A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

adults - the seeds we sow are sprouting buds nonetheless [12"]

Artist: adults
Title: the seeds we sow are sprouting buds nonetheless
Format: 12” green vinyl album & digital
Cat#: Fika110LP
Release date: 31st October 2025
Bandcamp | Spotify

adults’ new record is a pocketful of seeds, ideas, loves, fears and hopes which have sprouted, grown, and intertwined over the past two years. It's a jumble of indie pop, jangle, shoegaze, emo and country songs made in those moments in between. They say that the new album “gathers together echoes of the songs and bands we love into deeply personal songs about growth, change, loss and love, set to the background hum of a world which wants to crush all hope.”

The songs are patchworks of riffs, loops and overdubs stitched together by long time co-conspirator Rich Mandell over the course of 3 months recording on rooftops and warehouses in South London. This is the longest they’ve ever spent recording, (they did their first record in a day in a garage!) and have tried to put together a much more coherent, intentional record as well as just messing around with loud amps and gear they don’t have access to in their bedrooms! 

dead red was always going to be the opening track, slowly building up from a wiggly synth stolen from early The World Is a Beautiful Place… songs and building and building and building. Although lots of their songs aren’t overtly political, each track has an undercurrent driving at radical change. There’s a lot to see red about at the moment, and growing up, many of us have been conditioned to snap, lash out and hurt those closest to us. According to the band: “over time, we’ve learnt from people around us that it’s possible to grow and change. People aren’t disposable, and working on how we respond to harm is vital for building a better world.” 

The singles from the album show adults at their frenetic, hook-filled and optimistic best: flag (flailing wildly somewhere between Fugazi and Supermilk, being silly with time signatures whilst despairing about late stage capitalism), crying (a simple indie pop song about trying to manage conflict with someone you love, but really just getting into arguments with the other person in your head) and patterns (a shoegazy, dream pop song about death and the aftermath). The fast and scrappy side of adults are on display on chest pains and partner song pest chains, complete with a glam-rock solo harmony at the end.

FFO: los campesinos!, martha, breeders, radiator hospital, nana grizol, sleater-kinney, joanna gruesome, the beths, the pains of being pure at heart.

adults are a fast silly indie punk band of four long term pals (carl, joe, joely and tom) who love indie-pop, diy and burgess park. Containing members from various UK diy bands (Fresh, New Starts, Wolf Girl, Tomboy Grandpa, Top Deck) they write noisy awkward pop songs with crunching guitars, speedy drums and yelping dual vocals. Based in south London and firmly established in the UKs indie-pop scene, adults released their debut single ‘MSN’ with Art is Hard records (Bristol, UK), an EP with Caballito Records (Madrid, Spain) and their debut album ‘for everything, always’ came out in 2022 on Fika Recordings (London, UK). Collaborating on splits with much-loved Bitch Hunt ‘Space Armadillo EP’ and recently with Oxford’s Spank Hair titled ‘…in the big league’.

Influenced by the kindness and community of the UK diy scene, adults continue the fight to write one song as good as the world’s best band, Martha (Durham). 

They have a new album ‘the seeds we sow are sprouting buds nonetheless’ coming out on Fika on 31/10/2025 and will be playing shows around the UK with mates Felicette in October.

Oct 28: Withered Hand + Mirrored Daughters at The Victoria

Withered Hand is the pseudonym of Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter Dan Willson. Since the release of his debut album ‘Good News’ in 2009, Dan has become a celebrated figure in the Scottish music scene and further afield. A well-travelled touring singer-songwriter, he has quietly amassed a devoted cult fanbase while staying true to a singular artistic vision.

A strident second album ‘New Gods’ in 2014 propelled Withered Hand into the charts, featuring appearances by friends, luminaries and supporters from the Scottish music scene, from Belle & Sebastian to Frightened Rabbit to The Vaselines and beyond. A long-awaited third Withered Hand album, ‘How To Love’, was released in 2023, again to widespread critical acclaim.

