New Starts are a spikey, fresh sounding band recalling the poppier ends of new wave and angular guitar rock. Their influences include The Cars, Breeders, Bay City Rollers, The Velvet Underground and ZZ Top.
Lead singer Darren Hayman has his own long career running from the late 90s with John Peel faves Hefner to his more recent thematic and historical albums dealing with the English Civil War, William Morris and forgotten rural idylls. 
“I wanted a band again,” says Hayman, “and not a band that just backed me up and played my old songs. When we form our first bands in our teens we just find some friends and work through the musical differences. I usually look for players who play in a way I’m used to. This time I looked for variance and was led by people’s personality.”

Guitarist Joely Smith [of South London’s noise-pop adults and recently DIY-punks Fresh] was recommended by a mutual friend who said, ‘She makes everything better’. Hayman and Smith shared a coffee and agreed on the correct number of guitar pedals and decided to proceed without an audition.

“There is a tendency for me to make my chords too pretty. Joely cuts against that and plays in the opposite direction.” Hayman is a fan of rules and constraints and employed a new, oblique strategy on this record. “Even though I wrote all the songs, I wanted the songs to belong to everyone during arrangement. I decided that I would say ‘yes’ to every suggestion from the band, regardless of my instinct.”

This made the songs warp and bend into new shapes and ensured that the record was the product of four individuals. Bassist Giles Barrett and drummer Will Connor come from funky afro beat influenced band Tigercats. “Pretty much the only rhythm I use, left to my own devices, is the ‘road runner’ rhythm. Will takes to care to find where the drum beat can be and we always end up somewhere I didn’t expect.”
More Break Up Songs is a collection of 12 Break Up songs because Darren broke up with someone. Again. “I suck’, he says, “But it’s never anyone’s fault. It makes me very sad but I do have to work through these things in song and there’s always something to learn. I try to make songs about breakups that could be understood by both parties. I’m not interested in nasty songs.”

Opening song ‘Little Stone in my Heart’ blisters along with Joely’s wildest guitars. The protagonist will do anything to make things right, but nothing ever is.

‘Under the Striplights’ has driving, choppy, incessant riffs, and is about the need to be anywhere but somewhere other than here. We could be under the moon or under the strip lights as long as we have each other.
Another barely kept rule that Darren instigated on this album was that each song would be a tonal equivalent to one from The Velvet Underground’s third album. To that end ‘Don’t Need Persuading’ is this record’s ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ with the narrator being unable to break free of a vortex, knowing they will stay the night against all better judgment. 
‘I’ve had a long standing distrust of the guitar,’ says Darren, ‘despite it being my primary instrument for twenty years. I thought it was time I made a record with two guitars and drums and bass. I wanted it to be bright, immediate and young sounding, despite the fact I’m old. We recorded it in four days and I think this might be the record a lot of my audience has wanted me to make for a long time.’
fikarecordings.com/artists/new-starts
@darrenhayman
@fikarecordings

New Starts - More Break-Up Songs

Fightmilk - No Souvenirs

The Norwegian super-group with members from Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva return with a third album of original Christmas songs. 

Get into that alternative, Nordic Christmas spirit!

Christmas III at its heart is an alt-Christmas album: the songs are firmly rooted in December’s festivities, albeit not usually relying on the season’s traditional reference points. The songs hone in on the more ambivalent sides of Christmas - family, customs and the passing of time - with a keen eye towards the holidays’ most obvious function in countries close to the Artic circle: getting through the cold and dark times to celebrate the winter solstice and the turning of the sun. 

Drawing from Sufjan Stevens’ epic indie Christmas compendium and Phil Spector’s wall of sound classic A Christmas Gift From You, Christmas III is built on shimmering guitars, snow filled piano lines, gentle strings, springy vocals and dynamic drums - all steadily conducted by Sunturns’ own Sjur Lyseid (Flight Mode, The Little Hands of Asphalt) in the producer’s seat at his Globus studio in Oslo.

With three songwriters (Ola Innset, Einar Stray and Sjur Lyseid) contributing to Christmas III, there’s an ever shifting sense of reflections. Parenthood and the struggles of the dark Norwegian winter is behind Ola’s track First Winter. “Some times I feel bad about bringing children into such a difficult world. Not so much with respect to daylight and the seasons, they’re just going to have to learn how to live with it, but with many other things – like war, poverty, climate change and even just death.” 
Back In Town might have been inspired by a discussion over whether Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” is a Christmas song or not, but it’s written about his youngest daughter Klara, to his elder daughter, about taking holidays with your family in a town you once lived.

Einar pulls in Phoenix and Mew by the way of Jesus and Mary Chain on Crash Course Christmas, resulting in a seasick wave of a pop tune. “It’s a song about the guilt of not prioritizing your relationships. It’s been year of rainchecks and Christmas finally gives you some time to reflect. You’ve experienced so much and changed so much as a person that you almost forget your origins. Coming home for Christmas can then be a ritiual of finding your way back to what you left behind."
Drawing on the knitwear from the film Love, Actually, Turtle Neck, taps into the Backstreet Boys by way of Mac Demarco, with a sneaky reference to the legendary Norwegian Christmas hit En Stjerne Skinner I Natt.

