A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

Fever Dream

The Winter Sprinter 2018 - full line up!

Presented by Fika Recordings, WIAIWYA and Gare du Nord

Tues 2 January - Fri 5 January at The Lexington, London, N1

4 day early bird passes available for £34.50 and individual day tickets for £11 adv at www.wegottickets.com/fikarecordings

Tues 2 Jan: The Surfing Magazines Pete Astor Jessica’s Brother

Wed 3 Jan: Steven Adams & The French Drops Fever Dream Charmpit

Thurs 4 Jan: Laetitia Sadier The Leaf Library Enderby’s Room

Fri 5 Jan: Darren Hayman Ralegh Long Picturebox

Four nights, three labels, twelve bands, DJs… the perfect antidote to the post-Christmas blues in the intimate surroundings of The Lexington. Thanks to Track & Field and Fortuna POP!; without their previous stewardships of the Winter Sprinter, we'd all be sat at home feeling glum the first week of January.

The Surfing Magazines The Surfing Magazines are a new garage-rock group consisting of two thirds of The Wave Pictures and one half of Slow Club. Consisting of David Tattersall and Franic Rozycki of The Wave Pictures, Charles Watson of Slow Club and drummer Dominic Brider. Not content with their already ferocious work rate, with three album releases in 2016 alone and over twenty in total between them; members of The Wave Pictures and Slow Club’s 11-track debut as Surfing Magazines is an intriguing and exciting mishmash of musical styles – soundtrack surf, weird pop and Americana. Pulling in influence from all of the great surf music of the 60s and the band’s musical inspirations of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed, the band are professedly ‘at war’ with today’s pretentious prog-indie-rock millionaires and bongo pop demigods. They intend to ‘rock out and blow your mind, and then mellow out and soothe your mind, then rock out again’.

Pete Astor Pete has made records as part of The Loft, The Weather Prophets, The Wisdom of Harry and Ellis Island Sound on Creation, Matador, Heavenly and more. He released Spilt Milk on Fortuna Pop in 2016 and has now signed to Tapete Records, home of The Clientele, Lloyd Cole and The Monochrome Set. Pete has been recording a new album with with James Hoare (Ultimate Painting, Proper Ornaments, Veronica Falls) on guitar and The Wave Pictures’ rhythm section of Franic Rozycki on bass and Jonny Helm on drums.

Jessica’s Brother Jessica’s Brother are singer songwriter Tom Charleston, bass player Charlie Higgs (formerly of The Ramshackle Union Band), and drummer Jonny 'Huddersfield' Helm (of The Wave Pictures). They make rock music with strong Americana influences, and a twist of English gothic darkness.

Steven Adams & The French Drops In the wake of critically acclaimed solo album, 2016's intimate 'Old Magick', and several years of one man shows, Steven Adams has a new band. He's joined by Daniel Fordham and David Stewart, rhythm section with psych-folk oddballs The Drink, guitarist Michael Wood (Singing Adams/The Leaf Library/Hayman Kupa Band) and a rotating cast of guest musicians. Steven Adams, aka, The Singing Adams, aka Steven James Adams, was in The Broken Family Band.

Fever Dream Fever Dream play dark, fuzzy, menacing music that blurs the line from noisy shoegaze to angular post-punk. Intense, melodic and expansive, they are a real treat live and have really good hair.

Charmpit Originally from California but now based out of South-East London, self-described ‘pop punk anarcuties’ Charmpit mash up sugary sweet melodies, lo-fi production and semi-serious subject matter to take a stab at society’s injustices whilst still keeping everything suitably fun. The band formed for the First Timers festival at DIY Space For London last year, a festival where every band on the line-up is playing their first show.

Laetitia Sadier Lætitia Sadier has arguably one of the most recognizable voices in music. Since arriving on the European indie scene back in 1991 with the first Stereolab EP, Super 45, Sadier’s vocal and lyrical approach has remained consistent: She applies her crystalline alto to lyrics that explore philosophy and political inequality through a Marxist lens. In Stereolab and as a solo artist, Sadier’s musical tastes have tended to skew nostalgic, mixing influences of 1960s pop from the U.S. and Brazil, easy listening, and German kosmische.

The Leaf Library The Leaf Library make droney, two-chord, pop that00!0!00s stuck halfway between the garage and the bedroom, all topped with lyrical love songs to buildings, stationery and the weather.

Enderby’s Room 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. Mayfield has played violin for many artists including Daniel Johnston, Darren Hayman, The Wave Pictures, Allo Darlin’ and the Belles of London City morris dancers.

Darren Hayman Darren Hayman is a thoughtful, concise and detailed songwriter. He eschews the big, the bright and the loud for the small, twisted and lost. Hayman has taken a singular and erratic route through England’s tired and heartbroken underbelly. Formerly the singer-songwriter of Hefner, Darren Hayman has developed an increasingly idiosyncratic solo career. In recent years Darren has released four albums under his own name - Chants for Socialists where he set William Morris’ words to music; the sister remix album Dubs for Socialists; the album Florence, recorded in Italy; and an album for children called Folk Lullabies for Children and the Childless. As well as writing and recording as himself, Darren has also recorded an album with the band he’s formed with Emma Kupa of Mammoth Penguins (The Hayman Kupa Band), played drums for Papernut Cambridge, keyboards for The Great Electric, and released an EP with his experimental electronic duo Brute Love. Darren has also has been working on an ongoing, hugely ambitious folk project called Thankful Villages, visiting all fifty four 'Thankful Villages', a village in Britain where every soldier returned alive from World War One. Darren visited each of these and, focusing on village life, made a piece of music, a painting and a short film for every one. Some take the form of instrumentals inspired by the location, some are interviews with village residents set to music, others are new songs with lyrics or found local traditional songs.

