fika recordings

It’s happening again! After the sold out screenprinted 10″ Christmas In Howarth EP we released for Darren Hayman the Christmas before last, we’ve another release from him out on Fika Recordings, this time a full length LP! The album has evolved dramatically from our first discussions with Darren about Bugbears and has materialised into one of the most ambitious projects we’ve undertaken so far. So let’s run you through all the important details you need to know!

Bugbears
…is an album of songs from the English Civil Wars and seventeenth century to accompany The Violence. Here’s Darren’s explanation of Bugbears:

I recently made an album called ‘The Violence’. It concerns itself with the East Anglian witch trials during the English Civil Wars. During my research I started to come across folk songs of the seventeenth century and Stuart era. Two such songs appear on that album: ‘When the King Enjoys His Own Again’ and ‘A Coffin for King Charles, A Crown for Cromwell and a Pit for the People’. 

I didn’t seek to achieve forensic detail when finding these songs, but was keen to have a sense of the flavour of the music of the era. As a side project to the album, I started to record and adapt some of the songs, and now they are collected here.
Consider this an accompanying volume to The Violence, a scene setter, a spin off.
Although I did a fair amount of research, these are not meant to be definitive or historical readings of the songs. I have revised, edited and even rewritten in places.

The Short Parliament
Joining Darren on Bugbears are Bill Botting, Dan Mayfield, Dave Watkins, David Tattersall and Johny Lamb.

Formats
We’ll be presenting Bugbears on 180gr heavyweight 12″ vinyl (including a download code) and within a beautiful CD gatefold package. Both formats come with a 16 page booklet of illustrations, lyrics and Darren’s notes, interpretations and commentary.

Illustrations
Duncan Barrett is the genius behind the sleeve artwork and the booklet design. His artwork has graced numerous Fika releases in the past and hopefully many more to come! The booklet itself features an illustration for each of the 13 songs on Bugbears, from 13 different artists. Among those involved were Pam Berry, Robert Rotifer, Dan Willson and Ant Harding.

The Blog
Over the next two months in the run up to the release on the 15th of July, Darren and I will be hosting a blog. Expect to find previews of the songs, videos, interviews from historians and musicians, features of the illustrators and plenty more.

Pre-order
The album is available to pre-order from the Fika Recording shop now, shipping in early July.

Follow the Bugbears blog at fikarecordings.com/bugbears

This week we were delighted to be asked to join Huw Stephens on his BBC Radio 1 show to talk about Fika Recordings and play some tunes from the catalogue.

You can listen again here:

Here’s what we played:
Tigercats – Harper Lee
Lisa Bouvier – Andreas
Red Shoe Diaries – Ice & Snow
Moustache Of Insanity – We Need More Awesome
Darren Hayman – Photos Like Postcards
The Smittens – First Bus
Making Marks – Hard To Be Good

There’s a brand new single from Tigercats, with a brand new video to go with it.

Darren Hayman, fresh from shooting videos for The Wave Pictures and Shrag is the man behind the camera for this one. He says “One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was every time you get a new instrument or toy, record everything you do on it for the first few weeks. I got an HD camera and before reading the manual I made a video for Tigercats. There is nothing quite like the excitement of discovery, stumbling upon ideas. I wanted to make a rock video as though I were someone who’d never seen a rock video before.”

Harper Lee / Cats Run Free 7″ out 23rd July 2012.

We hope you’ve been enjoying the advent calendar we’ve been hosting with Darren Hayman. So far we’ve had 42 songs available to download for free – including appearances from The Wave Pictures, the song writing debut of comedian Josie Long, a track featuring Bedders from Madness and plenty of Fika Recordings favourites. Today’s offering includes two songs from Bill Botting (of Allo Darlin’, The Secondary Modern and Moustache Of Insanity) and from Fika Recording’s latest artist, Tigercats. All of which means we can announce…

… on April 9th, we’ll be releasing Isle Of Dogs, the debut album from Tigercats. Yeah! It’ll be coming out on Fika Recordings on 12″ vinyl, and there’ll be the usual Fika related treats included. More details once I figure them out. In the meantime, head over and download their Christmas song! Woo!

Just a quick post to let you know you can pop into your local record shop and pick up a copy of Darren Hayman’s new EP, as well as buying it online from us here or from Darren here.

Norman Records [online]
Pebble Records [online]
Rough Trade [London]
Spillers Records [Cardiff]
Piccadilly Records [Manchester]
Resident Music [Brighton]
Avalanche Records [Edinburgh]
Violet & Claire [Japan]