Album closer This Christmas / Next Christmas leans in on the hook for the Norwegian Christmas TV show Jul i Blåfjell, a multi-generational seasonal staple (essentially a daily children’s advent calendar kids show). “The song is about your parents ageing and needing your help – possibly really far away - while at the same time having your own children to take care of”.

If previous albums Christmas I (2011) and II (2015) are somewhat different from each other, then Christmas III represents a fusion of the two. Sunturns’ debut is full of youthful exuberance and was recorded with plentiful overdubs in Oslo, while 2015’s follow up is more pensive and somewhat darker, and was recorded live during one week in the Swedish forests. Einar elaborates: “I love making records like this: short, effective sessions with limited time and therefore no bland ‘perfection’. There’s a nerve to knowing you can collectively bring it all together without the luxury of time”. Christmas III represents a return to the lighter tone, on at least some of the songs, but with the wisdom of age that emerged on the second. You can’t just return to your twenties, however much you might want to!

Merry Christmas!

Sunturns - Christmas III

Starting out as quickly-recorded acoustic guitar and bass pieces by Lewis Young (Leaf Library drummer) they were then taken up by Mike Cranny (guitarist and singer in fellow Walthamstow travellers Firestations), cellist Hannah Reeves and additional Leaf Library member Matt Ashton. Each added parts remotely, engineered in their home studios, before singer Marlody brought her crystalline voice to the music; layered harmonies and twisting, looping phrases that tie the story together.  

Alongside these sketches were Lewis’s trips to the forest with a train of bells and a battered old violin, all dragged through mud, fallen leaves and brambles to create otherworldly yet natural sounds - music that sounds like it’s sprung from the forest floor. Lewis likens this ritual to “uncovering music that’s always been… a summoning of spirit folk, used to appearing in autumn, taking a pilgrimage through forests with joy and frivolity. A Miyazaki-meets-Chaucer kinda vibe.” 

While the music is inhabited by these eerie and historic landscapes - camps, iron age forts, the folklore and the golden atmosphere of autumn - the lyrics speak to more personal (if occasionally abstract) concerns, both revelling in the escape enabled by the forest and worrying about the encroaching city at the edge of it. There are dreams of leaving (“Leave the sound and your heavy head behind” from first single City Song, “Silently running at the moment of waking” from Waiting At The Water) and fear of stasis (“I fell over in my sleep again, a head all cloudy with fine rain, depthless in the breaking day, tiredness is waiting, serpentine” from Unreturning Sun). 


Mirrored Daughters are Marlody, Mike (Firestations), Matt and Lewis (The Leaf Library), and Hannah.

Marlody (Skep Wax) is a singer/songwriter based in Kent. Dominated by her extraordinary keyboard playing, Marlody’s songs are illuminated - and sometimes made sinister - by occasional bursts of programmed percussion, submarine bass and distant, chiming digital bells. 

Firestations (Lost Map Records) span genres from shoegaze to alt-pop and harmony-driven psychedelia. Their second album, The Year Dot, released in 2018, was followed by sonic collage album Dream Home in 2020 and the Automatic Tendencies EP project in 2020-21. The latter took the form of three EPs over a six-month period, each including alternative “sunken” versions by the band as well as covers and remixes of the band’s tracks by other artists. Thick Terrain, released in 2023, saw Firestations return to album format with ten tracks ranging from hypnotic sci-fi landscapes to addictive dream-pop jangles, exploring ideas around identity, conflict, progress and sanity.

The Leaf Library (WIAIWYA) are a north London band playing melodic dream-like music built on layers of chiming guitars, pulsing electronics, noise and looping drones. They have released three studio albums (Daylight Versions, About Minerals, The World Is A Bell) and a double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One) on Where It’s At Is Where You Are, a collaborative LP with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb) on electronic label Mille Plateaux, and a recent EP of electronic pop songs on the Castles In Space label.

Mirrored Daughters - Mirrored Daughters

Leeds quartet Crake have today announced their debut album, ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’. It arrives via Fika Recordings on April 8th. The band have also shared the album’s lead single, ‘Winter’s Song’. 

Led by enigmatic songwriter Rowan Sandle, Crake is driven by her endless curiosity. Armed with her gently cracking vocal, and inspiration from writers like Shirley Jackson and Nan Shepherd, she sings of crinoids, slime mould and pussy willow. When they supported Buck Meek at Brudenell Social Club, Buck found himself so beguiled by Sandle and her band that he invited them to support Big Thief on their UK and EU tour in 2019. Crake duly obliged and have been building towards their debut full-length ever since. 

