release date 4th Oct 2024
https://smallbuthard.bandcamp.com/album/improvised-monday-2

popon_     https://soundcloud.com/popon_tonichan
Berlin based, Japanese born artist popon presents her debut album ‘Improvised Monday’. Recorded in Berlin and peppered with field recordings from trips to Japan (throughout the record you can catch snippets of birdsong, children’s voices - most often her niece - as well as her own voices making an occasional appearance). Despite popon’s roots in Germany and Japan, her music has definite traces of the UK - prang, skunk fuelled (star dog fuelled?) echo and clang bring to mind CR7 chambers or memories of the future. popon spent a lot of time in Bristol and cites the DIY scene t(here) as a major inspiration. Throughout the record there is the almost constant hum of Bristolian low end pressure, but equally present are the metallic clanks and dubbed voices of punk / post punk. 
The record plays out with horror film narrative - last track ‘emmaHOOY’ serving as a kind of uneasy closure. We are left with (arguably) the sweetest and most melodic section of the record just as it closes, but there is still a sense of dread (cut to Jack Torrance frozen in ice), N.B there is a ‘bonus scene’ for those that buy the tape. 
popon has managed to do something remarkable in distilling the essence of UK paranoia, Japanese punk minimalism and the non stop kinetic fwd propulsion of Berlin, making it something completely her own.

Amos Childs

Track List: 
A1 Improvised Monday
A2 KoroNE no Naka
A3 Optimist
A4 CUTTER
B1 Hole
B2 onichitamasalaham
B3 neododoo
B4 emmaHOOY

All tracks mastered by GOH  NAKADA
Artwork by NKUB

Improvised Monday

SBH_LP_006_Improvised Monday (clips)

https://smallbuthard.bandcamp.com/album/so-hard-so-small

Back to the Future 100% Retro Lost in the Himalaya on Long Hard Journey to find the Holy Distortion Unit, Small But Hard is BACK with an eclectic international mixtape that defies definition and mangles with your mind. Huge Line Up, Massive Tunes, 100 copies limited release. Miss it at your peril.

01. EthniquePunch-rapaksaklı95mast
02. C-C - COULOIR1
03. disrupt(Jahtari) - Tiger's Claw demo
04. Laure Boer_Kein Bock
05. karsten Pflum - the_landing
06. SHINS-K  -  Beyrouth
07. Gorgonn - Ag steppas kuzu
08. ethniquePunch and dj scotch egg - Ekinoks
09. Christoph de Babalon - Dearth Is Certain
10. Elvin Brandhi - dry bread without taste DOMES
11. Henry Collins - medolimbic percusion
12. Raja kirik -  Raja Edan"The Mad king"
13. Debmaster - TT 110
14. dj die soon - yokai  schmiedel
15. EdwardFist & Simon Fowler - Wading Home (R.I.P Tom, you are sorely missed, S.F. 2023)
16. orcun - aynayituutum2kisadubb
17. kiki hitomi - super moon

SBH mix 003 _SO HARD,SO SMALL(clips)

Small But Hard Records is an independent record label based between Berlin/Paris & London, the label is a collaboration between Shigeru Ishihara (Dj Scotch Egg/scotch Rolex), Simon Fowler (co-founder of London based Cataract Press), Daisuke Imamura (Dj Die Soon) ,Bryce Davesne (electiic) Marco Heinzmann (Super Quiet/DJ Wasteman)and Tomomi SNO (popon).

The latest release....SBH_LP_006 popon  Improvised Monday
Out on the 04,Oct,2024!
https://smallbuthard.bandcamp.com/album/improvised-monday-2

New tracks tagged #Smallbuthard