We're so happy to be able to say Mikey Collins has joined the Fika Recordings family. You might know Mike from his time behind the drums with Allo Darlin', or his work at Big Jelly Studios, but now he's finished his debut solo album and will be releasing it with Fika in August.
Today marks the release of the first track from that album - the single is called Sound in Here and it premiered over at Clash Music on Wednesday.
In June we're putting out the latest album from Freschard & Stanley Brinks! Just like the long since sold out Pizza Espresso, this will be a super limited vinyl run - and once again we're delighted to be working alongside WIAIWYA on it. Listen to Success from the LP now and remember to order your copy before they're all gone...
Our next release is Peanuts, the latest album from Stanley Brinks (aka Andre Herman Dune). Out on the 11th of May, Peanuts is available on ruby red 12" vinyl, digipack CD and digitally from all the usual outlets.
After releasing a pair of playful records alongside of The Wave Pictures, and two albums of folk shanties and old-time calypso with Norway’s folk troupe The Kaniks, Stanley Brinks’ next release for Fika Recordings is back to being a solo affair, albeit with collaborator and long time muse Clemence Freschard alongside Claire Falzon and Helene Nuland.
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 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.
Cult Scottish miserabilists The Just Joans are delighted to be releasing their first new album in more than a decade, following the band’s signing to Fika Recordings.
Formed in Glasgow in 2005, The Just Joans have evolved from a shambling two-piece to an accomplished sextet that embraces rivalry and relationship in the vocals of siblings, David and Katie Pope.
Once described as ‘the missing link between The Magnetic Fields and The Proclaimers’, the band have used self-awareness and self-deprecation to continuously explore themes of angst, heartbreak and detachment in their songs.
From their 2006 debut album Last Tango in Motherwell through a series of successful EPs, to 2012’s compilation Buckfast Bottles In The Rain, the acerbic wit in David Pope’s observational lyrics have helped make the band a firm favourite of the indie-pop scene. Their rise has seen them play a plethora of international festivals, such as Wales Goes Pop, Indiefjords, NYC Popfest, and of course the Indietracks festival, of which they have been long-standing cult favourites since their first appearance in 2008. The band are excited to release You Might Be Smiling Now…, a self-recorded and produced collection of new songs. The release offers more of the same cynicism, but from an older if not necessarily wiser perspective as evidenced on lead single No Longer Young Enough and You Make Me Physically Sick (Let’s Start Having Children) is a jaundiced slice of toybox pop that crosses The Human League and Harold Steptoe.
Complementing this shift in tone comes a more polished electronic sound on tracks A Matter of Time and Someone Else That You Like More Than Me while O' Caledonia sails along at a blistering pace like no Just Joans lament before it.
Despite the band’s obvious maturity, You Might Be Smiling Now... still manages to maintain all the emotional charm and whimsical melodies that led The List to view The Just Joans as ‘a lovable blend of sleepy acoustic guitars, Brian Wilson-esque harmonies and West Coast sarcasm.’
Discussing the new album, singer-songwriter David Pope:
“You Might Be Smiling Now... could be considered a loose concept album. The songs detail the confusion in my teenage years, the horror of my twenties and the terror of my encroaching middle age. It's somewhat self-indulgent, but I hope that these wee stories about small town boredom, drunken romance and misty-eyed nostalgia resonate with the other overgrown teenagers out there in their mid-thirties.”
The Just Joans are David Pope (vocals and guitar), Katie Pope (vocals), Chris Elkin (lead guitar), Fraser Ford (bass guitar), Doog Cameron (keyboards) and Jason Sweeney (drums).
Pre-order You Might Be Smiling Now... on heavyweight black vinyl, CD or as a download.
It's been five long years since The Just Joans released their first full length album on WeePOP! and we've been eagerly awaiting what was to come next.