Much of the forthcoming album revolves around the death of Sandle’s friend Anna, who died in Syria after being hit by a Turkish air strike. Anna was working for a woman’s liberation group in the war-stricken country when the tragedy took place. ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ explores the grief that followed and the lessons learnt from dealing with such a significant loss. 

Sandle does, however, find space to explore more themes alongside this grief, such as cruelty and queer nature. On lead single ‘Winter’s Song’ she acknowledges the cruelty and coldness that exists within us all, and questions how we can continue to grow and love whilst remaining true to that. 

Speaking about the track, she said: “Winter’s Song is about the absolute mundane beauty of being fallible. It's a true story, I saw the moon rise but swore it was the sun setting. I think about this line a lot: “keep a little coldness in you, just wear it soft and gentle” Be soft, be kind, be honest. Being unremarkable has its own beauty.” 

Sandle’s love for queer nature is so fervent that it makes the experience of listening to Crake akin to that of stumbling on an entirely new world. Sandle believes that life isn’t as black and white as we’ve been taught, and thinks nature holds the key to revealing the true nature of human experience. The appearances of things like slime mould - single-celled organisms that form a single body when in search of food  - brittle starfish - a type of starfish whose awareness isn’t concentrated in one place - and other such oddities furnish ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ with a folklore all of its own. 

‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ will send you down multiple rabbit holes and you’ll emerge from each with a newfound appreciation for the complexities of the world. Perhaps even more important than this though is the humanity that lies at the very heart of this debut full-length. Whether it’s in the sensitivity in how she portrays the loss of her friend, the depiction of our most base instincts - namely cruelty, passion and love - or the sincere, pure quality of the songwriting itself, it’s this that makes ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ essential, and invaluable listening.

Winter's Song

Crake - Winter's Song

Led by enigmatic songwriter Rowan Sandle, Crake is driven by her endless curiosity. Armed with her gently cracking vocal, and inspiration from writers like Shirley Jackson and Nan Shepherd, she sings of crinoids, slime mould and pussy willow. When they supported Buck Meek at Brudenell Social Club, Buck found himself so beguiled by Sandle and her band that he invited them to support Big Thief on their UK and EU tour in 2019. Crake duly obliged and have been building towards their debut full-length ever since. 

Much of the forthcoming album revolves around the death of Sandle’s friend Anna, who died in Syria after being hit by a Turkish air strike. Anna was working for a woman’s liberation group in the 
war-stricken country when the tragedy took place. ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ explores the grief that followed and the lessons learnt from dealing with such a significant loss. 

Sandle does, however, find space to explore more themes alongside this grief, such as cruelty and queer nature. On lead single ‘Winter’s Song’ she acknowledges the cruelty and coldness that exists within us all, and questions how we can continue to grow and love whilst remaining true to that. 

Speaking about the track, she said: “Winter’s Song is about the absolute mundane beauty of being fallible. It's a true story, I saw the moon rise but swore it was the sun setting. I think about this line a lot: “keep a little coldness in you, just wear it soft and gentle” Be soft, be kind, be honest. Being unremarkable has its own beauty.” 

Sandle’s love for queer nature is so fervent that it makes the experience of listening to Crake akin to that of stumbling on an entirely new world. Sandle believes that life isn’t as black and white as we’ve been taught, and thinks nature holds the key to revealing the true nature of human experience. The appearances of things like slime mould - single-celled organisms that form a single body when in search of food  - brittle starfish - a type of starfish whose awareness isn’t concentrated in one place - and other such oddities furnish ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ with a folklore all of its own. 

‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ will send you down multiple rabbit holes and you’ll emerge from each with a newfound appreciation for the complexities of the world. Perhaps even more important than this though is the humanity that lies at the very heart of this debut full-length. Whether it’s in the sensitivity in how she portrays the loss of her friend, the depiction of our most base instincts - namely cruelty, passion and love - or the 
sincere, pure quality of the songwriting itself, it’s this that makes ‘Humans’ Worst Habits’ essential, and 
invaluable listening. 

“A pensive, dejected moment of magic, but magic nonetheless” Gold Flake Paint
“Charming and intimate alt-folk” Dork
“The guitars sizzle like lightning bolts striking against an otherwise clear sky, while Sandle’s distinct, hoarse vocal plays like another instrument” Secret Meeting
“In a world of cynics, [Crake] make you believe anything might still be possible” For The Rabbits 

https://fikarecordings.com/artists/crake

Crake are:
Rowan Sandle - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
Russell Searle - Electric Guitar, Piano
Rob Slater - Drums / Backing Vocals
Sarah Statham - Bass / Backing Vocals

Humans' Worst Habits

Rabbit

Crake - Rabbit

STANLEY BRINKS AND THE WAVE PICTURES
Orange Juice
Fika Recordings
20th January 2014
7” orange vinyl / download



Stanley Brinks is joined by The Wave Pictures on their first joint release for 4 years with upcoming 7” single Orange Juice.

