A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

July 24th: The Hayman Kupa Band album launch show

Advance tickets from wegottickets.com/fikarecordings

THE HAYMAN KUPA BAND 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 three days at Big Jelly Studios in Ramsgate, is an exploration of relationships and, at its heart, it’s the sound of a friendship being made.

WOLF GIRL Wolf Girl are Becky, Chris, Carl and Christabel - a garage pop four-piece based in South London. Having met each other through being in awkward teenage bands in the South East, they eventually formed in September 2013. With admirable authenticity, they record and rehearse in an old garage called Bucket East that backs onto the river Wandle, staying faithful to their garage-rock tendencies. It’s been said that they both do and don’t sound like the Ramones, and have also been compared to both the Shop Assistants and Bratmobile. Wolf Girl have their own trademarks though, offering a spirited take on powerful, melodic and jagged indie pop that often recalls the noisier aspects of C86.

SCHANDE A London trio, Schande are known for writing discordantly catchy, melodic indie rock- that joyous blend of 90s indie at its best, mixed with a unique element of the unknown. Jen’s take on Schande’s sound is simple: “We’re not story tellers- the music is landscape where literal meaning is irrelevant. We’re inspired by memory, by experience and by those undefined tangents and planes linking the two. Those tensions between space and location- that’s what we soundtrack.”