Dan’s subsequent collaboration with Mercury Prize nominated English singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams resulted in last year’s album “Willson Williams” - shortlisted for both Scottish Album of the Year and UK Americana Album of the Year 2024.

Dan is currently working on a 4th Withered Hand LP with his friend and mentor King Creosote, due for release in late 2025.

Dan has been guest tutor on Songwriting Workshops at Moniack Mhor - Scotland’s Centre of Creative Writing, Arvon Writing Foundation at Totleigh Barton and Arvon Lumb Bank and is an advocate of the power of music and creativity in recovery, healing and growth.

“Beautifully constructed lyrical frameworks … Caledonian gospel” - MOJO
“Killer melodies … wobbly folk grooves … tunes full of warm, woozy sing-song charm”- Artist to Watch - Rolling Stone USA
“One of the greatest Alt-folkies” - The Scotsman
“As life-affirming as music gets” - The Herald

Mirrored Daughters

Fika presents 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. 

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. 

Tickets from WeGotTickets and from Dice. £15 adv, £8 adv for those on low- or no-incomes (no questions asked).

OCT 24: The Ballet + Evripidis and His Tragedies + Panic Pocket at The Betsey Trotwood

THE BALLET

The Ballet is the musical alter ego of the NYC-based musician and writer Greg Goldberg. The Ballet combines a wry poetic style with pop romanticism and a queer DIY spirit to create literary and infectious pop gems. In addition to citing Stephin Merritt as a formative influence, Goldberg draws inspiration from a variety of pop artists and periods; from 60s bubblegum to 80s synthpop and 90s indiepop, fusing these genres in sophisticated and original ways. Formed in 2005, Goldberg has been joined by several friends over the years: Craig Willse, Marina Miranda (La Pequeña Suiza), Ginger Brooks Takahashi (MEN), and Michael O’Neill (MEN). The Ballet self-released their first two albums: Mattachine! (2006) and Bear Life (2009). These records caught the attention of indie label legends Fortuna Pop!, who released their third album, I Blame Society (2013). After FortunaPop! closed shop, The Ballet partnered with Fika Recordings, who released their fourth and fifth albums: Matchy Matchy (2019) and Daddy Issues (2023). Goldberg is currently working on Ballet’s sixth album, arranged entirely on the Roland Jupiter Xm synthesizer, titled “Nothing Straight.”

EVRIPIDIS AND HIS TRAGEDIES

Evripidis and His Tragedies is the alter-ego of Evripidis Sabatis, a multi-disciplinary artist from Athens living in Barcelona. The "Tragedies" are the devastating, confessional, self-sarcastic and often darkly humorous pop songs that draw on his classical piano training, queer sensibility and storytelling skills, to examine and ultimately own up to the vicissitudes of life. Evripidis' pop inclinations take us for a bumpy, dancey ride across the fine line between tragedy and joie de vivre. 

In 2021, Evripidis released his fifth album Neos Kosmos, combining his love of Doo Wop, Girl Groups, New Wave, Indie Pop and Bedroom Pop with richly textured electronic soundscapes, followed by a handful of singles, with Just a Little Wiser being the latest. Evripidis is currently working on new music.

Evripidis and His Tragedies has performed at international festivals like Primavera Sound, FIB, Indietracks, Eurosonic Noordeslag, etc, and in a plethora of venues in Spain, Greece, UK, Germany, France, Portugal, USA and Mexico.

PANIC POCKET

Panic Pocket are recognised for their cathartic musical storytelling about shaking off bad relationships, the life-changing nature of female-friendship and the perils of online dating, "delivered with a wry sense of humour and an undeniable charm” – For the Rabbits.

Tickets from wegottickets.com/fikarecordings

Oct 21: Darren Hayman at The Theatreship

Darren Hayman performs his 2012 album The Ship's Piano. On a ship. On a ship's piano.

With support from Lila Tristram.