Orange Juice is an anthemic singalong about a recipe for happiness - “a little bit of you, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, ephedrine and orange juice”.
B-side Maybe I Will See You Again is, rather aptly after the concoction of Orange Juice before it, a song about standing at a street corner with a hangover. It has previously appeared on the album ‘Stanley Brinks Hovers’, but this is a new rock'n roll version backed by The Wave Pictures. 

Neither track features on the new Stanley Brinks & The Wave Pictures album ‘Gin’ due for 3rd March release. 

Stanley Brinks began performing officially as André Herman Düne in 1999, sharing lead vocals, guitar playing and songwriting with his brother David in the band Herman Düne for  a number of years. They released several albums and toured extensively in UK, gaining and owing a lot to great support from John Peel. He has used many monikers for various side-projects, but since leaving Herman Düne in 2006, he has been known solely as Stanley Brinks.
Born in Paris, Stan has been living between New York, San Francisco, Malta and Berlin for about a decade, always on the move. 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.  

The Wave Pictures are David Tattersall, Franic Rozycki and Jonny “Huddersfield” Helm. Formed in 1998 when Franic and David lived in a village called Wymeswold, the band played with several drummers until Jonny became a permanent member in 2003 replacing Hugh J Noble. In the beginning the band learned to play together by covering Jonathan Richman songs but soon David was writing lots of original material. 
They have since released five studio albums to critical acclaim and played numerous sessions on BBC 6 Music, Radio 1 and Xfm. The interest generated by these recordings has enabled The Wave Pictures to play shows all over the world with artists including Jeffrey Lewis, Darren Hayman, Stanley Brinks, Freschard and Herman Dune.

Stanley Brinks and The Wave Pictures - Orange Juice

Stanley Brinks is joined by The Wave Pictures for their third album together; their first since 2010’s ‘Another One Just Like That’.

Recorded entirely live in the studio, without headphones or overdubs, and with a good deal of improvisation, ‘Gin’ is a modern-sounding, in a way avant-garde, old school recording of text-driven songs. The Wave Pictures didn't get a chance to learn the songs before the session, Stan having forgotten to put a stamp on the demo tape he'd sent them from Berlin.

To anyone familiar with Stanley Brinks' huge discography - more than 100 albums - ‘Gin’ might sound considerably more raw and less sophisticated than some of his previous recordings. However this body of work remains rich in jazzy sounds and original structures, the songs looser and full of playfulness, the lyrics encapsulating their essence.

It goes without saying that Gin - the drink - was the inspiration for the album; while writing, and while recording. 

‘Gin’ was recorded at Soup Studio, London, by Simon Trought and Giles Barrett, one sunny day in May 2013. A few months before, when Stan was at the studio playing guitar and sax on The Wave Pictures' ‘City Forgiveness’, they recorded one of his songs - ‘Maybe I Will See You Again’, now the B-side of the ‘Orange Juice’ 45 - just for fun. Giles Barrett, who was engineering, suggested a whole album, and he made it happen.

Stanley Brinks began performing officially as André Herman Düne in 1999, sharing lead vocals, guitar playing and songwriting with his brother David in the band Herman Düne for  a number of years. They released several albums and toured extensively in UK, gaining and owing a lot to great support from John Peel. He has used many monikers for various side-projects, but since leaving Herman Düne in 2006, he has been known solely as Stanley Brinks.
Born in Paris, Stan has been living between New York, San Francisco, Malta and Berlin for about a decade, always on the move. 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.  

The Wave Pictures are David Tattersall, Franic Rozycki and Jonny “Huddersfield” Helm. Formed in 1998 when Franic and David lived in a village called Wymeswold, the band played with several drummers until Jonny became a permanent member in 2003 replacing Hugh J Noble. In the beginning the band learned to play together by covering Jonathan Richman songs but soon David was writing lots of original material. 
They have since released five studio albums to critical acclaim and played numerous sessions on BBC 6 Music, Radio 1 and Xfm. The interest generated by these recordings has enabled The Wave Pictures to play shows all over the world with artists including Jeffrey Lewis, Darren Hayman, Stanley Brinks, Freschard and Herman Dune.

From the dusky romantic feel of opener ‘One Minute Of Darkness’ to the love song, encompassing nautical metaphors, which is the last track ‘Not To Kiss You’, the album takes in the night, love & passion, Krishna, the modern way of life, exploration and moving on; all echoed brilliantly in the rich and varied musical interweave - by turns a jam, a calypso, some indie rock, a groovy mantra, a little voodoo rhythm and some good old regular country.

All topped off with the Stanley Brinks endearing signature command of naïvely rhymed,
overenunciated English. He touches the language in a way which really, no native speaker could get away with.
‘Gin’ is quite simply a beautiful, though-provoking,  uncomplicated album.

Stanley Brinks and The Wave Pictures - No Goodbyes

Somewhere To Go

Owl & Mouse - Don't Read The Classics

Alison Eales - Ever Forward

Having already released 2 of the best albums of 2014 (Gin on Fika Recordings, and Boom Biddy Boom on wiaiwya) Stanley Brinks and Freschard are releasing Pizza Espresso - an album of duets, and a collaboration between both labels – at the end of August. 

