch trials. From this he developed an album of English Civil War folk songs of the time (2013’s Bugbears) and stayed with the historical theme for Chants For Socialists, which saw him set William Morris’ words to music, creating an album of kindness and hope that brought Hayman’s most critical acclaim yet. 

In 2016 Darren was awarded ‘Hardest Working Musician’ by the Association of Independent Music for his epic project on Thankful Villages, the 55 villages that survived the Great War with no casualties. 12 Astronauts tells the personal story of the only men to have walked on the Moon.

adults - for everything, always [12"]

Artist: adults
Title: for everything, always
Format: 12” pink vinyl album & digital
Cat#: Fika093LP
Release date: 14th October 2022
Bandcamp | Spotify

Combining elements of indie-pop, punk, emo and just a little bit of 2009 vintage math-rock for good measure, adults are four pals trying to find their way in a disintegrating world. for everything, always reflects on how we look after ourselves, one another and people in our community; it’s a riotous collision reminiscent of Johnny Foreigner, The Beths or Trust Fund, bursting with crunching guitars, speedy drums and yelping dual vocals.

The first single all we’ve got // all we need is a song about individual torments: “having a breakdown on the Megabus to Bristol", and about collective support: “mutual aid, building strong networks of community resistance to the hostile environment, to food insecurity, to the homophobia and transphobia by the state and about trying to look after one another”.

the secret song to end side one deals with loss, guilt, rejection and anxiety, exploring the travails of a messy breakup and the masculine urge to bury everything deep down despite the fact that that only hurts people more.

tfl has a lot to answer for is a “reflection of drinking way too much in yr mid 20s, staying up too late, burning yrself out and how it impacts on yr relationships and mental health”.

Recorded and produced by Rich Mandell (Happy Accidents, ME REX) over a couple of weekends in the summer of 2021, for everything, always is the constantly naive, but optimistic, outlook: always striving for a better future in the face of modern society’s bullshit.

adults are a noisy pop band desperately clinging on to the ghosts of 2009. 
Their songs are a silly, joyful, and occasionally sad, look back at the tail end of their 20s, a way to grapple with breakups, parties, alcohol and loneliness, and looking hopefully into the future.
They’ve released singles with Art Is Hard and For The Sakes Of Tapes, and self released an EP (The Weekend Was Always Almost Over), which was subsequently released on vinyl by Caballito records. adults are based in south London.

Faster, messier and sillier than they have any right to be, adults are hopeful and joyous, fighting through the existential angst of youth to try and find their place in a world on the brink, as grown ups, as adults. Like the octopus on the artwork says: “we're all we've got, we're all we need”.

adults are
carl (he/they) - bass
joe (he/him) - drums
joely (she/they) - guitar and singing
tom (he/him) - guitar, synth, singing

https://linktr.ee/sclubadults

* * *

the sad and sorry state of a band in the last throes of their twenties.

no one told us at fourteen that playing music would be like this. the late night load ins, scheduling annual leave to squeeze out fourteen songs spread out over fourteen days.

the news had only just reached us. dancing and laughing with the ppl we love remains everything even when we knew it was time to pick up our shoes and leave. i can still see yr smile coming and feel mine forming. and the weekend was always almost over. 
and its funny. and its all so reductive. and none of this counts until the boredom is tangible.
either way 
find comfort in that
there is always a better way to do this
the list will complete you first

for everything, always

p.s. i had a little snooze and now i will probably never arrive at yr house.

adults xoxox

“Propelled by their trademark jangling melodies and buoyant scuzzy energy, ‘things we achieve‘ reflects on the pressures of living in a Capitalist society as honey-sweet vocals interweave between whirring hooks. Showcasing adults’ ability to juxtapose poignant subject matter with an irresistibly blissful, catchy musicality, this latest single offers a slice of gloriously fizzing indie-pop that’ll both uplift and inspire” Get In Her Ears

“Clocking in at barely two minutes, the track is a belt-along blast even by Adults’ high standards, yet like so many of the best seemingly chaotic bops, beneath the clatter, there’s plenty to say. Joely and Tom share vocal duties, yelping out their frustrations at both a lack of progress and having to exist in a world that constantly demands it” For The Rabbits

“A little roll in, a nice shouted sample, then the band rushes off, running full spring through this spirited burst of pop rock. You’ve settled into the joyous nature, then the 1:37 marker hits and the song turns, hitting even more furiously as it chases down that finish line, though still keeping that melody bobbing” Austin Town Hall

“Short, sharp and spiky, there’s a touch of Johnny Foreigner in the rapid-fire vocal delivery while the jangle-pop sound is reminiscent of the underground legends Bearsuit or the much-missed Spook School at their sweetest” Spectral Nights

“their jangle rock being punctuated by a sense of leftfield, that emanates from an incessant noise-pop energy and unrelenting vocal delivery, as they race through a world of issues” Jangle Pop Hub