Tickets from wegottickets.com/fikarecordings

"In November 2009 I had this thing happen to me, where I ended up in hospital with a fractured skull. For a few months I felt constantly dizzy and was diagnosed with some deafness in one ear. Sharp loud noises bothered me greatly. I was told to rest and do nothing, but who knows how to do that?

Music always helps when I'm ill, so I started to make the simplest, quietest music to help me recuperate. I tried to make the music that I wanted to hear, which is perhaps what we should always doing, but in this case there was a direct therapeutic need.

I avoided any jagged edges. I kept imagining the sounds I wanted as round and smooth, like well-worn pebbles.

Lyrically I also found myself eschewing conceptual and metaphoric character led songs. I started to write the simplest and most direct words in the first person, something I have avoided for a few years.

If you are a songwriter and something bad happens to you, people say, "You can write a song about it at least." They mean well, but the big events in life have to seap out gradually with me and not in urgent, confessional bursts. The songs on this record are pleas for calm. As I get older I find I prefer small, quiet things.

All the songs were written on my ships's piano. 'Ship's Piano' is a colloquial term given to small-scale pianos that were used on boats. Mine was built in France in 1933 and folds away to resemble a sideboard. I wrote a song where I imagine its history. It's called 'The Ship's Piano'. "

Darren Hayman, 2012.

Oct 9: Allo Darlin' + The Wave Pictures at EartH Hall

Anglo-Australian indiepop heroes Allo Darlin’ are back with their first new music in a decade. We’re delighted to host them for the London leg of their UK tour - and there’ll be some very special guests joining them on stage.

Support comes from The Wave Pictures.

Face value tickets include a £1.50 venue restoration levy.

No questions asked concessions are available for anyone that can't afford a full price ticket, for whatever reason. No eligibility requirements - we trust you.

Tickets on general sale 10am April 9th.

Pre-sale exclusively via the Allo Darlin' mailing list from 10am April 7th - sign up here in advance to get the pre-sale link: allodarlin.com

Sep 13: Fortitude Valley at New River Studios

FORTITUDE VALLEY

Fortitude Valley is the brainchild of Laura Kovic. Taking influence from the likes of The Beths, The Go-Go’s and Pavement, what results is a ludicrously addictive cocktail of heart-stopping indie-punk power-pop melody and a back catalogue of songs that’ll be living in your head, rent free, for evermore.

adults

Combining elements of indie-pop, punk, emo and just a little bit of 2009 vintage math-rock for good measure, adults are four pals trying to find their way in a disintegrating world. Reflecting on how we look after ourselves, one another and people in our community; their songs are a riotous collision reminiscent of Johnny Foreigner, The Beths or Trust Fund, bursting with crunching guitars, speedy drums and yelping dual vocals. Faster, messier and sillier than they have any right to be, adults are a hopeful and joyous noisy pop band based in South London.

Lanny

Lanny is the solo project of Lan McArdle (Ex-Vöid, Joanna Gruesome). The project explores an idiosyncratic, deconstructed take on the hook-heavy guitar pop they’re known for. Lanny is a sound-world of its own, one that takes in everything from country to indie rock to trap to abstract ambient. Their debut album bliss!! bliss! bliss was released on Gob Nation in October 2024.

Tickets on sale from wegottickets.com/fikarecordings

Pelts - Swimming [Digital]

Artist: Pelts
Title: Swimming
Format: Digital EP
Cat#: Fika1111
Release date: 10th Sep 2025
Bandcamp

Pelts are Cat, Louise and Eilidh, a Copenhagen based three-piece combining a playful mix of post-punk and minimalist riffs. Swimming is their debut EP, 4 direct powerful tracks that are bound to appeal to fans of Grass Widow or Electrelane.

Lyrically, Cat’s always working through her neurosis”, the band explains, “but instrumentally, it’s all about screwing around and letting the collaboration between the three of us create our sound. We all have slightly different approaches to writing for each of our instruments (and sometimes each others’), which can end up creating some contrasts that swing between feeling disjointed and feeling harmonic. We try to embrace the tension and sit through it.”