Pizza Espresso is an album of love songs about drinking and drinking songs about love. Picture Emmylou and Gram relocated to Berlin with a guitar, a pennywhistle and a washboard and writing ten gorgeous duets to be sung on lazy summer evenings. 

“if you have time, and nothing on your mind, why, i’m free, for you and me” 

Stanley Brinks began performing officially as André Herman Düne in 1999, sharing lead vocals, guitar playing and songwriting with his brother David in the band Herman Düne for a number of years. They released several albums and toured extensively in UK, gaining and owing a lot to great support from John Peel. He has used many monikers for various side-projects, but since leaving Herman Düne in 2006, he has been known solely as Stanley Brinks. 
Born in Paris, Stan has been living between New York, San Francisco, Malta and Berlin for about a decade, always on the move. 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 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. For this year’s “Boom Biddy Boom” she also plays the washboard. 

Stanley Brinks and Freschard will be touring the UK for 2 weeks in August (joined by The Wave Pictures as their backing band), including appearances at the Green Man Festival in Wales.

Stanley Brinks & Freschard - If You Have Time

“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 (IS THAT OK?) 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".

“…astonishing tenderness in its simplicity … brilliant lyrics.” Q Magazine
“…the tunes are instant and uplifting, but the real wallop comes from the lyrical imagery.” The Guardian
“…barbed modern life chronicles.” UNCUT

Drops

Living In The Local Void

Steven Adams - Living In The Local Void

“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".

“…astonishing tenderness in its simplicity … brilliant lyrics.” Q Magazine
“…the tunes are instant and uplifting, but the real wallop comes from the lyrical imagery.” The Guardian
“…barbed modern life chronicles.” UNCUT

Moderation

Steven Adams - Moderation

New Starts - Under The Striplights

New Starts - What I Specifically Love

New Starts - A Little Stone

New Starts - Asbestos Roof

Release Date: 27th June 2024
FFO: Weezer | Superchunk | The Breeders | Bully | Cheekface. 
Fightmilk are returning to action with raging new single ‘Summer Bodies’, their first new material in three years. Angsty and uplifting in equal measure, it’s an instantly catchy singalong anthem, combining the band’s trademark tongue-in-cheek wit with a swirling energy and gritty raw emotion.
With acclaim from the likes of Kerrang!, The Quietus and The Line Of Best Fit already under their belts, and having sold out headline gigs across the UK in addition to sharing stages with bands such as Art Brut, Yawners and Problem Patterns, Fightmilk look set to build on their reputation as one of the DIY scene’s best loved bands in the run-up to their much-anticipated third album.
‘Summer Bodies’ questions patriarchal society’s ridiculous and ever-changing expectations of women’s bodies and the futile quest to ‘be sexy’, with Lily’s dead-pan commentary weaving between buoyant harmonies and gloriously scuzzy hooks. A fierce ode to self-love in the face of the onslaught of damaging beauty standards that we are constantly bombarded with, it also sees Fightmilk flirt with a heavier side to their sound than fans may be used to.
So, as the warmer weather approaches, wear whatever you makes you feel comfortable, pay no mind to the incessant Instagram ads about fad diets or corrective procedures, and know that you look great - whatever size, age or gender you may be. As bassist Healey summarises: “life's too short, do whatever the fuck you want, do no harm and take no shit".
‘Summer Bodies’ is out on 20th June 2024, ahead of the release of Fightmilk’s third album, which is set for release in the autumn.
Fightmilk are:
Lily (she/her): vocals, guitar
Alex (he/him): guitar, vocals
Healey (they/them): bass, vocals
Nick (he/him): drums, vocals

Fightmilk - Summer Bodies

No Souvenirs

Fightmilk - That Thing You Did

Fightmilk - Yearning And Pining

The Norwegian super-group with members from Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva return with a third album of original Christmas songs. 

Get into that alternative, Nordic Christmas spirit!

Christmas III at its heart is an alt-Christmas album: the songs are firmly rooted in December’s festivities, albeit not usually relying on the season’s traditional reference points. The songs hone in on the more ambivalent sides of Christmas - family, customs and the passing of time - with a keen eye towards the holidays’ most obvious function in countries close to the Artic circle: getting through the cold and dark times to celebrate the winter solstice and the turning of the sun. 

Drawing from Sufjan Stevens’ epic indie Christmas compendium and Phil Spector’s wall of sound classic A Christmas Gift From You, Christmas III is built on shimmering guitars, snow filled piano lines, gentle strings, springy vocals and dynamic drums - all steadily conducted by Sunturns’ own Sjur Lyseid (Flight Mode, The Little Hands of Asphalt) in the producer’s seat at his Globus studio in Oslo.