So we're obviously VERY excited to be saying The Just Joans have joined us here at Fika Recordings. We've got a brand new 2 track 7" vinyl from them out in July (just in time for Indietracks). No Longer Young Enough is on mustardy yellow vinyl, the flip side has Breakfast For Our Tea. If you've seen The Just Joans lately, there's a chance you'll remember one or other of these..
This one's available to pre-order right now.
And then you'll only have to wait until the autumn for the new full length album. But we'll tell you all about that in due course...
We've been huge fans of Emma Kupa for a long time now, so we're very excited to be working with her on the debut album from The Hayman Kupa Band, alongside Fika stalwart Darren Hayman.
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.
The first track taken from the album is No More Bombs, and we'll be revealing a couple more in the run up to the album's release on the 21st of July. You can pre-order it here.
Buy your copy of the 7" single here.
We've a host of Christmas releases to keep you going through the festive season. Our double albums from Norwegian Christmas supergroup Sunturns:
<a href="http://shop.fikarecordings.com/album/christmas-i-ii">Christmas I & II by Sunturns</a>
A four track EP from Allo Darlin's Bill Botting:
<a href="http://shop.fikarecordings.com/album/its-not-christmas-anymore">It's Not Christmas Anymore by Bill Botting & The Two Drink Minimums</a>
A long sold out 6 track 10" from Darren Hayman:
<a href="http://darrenhayman.fikarecordings.com/album/christmas-in-haworth">Christmas In Haworth by Darren Hayman</a>
And our mammoth free/pay-what-you-like advent calendar from 2011: (and don't forget the advent calendar site, with downloads, artwork, prose and more)
<a href="http://shop.fikarecordings.com/album/darren-hayman-fika-recordings-advent-calendar">Darren Hayman & Fika Recordings advent calendar by Various Artists</a>
Finally, here's a Spotify playlist if that's more your bag...
Happy Christmas!
I found some notes recently from when I was first setting up the label 6 or so years ago, listing some of the bands I'd love to release once I'd worked out what the hell starting a record label actually entailed. Tucked up near the top of that list was Enderby's Room.
So, I'm really quite chuffed to say that today we're releasing the debut single from Enderby's Room. It'll be followed up with a couple more digital singles and a proper 7" in February, and a full album is on it's way to manufacture now - expect that to be out in April.
Enderby’s Room is fiddle player Dan Mayfield, once from rural Lincolnshire, but he has now found home living in London. His folk tinged songs reflect on his traditional folk upbringing, which included playing fiddle for Morris dancing sides around the country. Mayfield has played fiddle for many artists including Daniel Johnston, Darren Hayman, The Wave Pictures and Allo Darlin.
Over the past ten years he has gently built up a collection of his own songs, which he performs with his band Enderby’s Room. The name comes from an Anthony Burgess character called Mr Enderby who composed his prose inside the toilet. The band’s make up has been constantly evolving; around 30 different individuals have been a part of Enderby’s Room over the last decade, before settling on the current 5 piece lineup.
Enderby’s Room’s sound features a Victorian pedal harmonium, together with French horn, double bass, ukulele, guitar and percussion.
Lakeside, the first single from their forthcoming debut album, is one of the first songs that Mayfield composed, taken from the perspective of someone longing to be with someone they can’t be with. There are themes of nature and listening which also feature throughout the rest of music on the forthcoming album. Mayfield is joined by Emma Winston (Deerful, Owl & Mouse) on vocals in this lamenting duet.
As well as Enderby’s Room, Mayfield set up School of Noise which encourages young people to be creative with sound, using unusual noise making and sound sculpting machines. This project has seen him take workshops to the Green Man and End of the Road festivals as well as the Southbank Centre, Museum of London, Great Ormond Street Hospital and primary schools around the country.
Here's Enderby's Room playing Lakeside live at Union Chapel for Daylight Music:
Welcome to the latest additions to the label, Enderby's Room! Lakeside, the first digital single taken from their forthcoming debut album, is out on the 2nd of December. That's all we're telling you for the moment... but there'll be plenty more of interest to come shortly...!