The artwork and title reflect a fluid-like quality in the songs that comes from the simple setup of guitar, bass and drums playfully interacting with each other while also doing their own thing and sometimes playing their own little melody.

The EP’s title track Swimming sums up Pelts, combining the punchy and the weird, with a driving bass-line, the track slowly evolved with Cat bringing the vocal melodies and Louise fitting out the puzzle pieces with the guitar hooks. Eilidh adds that it’s “the song during which we found out how fast Cat can play the egg!”.

Recorded live with Christian Ankerstjerne in Vindmøllevej, Copenhagen in December 2024, the EP captures Pelts perfectly, pretty bare bones but playful, with the band fully embracing the available percussion and keeping the background screams from an early take on Stressed.

Video by Nik Vestberg.

The video for Swimming was filmed over a few hours on a sunny day in Copenhagen in August 2025. It was shot on a LomoKino camera, a simple, manual, 35mm film camera from Lomography designed to shoot short movies on standard 35mm film.

You crank a handle to expose multiple frames per frame of the film, which you then scan and line up to form a movie. Swimming is made up of 1257 frames, spread over eight rolls of severely damaged Kodak Ektachrome slide film, which expired in 1992.

The result is an antidote to HD perfection and AI-generated video.

Pelts is an Aries trio with roots in London’s DIY scene. The band consists of three friends who came together in Copenhagen after many years in various projects such as Molar, Fever Dream and local twee punks Enids. The Pelts name refers back to the animal associated with their shared star sign.

Pelts are:
Cat: drums + vox 
Louise: guitar + vox
Eilidh: bass + vox

https://www.instagram.com/peltstheband/

adults - patterns [Digital]

Artist: adults
Title: patterns
Format: Digital single
Cat#: Fika110SG1
Release date: 26th Aug 2025
Bandcamp | Spotify

South-London indie-punks adults are back with their second full length album “the seeds we sow are sprouting buds nonetheless” in October. 

Out now, “patterns” is the first single taken from it. A shoegazy, dream pop song about death and everything which follows. Sparkling synths echo the nostalgia of dancing into the night at the Moth Club or sepia soaked photos of shows at Power Lunches. Looping and looping as the song builds until you forget the alienation you feel as everyone moves away from what was once the centre of your small universe.

adults’ new record is a pocketful of seeds, ideas, loves, fears and hopes which have sprouted, grown, and intertwined over the past two years. It's a jumble of indie pop, jangle, shoegaze, emo and country songs made in those moments in between. They say that the new album “gathers together echoes of the songs and bands we love into deeply personal songs about growth, change, loss and love, set to the background hum of a world which wants to crush all hope.”

The songs are patchworks of riffs, loops and overdubs stitched together by long time co-conspirator Rich Mandell over the course of 3 months recording on rooftops and warehouses in South London. This is the longest they’ve ever spent recording, (they did their first record in a day in a garage!) and have tried to put together a much more coherent, intentional record as well as just messing around with loud amps and gear they don’t have access to in their bedrooms!

FFO: los campesinos!, martha, breeders, radiator hospital, nana grizol, sleater-kinney, joanna gruesome, the beths, the pains of being pure at heart.

adults are a fast silly indie punk band of four long term pals (carl, joe, joely and tom) who love indie-pop, diy and burgess park. Containing members from various UK diy bands (Fresh, New Starts, Wolf Girl, Tomboy Grandpa, Top Deck) they write noisy awkward pop songs with crunching guitars, speedy drums and yelping dual vocals. Based in south London and firmly established in the UKs indie-pop scene, adults released their debut single ‘MSN’ with Art is Hard records (Bristol, UK), an EP with Caballito Records (Madrid, Spain) and their debut album ‘for everything, always’ came out in 2022 on Fika Recordings (London, UK). Collaborating on splits with much-loved Bitch Hunt ‘Space Armadillo EP’ and recently with Oxford’s Spank Hair titled ‘…in the big league’.

Influenced by the kindness and community of the UK diy scene, adults continue the fight to write one song as good as the world’s best band, Martha (Durham). 