With three songwriters (Ola Innset, Einar Stray and Sjur Lyseid) contributing to Christmas III, there’s an ever shifting sense of reflections. Parenthood and the struggles of the dark Norwegian winter is behind Ola’s track First Winter. “Some times I feel bad about bringing children into such a difficult world. Not so much with respect to daylight and the seasons, they’re just going to have to learn how to live with it, but with many other things – like war, poverty, climate change and even just death.” 

If previous albums Christmas I (2011) and II (2015) are somewhat different from each other, then Christmas III represents a fusion of the two. Sunturns’ debut is full of youthful exuberance and was recorded with plentiful overdubs in Oslo, while 2015’s follow up is more pensive and somewhat darker, and was recorded live during one week in the Swedish forests. Einar elaborates: “I love making records like this: short, effective sessions with limited time and therefore no bland ‘perfection’. There’s a nerve to knowing you can collectively bring it all together without the luxury of time”. Christmas III represents a return to the lighter tone, on at least some of the songs, but with the wisdom of age that emerged on the second. You can’t just return to your twenties, however much you might want to!

Merry Christmas!

First Winter

Sunturns - First Winter

Christmas III

Back In Town

Sunturns - Back In Town

The Norwegian super-group with members from Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva return with a third album of original Christmas songs. 

Get into that alternative, Nordic Christmas spirit!

Christmas III at its heart is an alt-Christmas album: the songs are firmly rooted in December’s festivities, albeit not usually relying on the season’s traditional reference points. The songs hone in on the more ambivalent sides of Christmas - family, customs and the passing of time - with a keen eye towards the holidays’ most obvious function in countries close to the Artic circle: getting through the cold and dark times to celebrate the winter solstice and the turning of the sun. 

Drawing from Sufjan Stevens’ epic indie Christmas compendium and Phil Spector’s wall of sound classic A Christmas Gift From You, Christmas III is built on shimmering guitars, snow filled piano lines, gentle strings, springy vocals and dynamic drums - all steadily conducted by Sunturns’ own Sjur Lyseid (Flight Mode, The Little Hands of Asphalt) in the producer’s seat at his Globus studio in Oslo.

With three songwriters (Ola Innset, Einar Stray and Sjur Lyseid) contributing to Christmas III, there’s an ever shifting sense of reflections. Parenthood and the struggles of the dark Norwegian winter is behind Ola’s track First Winter. “Some times I feel bad about bringing children into such a difficult world. Not so much with respect to daylight and the seasons, they’re just going to have to learn how to live with it, but with many other things – like war, poverty, climate change and even just death.” 
Back In Town might have been inspired by a discussion over whether Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” is a Christmas song or not, but it’s written about his youngest daughter Klara, to his elder daughter, about taking holidays with your family in a town you once lived.

Einar pulls in Phoenix and Mew by the way of Jesus and Mary Chain on Crash Course Christmas, resulting in a seasick wave of a pop tune. “It’s a song about the guilt of not prioritizing your relationships. It’s been a year of rainchecks and Christmas finally gives you some time to reflect. You’ve experienced so much and changed so much as a person that you almost forget your origins. Coming home for Christmas can then be a ritiual of finding your way back to what you left behind."
Drawing on the knitwear from the film Love, Actually, Turtle Neck, taps into the Backstreet Boys by way of Mac Demarco, with a sneaky reference to the legendary Norwegian Christmas hit En Stjerne Skinner I Natt.

Album closer This Christmas / Next Christmas leans in on the hook for the Norwegian Christmas TV show Jul i Blåfjell, a multi-generational seasonal staple (essentially a daily children’s advent calendar kids show). “The song is about your parents ageing and needing your help – possibly really far away - while at the same time having your own children to take care of”.

If previous albums Christmas I (2011) and II (2015) are somewhat different from each other, then Christmas III represents a fusion of the two. Sunturns’ debut is full of youthful exuberance and was recorded with plentiful overdubs in Oslo, while 2015’s follow up is more pensive and somewhat darker, and was recorded live during one week in the Swedish forests. Einar elaborates: “I love making records like this: short, effective sessions with limited time and therefore no bland ‘perfection’. There’s a nerve to knowing you can collectively bring it all together without the luxury of time”. Christmas III represents a return to the lighter tone, on at least some of the songs, but with the wisdom of age that emerged on the second. You can’t just return to your twenties, however much you might want to!


Sunturns - Crash Course Christmas

Fika Recordings present Mirrored Daughters - an album of lo-fi folk-pop and explorative woodland meditations from members of Firestations, The Leaf Library and Marlody. Bright-eyed, melodic music inspired by travels in Epping Forest as much as it was by spontaneous collaboration, these 11 tracks deliver an intriguing journey through (and beyond) the forest - crystal clear melancholy interspersed with benign drone rituals. 

First single City Song is out 26th November, a swooning folk-pop number, an ode to a familiar journey, a tiredness with the city.

