FFO: Beck, Daniel Johnston, Courtney Barnett, Darwin Deez, Jeffrey Lewis, The Velvet Underground, Magnetic Fields

Album preorder: https://maxblansjaar.bandcamp.com/album/false-comforts

Anna Madonna is the first single from Max’s début album “False Comforts” (21 June 2024).

“It’s not easy out there. It hurts! Sometimes you want to lash out, renounce all ties, retreat into yourself. Trust nobody; pull the plug on them all. ‘Anna Madonna’ is a manifesto to say that we stay standing by holding each other through the storm. There is no cosmic conspiracy, no grand plan — frightening, tiresome, but above all a reminder to hold on to what we have. I wrote the words on a Post-It note which I stuck to my bedside table and left there until a melody appeared. It is best sung in front of mirrors and on school playgrounds.”

Max Blansjaar was born in Amsterdam, raised in Oxford and recorded this début album in Brooklyn. He appeared on the Oxford scene in 2018, aged 15, promoting shows in all-ages venues and performing his playfully sincere lo-fi indie pop songs. Since then he has released two EPs of laptop recordings on Beanie Tapes and become a fixture of the local scene, packing out pub back rooms and festival tents.

For his first full-length album, Max wanted to work with a producer to expand his sonic horizons. The shortlist of dream collaborators was quickly narrowed down to one: Katie Von Schleicher, whose self-produced 2020 album Consummation was on repeat on Max’s iPod. KVS had started producing other bands alongside Market’s Nate Mendelsohn, and they felt like the perfect combination to help make magic from Max’s elaborate and musically intricate demos.

Max spent two weeks in KVS’ home studio in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, working with Katie, Nate and friends who dropped in to lay down bass and drums. In ten intense days they captured ten songs that feel somehow grounded in Brooklyn, Oxford, Amsterdam or somewhere in between.


Max Blansjaar - Anna Madonna

“A refrigerator full of waving banners loses power and the temperature starts to rise.” — SMALLALBUMS

Premium Leisure’s Chris Barker – singer songwriter, musician, producer and engineer – has a very clear idea of what he wants his sound to be. A gifted guitarist and songwriter, he honed Premium Leisure’s sound in his home studio in suburban Oxfordshire where he and his bandmates grew up. His attention to detail and obsession with vintage equipment and analogue recording techniques give the sound an authenticity that’s more fitting to 1968 than 2018. The mix of experimental guitars and undulating rhythms are reminiscent of late 60s English psychedelic rock with a bit of early Tame Impala or White Denim thrown in. But really the vibe is wonderfully, refreshingly distinct. It’s pure Premium Leisure. 

The EPs opening track “Water Pistol” is a show stopping song about narrow minds and recklessness in small towns. There’s a pounding, sometimes menacing beat leading you through a neighbourhood of foolish small-time crooks who think they are hard with their water pistols but really all they do is make their mothers cry. At nearly six minutes long with overdriven, fuzz guitar solos culminating in a cacophony of distortion and feedback, “Water Pistol” has all the ingredients of a toe tapping, hip thrusting, epic psychedelic rock track. 

Premium Leisure’s songs comment on the contradictions and irony of everyday life. “Gold Tunes” has Chris’ characteristic guitar groove, a bluesy rock track about the deeply felt, beautiful experience of hearing songs that have been lovingly and thoughtfully crafted versus the mass market, meaningless expressions we often hear. It’s light and upbeat with a message to never lose direction when seeking enjoyment. This theme is continued on “Daydream Drive” a mellower, Beatles-esque track about a simple man who’s living safe. He’s not directed by the moon or the stars, the spiritual or the romantic; life’s riches. He admirably guards against having “no time to kill and calls coming out his ears,” but he’s a man starved of his inner Mozart or Mondrian. But hey, maybe he doesn’t know he’s hungry, maybe he is happy sleeping on Daydream Drive? 

Premium Leisure’s songs are twenty-four carat, they direct you to that exciting, indefinable place where great art thrills. With just one listen you are taking notice, your body moves and your soul swells; these are the “Gold Tunes”. 

Oxfordshire has certainly spawned a band of immense integrity and talent. What a treat to get them on tape.

“Water Pistol has the same silky guitars, crisp rhythms and smooth falsettos of the best of psychedelic rock.” — Born Music

Plug The Leads In

Pre-order the EP

PREMIUM LEISURE - Water Pistol

Premium Leisure’s Chris Barker – singer songwriter, musician, producer and engineer – has a very clear idea of what he wants his sound to be. A gifted guitarist and songwriter, he honed Premium Leisure’s sound in his home studio in suburban Oxfordshire where he and his bandmates grew up. His attention to detail and obsession with vintage equipment and analogue recording techniques give the sound an authenticity that’s more fitting to 1968 than 2018. The mix of experimental guitars and undulating rhythms are reminiscent of late 60s English psychedelic rock with a bit of early Tame Impala or White Denim thrown in. But really the vibe is wonderfully, refreshingly distinct. It’s pure Premium Leisure.