They have a new album ‘the seeds we sow are sprouting buds nonetheless’ coming out on Fika on 31/10/2025 and will be playing shows around the UK with mates Felicette in October.

Sekunderna - Hits [12"]

Artist: Sekunderna
Title: Hits
Format: 12” transparent violet vinyl
Cat#: Fika108SLP
Release date: 22nd August 2025
Bandcamp | Spotify

Swedish punx Sekunderna return with their second album “Hits” in August - a record of shimmering power pop anthems delivered with a punk urgency in their native Swedish. A razor-sharp burst of melodic energy for fans of The Replacements, Martha and Hüsker Dü.

Recorded in the summer of 2024 at Stallet in Umeå with Henrik Wiklund and mixed/mastered by Jeff Burke, the cheekily titled Hits marks the next chapter for the band, influenced by the raw sound of The Marked Men, as they find escape from the monotony of work within the world of classic Scandinavian literature and cinema.

Fans of Sekunderna’s debut album will recognise the band’s raw energy and existential angst, but Hits also brings something new to the table: acoustic textures, bigger choruses, and a more nuanced sound, all while staying true to their roots. There are moments of sadness, joy, absurdity, and release—like on the first single “Se dig inte om,” a compressed powerpop anthem channeling betrayal and Eyvind Johnson references, or “Kedjorna faller,” set in a Aki Kaurismäki film.

The album’s artwork, created by collaborator Luc Simone, draws inspiration from Guided by Voices and old Swedish cinema aesthetics. Built from vintage magazine clippings and photos of workers in rural Sweden in the 1960s, it reflects the band’s respect for nostalgia, grit, and working-class storytelling. Catchy, heartbroken, and totally alive—Hits is the sound of Sekunderna moving forward without looking back. Turn it up. Let it hit.

Sekunderna are a four-piece from Umeå in Sweden, who combine the melodic instincts of Guided by Voices with the ferocity of Radioactivity and Ebba Grön. Their sound? Think glittering power pop riffs delivered with punk rock urgency—all sung in Swedish.

They formed in 2018, originally under the name Persona, to play punk rock inspired by the darkness of Ingmar Bergman films. Sekunderna (translation: The Seconds) refers back to short sharp punk songs, counting down the seconds before you have to pause your dreams to go to work, counting the seconds until you fall asleep. They sing about the everyday issues in a late stage capitalist society.

Sekunderna are:
Lars Sekund - Lead vocals, guitars
Johan Omen - Lead guitars, back up vocals
Tåme - Bass, back up vocals
Johan Fjellström - Drums

Discography: 
2018 - Persona EP (Luftslott Records, digital)
2020 - Paradiset EP (Luftslott Records, 7”)
2021 - Hjärtat EP (Luftslott Records, 7”)
2022 - Här har du ditt liv (Bloated Kat Records, Rockstar Records, Luftslott Records, LP)
2023 - Tiden är en dröm (Rockstar Records, 12”)
2025 - 4 Way Split (Bloated Kat Records Split LP)

Stanley Brinks - Happy New Year [12"]

Artist: Stanley Brinks
Title: Happy New Year
Format: 12" silver vinyl
Cat#: Fika109LP
Release date: 8th August 2025
Bandcamp | Spotify

Singer-songwriter and cult anti-folk troubadour Stanley Brinks returns with Happy New Year, a 10-song collection of lo-fi gems recorded in Berlin.

Happy New Year is a warm and celebratory record. Over simple rhythms and minimalist arrangements, Brinks delivers lyrics that oscillate between surreal humour, earnest wisdom, and playful melancholy. Happy New Year features contributions from longtime collaborator Clemence Freschard, plus appearances from Jyoti Sekhawat, Monica Kremidi, Rachel Lipson, Irma Ignatavičiūte, and Elisa Aseva, weaving together voices from across Brinks’ musical community. Their harmonies lend the songs a communal intimacy.

Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne. Several albums and Peel sessions later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks. Under this moniker he has recorded considerably 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.