The music on their self-titled debut takes a step away from the widescreen production of the artists’ other groups and instead revels in the instinctive, warm tones of acoustic instruments; guitars, cellos, clarinet, a harmonium and bells providing the earthy sonic environment for these spacious songs. 

Starting out as quickly-recorded acoustic guitar and bass pieces by Lewis Young (Leaf Library drummer) they were then taken up by Mike Cranny (guitarist and singer in fellow Walthamstow travellers Firestations), cellist Hannah Reeves and additional Leaf Library member Matt Ashton. Each added parts remotely, engineered in their home studios, before singer Marlody brought her crystalline voice to the music; layered harmonies and twisting, looping phrases that tie the story together.  

Biographies:

Mirrored Daughters are Marlody, Mike (Firestations), Matt and Lewis (The Leaf Library), and Hannah.

Marlody (Skep Wax) is a singer/songwriter based in Kent. Dominated by her extraordinary keyboard playing, Marlody’s songs are illuminated - and sometimes made sinister - by occasional bursts of programmed percussion, submarine bass and distant, chiming digital bells. 

Firestations (Lost Map Records) span genres from shoegaze to alt-pop and harmony-driven psychedelia. Their second album, The Year Dot, released in 2018, was followed by sonic collage album Dream Home in 2020 and the Automatic Tendencies EP project in 2020-21. The latter took the form of three EPs over a six-month period, each including alternative “sunken” versions by the band as well as covers and remixes of the band’s tracks by other artists. Thick Terrain, released in 2023, saw Firestations return to album format with ten tracks ranging from hypnotic sci-fi landscapes to addictive dream-pop jangles, exploring ideas around identity, conflict, progress and sanity.

The Leaf Library (WIAIWYA) are a north London band playing melodic dream-like music built on layers of chiming guitars, pulsing electronics, noise and looping drones. They have released three studio albums (Daylight Versions, About Minerals, The World Is A Bell) and a double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One) on Where It’s At Is Where You Are, a collaborative LP with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb) on electronic label Mille Plateaux, and a recent EP of electronic pop songs on the Castles In Space label.

Mirrored Daughters

City Song

Mirrored Daughters - City Song

Mirrored Daughters - The New Design

Mirrored Daughters - Unreturning Sun

"Worst Kiss" is taken from the forthcoming debut album "Departures" from  Owl & Mouse.

London based 5 piece Owl & Mouse release their debut album, ‘Departures’, on Fika Recordings in July, after winning hearts with their ‘exceptionally beautiful’ EP, Somewhere To Go. 

The quintet are led by Australian songwriter Hannah Botting, sister of Allo Darlin’ bassist Bill Botting. The release of their debut coincides with the bands tour of the UK and Norway, joining American label mates The Smittens.

The boldly open hearted yet delicate songs come straight out of the same school of Australian songwriting as The Go-Betweens, Triffids and Courtney Barnett, with lyrics that draw on the familiar to talk about the universal difficulties of fond farewells, baggage carousels, and missed connections.  

The results manifest themselves in a collection of songs that are both infectious and joyous. Those familiar with the band will delight in the understatedly emotive tales of love and loss, which are enriched by special guests (as well as a brass section, Allo Darlin’s Paul Rains and Michael Collins step in on guitar and percussion) and show the fruits of years of live performances and a greatly expanded line-up. Fans of the Magnetic Fields will delight in bassist Tom Wade’s Stephin Merrit-esque baritone, which leads the heartbreaking ‘Sinking Song’ with bold intimacy.

Owl & Mouse began life as a sister act, with Hannah and Jen Botting, before expanding after recording their last EP, to include Tom Wade (We Aeronauts) and the prolific pairing of Emma Winston and Dan Mayfield (Enderby's Room, Darren Hayman's Long Parliament). 
Singer and ukulele player, Hannah Botting, said: “It’s now been eight years since I moved away from my home town, and it’s getting to that point where you’re not really sure where your home is any more. That feeling of being a bit lost and a bit unsure but excited at the same time, is something that sits underneath all the songs.” 

www.owlandmousemusic.com
fikarecordings.com

Departures

Worst Kiss

Owl & Mouse - Worst Kiss

Allo Darlin' return with new single "Tricky Questions" - their first new music since 2016.
Out now via Fika Recordings (UK) & Slumberland Records (USA)

Live Dates
5th April - Cologne PopFest, Germany
7th October - Nottingham, Old Cold Store
9th October - London, EartH Hall
10th October - Glasgow, Stereo
11th October - Manchester, Yes Pink Room
Tickets on sale Wednesday 9th April 10am
Pre-sale for all dates via the Allo Darlin’ mailing list from Monday 7th April 10am.

After almost a decade away, Anglo-Australian indiepop quartet Allo Darlin’ are back with their first new music since 2016’s farewell 7” single ‘Hymn On The 45’, and announce a UK tour this October (details below).