Ralegh Long English Songwriter Ralegh Long released his recent album Upwards of Summer earlier this year, which won the Help Musician's UK / PledgeMusic Emerging Artist's Award. There is a marked change of pace from his previous records Hoverance and We Are in the Fields, with the jangle of chorus guitars, mandolins and anthemic hooks calling to mind bands such as R.E.M, The DB's, and the Go-Betweens. Written during a time of personal change, when Long was unsure if he was going to continue making music, Upwards of Summer is a revelation. He released his debut album Hoverance to critical acclaim in 2015. Leaving his adopted London, Long returned to his childhood home to write an album of singular grace and simplicity, steeped in natural imagery and "Spooky pastoralism" (MOJO). Hoverance and its follow-up E.P We Are in the Fields (2016) won praise from The Guardian for their “twilit ambience and demented beauty” and from Sky Arts as "calling to mind the atmosphere of Nick Drake".

Picturebox Melodic indie pop music from the cathedral city of Canterbury. Songs about girls, animals, football, anything, everything, nothing. They’ve released two albums on Gare Du Nord and are currently finishing off their third. Leader Robert Halcrow is also involved in the FXU2 project with Jack Hayter and Citizen Helene, and also plays bass for Papernut Cambridge and more recently Twink & The Bare Nodes.

Tigercats

We're very excited to announce that Tigercats are back! Following the success of their debut album Isle Of Dogs in 2012, they'll be playing a show for us on Saturday the 24th of May, at The Shacklewell Arms in London to preview material from their upcoming album before they head over to Spain to play the Primavera festival. Support comes from Fika favourites Fever Dream and Mammoth Penguins.Tickets are available now from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/269947.

TIGERCATS Tigercats return for their first London show in almost a year having completed recording the follow up to 2012’s debut album “Isle Of Dogs”.

Tigercats are a band from East London who make pop music with guitars, keyboards and drums. After previous band Esiotrot shambled to a halt, songwriter Duncan Barrett sought a leaner, lither framework for his open-hearted songs. He asked his brother and long-time producer Giles to join on bass, who was soon followed by Jonny on drums, Laura on keyboard and Paul on guitar. After early singles on Haircut Records and WeePop, their debut album Isle of Dogs was released in 2012 on Fika Recordings and Acuarela Discos. In their short life Tigercats have played across most of Europe, including sets at Primavera Festival, appearances on Spanish TV (RTVE Radio3) and Indietracks. Across innumerable mini-tours they have shared stages with: Allo Darlin’, the Wave Pictures, Darren Hayman, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Standard Fare, Let’s Wrestle, the Lovely Eggs and Milky Wimpshake, amongst others. They recently completed their first trip across the pond and toured the USA and Canada with labelmates the Smittens and Making Marks in spring 2013, culminating with a headline appearance at NYC Popfest. They played End of the Road Festival last summer with the likes of Belle & Sebastian, Dinosaur Jr and Sigur Ros, and they are currently working on their second album, which they hope to have out in time for summer 2014.

“Tigercats are a very, very good band. The kind of band that make you want to be a teenager again, so they can be your band.” The Sunday Times

“there’s something unconsciously authentic about Tigercats... this could be a band to listen to obsessively” Drowned In Sound

“Their songs betray no ulterior motives of forced cool, only an enthusiastic young band in love with making songs. Excellent, alive, and bright.“ Artrocker

tigercatsband.com

FEVER DREAM If post-punk bashed heads with shoegaze - you'd probably end up with a band that sounds like Fever Dream. Frantic shreds of guitar over that bass sound held together by tight as drumming. Easily one of the best live bands around at the moment.

“Taking inspiration from the noisy 90s, ie: Sonic Youth, Pavement and My Bloody Valentine they create intriguingly varied tracks. They range from gushing dream-pop melancholia on ‘This Waste’ to scuzzy, guitar and skewed rhythms on ‘Poyekhali!’ and messy, snarly post-punk on ‘Suspense’ – think Ride meets Fidlar.” This Is Fake DIY

feverdream.co.uk

MAMMOTH PENGUINS Infectious, scrappy lo-fi indie rock from Emma, Mark and Tom. They're a 3-piece indie-pop/alt-rock band from Cambridgeshire.

facebook.com/MammothPenguins

Fulhäst - But They Don't Even Sell Lo-fi Parasols In Top Shop

Here's a new video from Fulhäst, the second from his debut album Broken, starring members of Tigercats and Fever Dream. Fulhäst plays lo-fi Gameboy pop-punk about movies, heartbreak and stuff.

The album was recorded in the spring by Darren Hayman and Darren has also remixed one of the tracks, Your Skin, available here as a free download.

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