Fika Recordings
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Visit product page →10' vinyl EP with digital download code. Transitions, as well as being the transition between the band's debut and sophomore LPs, is transitional in theme, making changes, starting over and reacting against changes out of your own control.
The EP also demonstrates a transition in the band's sound, introducing sonic explorations from the kraut rock grooves of Ra to the duelling saxophones of Chaos Theory, as well as showing a more confident approach to song writing from both Hubley and Nelson.
This gives glimpses of what they have in store with the second LP to be released in 2017. Simon Nelson and Alice Hubley met on the London Underground after a Stereo Totale gig in 2009. Two days later Simon was round Alice's house unblocking her kitchen drain. Since then Simon has been round and put up two curtain rails, a blind and a shelf. This unlikely meeting, got them talking and once the DIY was done they started making music together, fusing metronomic pop sensibilities, 60's grooves and krautrock noise. What you maybe would get if you mix New Order, United States of America and Stereolab.
As a band they are constantly trying to find the perfect meeting point between clean synths and fuzz guitars. The band's line up was completed by Alice's old Loves bandmates Daniel Chapman and The Late Jonny Drums and A Smile and A Ribbon's Kajsa Tretow. Jonny realised that he was always late because he was on Chinese time, so packed his bags and headed to the country on a quest to finally be on time. He has subsequently been replaced by the punctual Matt Harms.
The band played their first show in April 2012, and since then have played shows with Laetitia Sadier, Comet Gain and Seapony as well the Indietracks Festival. The band's debut album was released in 2014 receiving favourable reviews in The Quietus and The Sunday Times and plays on 6 Music.'a cool and mannered (but not overmannered) exploration of a musical world bordered by Stereolab, Blondie, Saint Etienne, Belle and Sebastian and a band your mates formed at school that you wish you were in' The Sunday Times
'Cosines have found the magic formula that indie pop has been dreaming of - a winning combination of Pulp and Belle & Sebastian, seasoned with swathes of Stereolab. Refreshingly offering none of the dreaded 'twee' associated with that genre, Cosines have a big sense of melody they're not afraid to both use and play with, the same going for their sonic palette of guitars and spacey synths.' The Quietus
'Throughout Oscillations'interlocking synth and guitar lines recall Stereolab and Parallel Lines'-era Blondie in equal measure, although not with quite such uncanny force as lead-singer Alice Hubley's airy vocals.' Loud and Quiet.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Let's Start It Over
2. Ra
Side B:
1. Dunbar
2. Chaos Theory -
Visit product page →An album of songs from the English Civil Wars and seventeenth century to accompany 'The Violence'.
Tracklisting:
1. Martin Said2. Bugbears3. Sir Thomas Fairfax March4. Seven Months Married5. Hey Then Up We Go6. The Owl7. The Contented8. Impossibilities9. Babylon Has Fallen10. I Live Not Where I Love11. Bold Astrolger12. Old England Grown New13. When The King Enjoys His Own Again -
Blue vinyl LP in gatefold sleeve, includes bonus download of two track single 'Too Much Women'.Visit product page →
Following the albums Gin and My Ass recorded with The Wave Pictures in un-gentrified East London, Stanley Brinks (aka André Herman Dune) returns with a new collaborative album, this time with the Norwegian folk collective The Kaniks as his backing band. Eschewing a traditional recording studio, André took The Kaniks to a remote island outside the small town of Egersund in south west Norway.
Over the course of week of midnight sun, midnight swims and midnight beers on their isolated rocky island, living and recording in the only building on the island, the (now unmanned) mid 19th century Vibberodden lighthouse, Stanley Brinks and The Kaniks recorded three albums of material; Turtle Dove is the first of those three to be released. Brinks is renowned for his unique antifolk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. His fondness for calypso and the unusual provide the perfect foil to The Kaniks', whose folk instrumentation and country and bluegrass influences take these 12 songs to a joyous place Brinks hasn't been before in his extensive back catalogue. Stanley 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.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Turtle Dove
2. Say Goodbye
3. I Spread My Wings
4. One More Day
5. This World
6. Day In Day Out
Side B:
1. Slow Peace
2. Come Come Springtime
3. Between Me And The Future
4. Stronger Than Wine
5. Zombie Taboo
6. And The Violin -
Heavyweight black vinyl LP with download code. Digifile CD.Visit product page →
When Darren Hayman (Hefner) and Emma Kupa (Standard Fare/Mammoth Penguins) decided to make a duets record, we knew the results would be great, but we didn't expect them to be THIS great.
Gathering together a rhythm section consisting of Michael Wood (Whoa Melodic/Singing Adams) on bass and Cat Loye (Fever Dream) on drums, The Hayman Kupa Band create brash, bold and effortlessly melodic power pop. Sharing writing duties and sometimes singing each others words, lines are blurred and creativity explored in a wonderfully exuberant collection of songs. The album, recorded in 3 days, is an exploration of relationships and, at its heart, it's the sound of a friendship being made.
Darren explains further: It's only happened a few times but just once or twice I have seen someone on stage and thought, 'I want to be in a band with them.' But I thought it the first time I saw Emma playing with her magnificent and under-rated band Standard Fare. I met her properly a little later in Sheffield when we played together. Before the gig I said I was suspicious of bands that wore hats. She wore a hat on stage.
They say imitation is a form of flattery and I was glad that I noticed when I wrote the song 'Boy, Look at What you Can't Have Now' that it sounded like the sort of thing Emma might write. I covered up my theft by asking her to sing on it. When we were recording the song I suggested that we should write a whole album of duets. Musicians suggest things like this all the time because they are stupid or drunk. A few months later Emma told me she had started writing the album.
This is what Emma does; she says something then does it. I race to play catch up. The songs were written over 3 weekends at her house and mine. Co-writing is something I'm not used to. It's very intimate and me and Emma became friends through the process. Emma's lyrics are sharp and precise whereas mine are more metaphoric. We talked about relationships and that's what the album is about. It's about our fears and paranoias and the search for trust and love. We deliberately swapped lines and genders so the narrative is never truly that of traditional duets.
We wanted a band to make the album and chose Michael Wood and Cat Loye. We never considered anyone else. They brought a brash, bold sound to the songs and we rehearsed twice and then recorded. I was thinking about the Beatles and very early 1960s pop records.
We recorded everything live including the vocals with only a handful of overdubs. We recorded it two and a half years ago and it has remind locked like a time capsule whilst me and Emma released five other albums. I like this album a lot. It's the sound of a friendship being made.
Tracklisting:
Side A:
1. Let's Do Nothing
2. No More Bombs
3. Red Petal
4. Over's Now Overdue
5. We Can Get By
6. Do You Know
Side B:
7. A Tent of Blankets
8. Draw the Line
9. My Right Arm
10. Pretty Waste of Time
11. Reach Out
12. Then We Kissed