The EPs opening track “Water Pistol” is a show stopping song about narrow minds and recklessness in small towns. There’s a pounding, sometimes menacing beat leading you through a neighbourhood of foolish small-time crooks who think they are hard with their water pistols but really all they do is make their mothers cry. At nearly six minutes long with overdriven, fuzz guitar solos culminating in a cacophony of distortion and feedback, “Water Pistol” has all the ingredients of a toe tapping, hip thrusting, epic psychedelic rock track.

Premium Leisure’s songs comment on the contradictions and irony of everyday life. “Gold Tunes” has Chris’ characteristic guitar groove, a bluesy rock track about the deeply felt, beautiful experience of hearing songs that have been lovingly and thoughtfully crafted versus the mass market, meaningless expressions we often hear. It’s light and upbeat with a message to never lose direction when seeking enjoyment. This theme is continued on “Daydream Drive” a mellower, Beatles-esque track about a simple man who’s living safe. He’s not directed by the moon or the stars, the spiritual or the romantic; life’s riches. He admirably guards against having “no time to kill and calls coming out his ears,” but he’s a man starved of his inner Mozart or Mondrian. But hey, maybe he doesn’t know he’s hungry, maybe he is happy sleeping on Daydream Drive?

Premium Leisure’s songs are twenty-four carat, they direct you to that exciting, indefinable place where great art thrills. With just one listen you are taking notice, your body moves and your soul swells; these are the “Gold Tunes”.

Oxfordshire has certainly spawned a band of immense integrity and talent. What a treat to get them on tape.

PREMIUM LEISURE - Water Pistol (Radio Edit)

We’re excited to announce the return of Oxford electro-pop band Candy Says with a new EP “You Are Beautiful; We Are All Beautiful”, to be released 7 June 2019 on cassette and digital. The band released the EP offline in November 2018, selling it exclusively on cassette at gigs as a protest against streaming culture and to reward the fans who turn up to support live music. The first two limited edition cassette runs sold out in two weeks. The new online version (and the third edition of the cassette) includes an extra track “Beautiful Feeling”, which was penned for the recent Netflix film Close and reached the Top 100 in the international Shazam charts.

The first track to be released is Gravity, a sultry pop tune whose bold beats and vintage synths have drawn comparisons to Christine & the Queens, Art School Girlfriend and The Knife. Julia Walker (singer/guitarist/songwriter) explains: “I was feeling empty and trying to find a connection with myself and my relationship. I desperately wanted to write an upbeat song but I’m coming to realise that I have a melancholy inside that I can’t seem to suppress not matter how hard I try.”

Nightshift Magazine reviewed the rare first edition of the tape: “There’s something a little magical about Candy Says’ simplicity, the playful trinketry of the instrumentation and the way it leaves Julia so much space to add the heart and soul to the machinery behind her, the aching humanity amid the efficient factory skitter.” Julia puts it a little differently: “I wanted the sharp electro pop beats and sounds to reflect my outer strength, the strong mechanical machinery that gets us all through the day and the lyrics to reflect my deep unease with how I feel.”

Candy Says recently recruited drummer Silke Blansjaar of Oxford indie punk favourites Self Help and are on tour with the new 3-piece line-up. Despite the melancholy lyrics, the Candy Says live show is somehow always uplifting. Nightshift again: “It’s like they’re on a mission to brighten up the entire world, one infectious slice of pop at a time.”

The EP will be available to pre-order on Bandcamp from 12 April 2019.

You Are Beautiful; We Are All Beautiful

Candy Says - Gravity

Jack Goldstein, the charismatic frontperson of the short-lived psychedelic pop band Fixers is releasing his new album on Beanie Tapes, and the first track “Dungeness” is a joyous celebration of life and love; a collage of beats, samples, lo-fi synths and banjo written about a local coastal nature reserve near Goldstein’s new Margate home.

The album, entitled “Love: the Answer to the Problem of Human Existence”, is Goldstein’s fifth solo studio album and the first recorded in his new seaside home. It is also the first to be released through Beanie Tapes, a tape label from his home town of Oxford. Ben Walker of Beanie Tapes: “I’ve always been a huge fan of Jack’s work, and we were blown away when he asked us if we’d put out his next album. We said yes instantly before we’d heard it. In fact, he hadn’t even recorded it yet!”

Jack’s music is true, uncompromising experimental pop that is right at home in the lo-fi tape world (FFO BC Camplight, Animal Collective) and his live show, which he completely reinvents for every album, is always confrontational, weird and mind-bendingly fun (think Art Brut or Julian Cope).

The album will be released on 12 May 2019.

Love: the Answer to the Problem of Human Existence

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Jack Goldstein - Dungeness

The second single from the Candy Says EP “You Are Beautiful; We Are All Beautiful”

https://candysays.bandcamp.com/album/you-are-beautiful-we-are-all-beautiful-v2

Candy Says - Crave Easy

The new Max Blansjaar track paints a joyous picture of falling in love, with the Dutch lo-fi popster’s signature bleeps and grungy guitars: “Oh my God I’ve lost myself again.” But the happy-go-lucky production hides a more painful message: “I believe that one day I will live amongst your vengeance til you kill me, cos life’s too easy”.

Beanie Tapes is set to release the third pressing of Max’s EP “Spit It Out!”, featuring this new additional track.

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Max Blansjaar - Life’s Too Easy

✨ We make tapes of indie pop and other nonsense.

Beanie Tapes

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