New single ‘Tricky Questions’ exhibits Elizabeth's adept skill at taking specific experiences and creating something timeless and universally resonant, and recalls living in Florence having left London:

“There’s a piazza, Piazza della Signoria, not far from where I used to live, where the Palazzo Vecchio is. You used to be able to go and walk right up to the sculptures in the Loggia, but I think now they are roped off and a guard watches over them. The city was full of tourists during the day, but after 9pm, they would all go back to their hotels. That’s when the city came alive to me, and it felt like it was just for us.

"I was really thinking about that place when I wrote this song. I wanted to go back there and soak it all up again. Writing about it helped me feel like I was back there, in a place that is timeless. But of course, more than being about a specific place, this song is really about a relationship and how it makes me feel.”

‘Tricky Questions’ was the first song Elizabeth wrote for a reformed Allo Darlin’, in the early months of the corona pandemic. Indeed, it was the corona pandemic that brought the band back together, while stuck in their isolation in Norway, England and Australia. Missing each other and the music they made together, Allo Darlin’ started having group Zoom calls, and decided that when the pandemic was over, they would become a band again. In early 2023, the band announced that they would play a couple of shows in October of that year in the UK, and the fan response was truly overwhelming.

Tickets sold out in minutes, with fans travelling from all over the world, and the band had to upgrade their London show to a venue twice the size of the original. It seemed like their fans had missed Allo Darlin’ as much as they had missed each other. 

Tricky Questions

Allo Darlin' - Tricky Questions

Taken from Sally Shapiro's final ever single, this remix of the A-side "If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind" comes from UK nu-disco producer Ben Macklin.
The single is released on May 12th on Fika Recordings, and is available on white 7" vinyl and as a digital download. The b-side features an acoustic cover of David Guetta's "Dangerous", and the download comes with Ben's remix and a remix from French synthwave artist Tommy '86.

If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind

If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind [Ben Mackin remix]

Sally Shapiro - If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind [Ben Macklin Remix]

BMH is the third single from Scottish folk-pop collective Randolph’s Leap’s forthcoming album Spirit Level.

“On one hand, it’s about the pretentious things people say to appear interesting. I found humour in the idea that the Big Momma’s House film franchise could be based on a critically-acclaimed and cherished novel (spoiler: it isn’t) and there are some digs at hipster culture. It’s also about a house not feeling like a home. Looking back, I reckon I was probably exaggerating the flaws in the house but I got a bit fixated on it, almost like it was haunting me or conspiring against me somehow.”

Spirit Level is an upbeat, melodic indie-pop album full of personality, catchy hooks and memorable lyrics, rich in textural, polyphonic arrangements, and capturing the infinite charm of Adam Ross, the leader of this 8-piece band.

As a core songwriter with a large ensemble, Adam Ross may draw comparison with Stephin Merritt or Neil Hannon, while mining the rich Scottish seam of Postcard Records and C86. And as with contemporaries King Creosote or Withered Hand, is unafraid of drawing on folk music’s story telling tradition, detailing the minutiae of life’s fluctuations, here packaged up in glorious, anthemic and energetic pop.

The titular ‘spirit level’ is a steady reference point over what had been an unsettled spell writing the album, with Adam Ross uprooting from a decade in Glasgow to a tauntingly lopsided house in rural Aberdeenshire, navigating his way through shifting phases in his well-being and happiness, and reflecting on the untimely death of two greatly admired acquaintances. That balancing act came in the form of music, in an optimistic, even celebratory, collection of songs.

Recorded over a period of a year in Glasgow with keyboard player Pete MacDonald engineering, mixing and producing the sessions at home, the album went off to mastering in the nick of time: the following night Pete’s flat went Up In Smoke in a massive fire, taking everything bar Pete (and his pet hedgehog, Frida) with it.

“The next generation of witty Scottish indie pop” The Quietus

“A band deserving of every shred of love and success which came Belle & Sebastian's way” The Scotsman

"The Jonathan Richman of Scottish indie" The Herald

Randolph’s Leap started out as a pseudonym for the solo output of Adam Ross, and now includes up to 8 people in the full live band. The debut Randolph’s Leap album, Clumsy Knot, came out in 2014, with another four live and studio albums and a handful of singles across labels Fence Collective, Olive Grove Records and Lost Map. In 2018 a touring theatre show called The Isle of Love was devised around the songs of Randolph’s Leap.

They’ve recorded several Marc Riley sessions, performed at Green Man, T in the Park, Indietracks, and The Edinburgh Fringe, and have toured with The Burning Hell and James Yorkston. 
The Randolph’s Leap name is taken from a scenic location on the River Findhorn.

Randolph’s Leap are Adam Ross (songs, vocals, guitar), Adam Armour-Florence (drums), Ali Hendry (trumpet), Andrew MacLellan (guitar), Fraser Gibson (trombone) Heather Fox (violin), Pete MacDonald (keyboards) and Vicki Cole (bass).

Spirit Level

Randolph's Leap - BMH

Fika Recordings is a diy indie[pop] label run from London.


Fika Recordings

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