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
Just a quick reminder that we'll be hosting some fika at this weekend's Indietracks festival. Pop down to the workshop tent on Sunday at 3pm for some teas, cakes and probably a bit of music from a few Fika artists. Both Horowitz and Moustache Of Insanity are playing during the weekend and there might be one or two special guests as well. We'll have some cassettes and records for to buy as well. See you there!
Lisa Bouvier "On “Hans indievärld” you can hear references to Shout Out Louds, My Darling You, Mixtapes Are Cellmates, Firefox AK, Those Dancing Days, and many more. The soaring trumpets and coy female vocals make this an almost perfect slice of indie pop." Swedesplease.net
Lost Summer Kitten
"I can't tell if the pitch on this is a bit wired because of the duplication process or if it is supposed to sound so wonky, regardless I like the ultra low fidelity of this. These guys/ladies have somewhat of an infectious bittersweet and melancholy pop sound which I find rather endearing. Handmade cassette to be listened to while eating cake (recipe supplied) and drinking tea (teabag also supplied). Come with digital download to... Ah bless them, they've thought of everything." Norman Records
Horowitz
"The three songs on 'The Knitwear Generation' are joyous. The title track is the best song I've ever heard about cardigans, but can we just skip onto 'Summer Promised Me Too Much', please? Because it's probably the best, most affecting song Horowitz have ever written. Lying somewhere between the heartbreak of Brighter and the sonic beauty of early Ride or Pale Saints, it's the sort of song that you'll play ten times in a row without realising it. And just when you think it's dying away, it takes off spectacularly again, before leaving you hanging onto a shimmering chord. I'm just about to play it again. Oh, yeah, and 'Play Me Your Song' is pretty good, too. A straight down the line pop romp, with some Pavement-y bits thrown in for good measure." A Layer Of Chips
Moustache Of Insanity
"This is part of a series of tape releases from Fika records that all come with a Christmas tea bag, a cake recipe, a pin badge and a free download. As you can imagine it's as cute as it sounds and oozes power nerd indie pop cool. Moustache Of Insanity have entered my radar before and i think they are a very charming entity. They mix classic strum-a-long indie pop cuteness with odd synth noodlings and cut up bits of found audio all performed on cheap (and most likely broken) casio's. Their recording quality could be improved (this tape is a double quiet affair) but it doesn't effect the overall enjoyment of the songs, in fact it enhances the twee appeal ten-fold. Like Television Personalities playing at the end of a long tunnel." Norman Records
Thank you all for coming along to our launch party - we hope you enjoyed all the bands and the cakes on offer. We had a lovely time, so we're going to do it all over again for our next releases, sometime in June. Lost Summer Kitten:
Lisa Bouvier:
Horowitz:
Moustache Of Insanity:
More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thetoma/sets/72157625951560847/
Artist: Lisa Bouvier
Title: Indien Är Död
Format: handmade cassette tape
Cat#: Fika001
Release date: 12th February 2011
Bandcamp
The first time I met Andreas, he was late. It was my first lesson in acoustic physics, and I was quite surprised by seeing the ex-drummer of Quit Your Dayjob suddenly open the door and quite unsuccessfully try to sneak into the classroom without being noticed.
As the term went on, we explored our mutual love of weird indiepop over the gross excuse for coffee you could buy for 20p at the cafeteria. I listened to his solo project Allt Ar Musik on his Ipod and instantly liked his twisting and turning swedish lyrics. I’d had the idea of swedish indiepop songs about swedish indiepop for quite some time, and Andreas was the perfect partner for this project.
We translated our favourite namedropping songs and wrote some of our own (as you might have noticed, the song Andreas is a cover of my song Andrew, I thought I was quite witty when I came up with it).
LisaBouvier cassettes
I can’t remember who played what when and where, but I have a strong memory of Andreas playing saxophone in a hearing test room in the basement of our school, and I know I was quite happy with my bass playing somewhere at my work one late night. Does it really matter? We did it together, with a little help from Lars Diurlin and Emmy Hogstrom-Tagesson. Thank you!
Three years later, Fika president TomA dug up these tracks and we could finally release them properly. I still think they’re quite good.
//lisa
You can buy Lisa's EP at our shop.
...with Horowitz, Moustache Of Insanity, Lisa Bouvier and Lost Summer Kitten.
To celebrate the announcement of our launch gig, we've made the whole of Lisa Bouvier's debut EP for us available to stream on last.fm. You can go here to listen to it in its entirety.
This is the launch party for the new diy indiepop cassette label, Fika Recordings. All four of our launch artists will be releasing a cassette EP tonight, so come along, there'll be cake!
Horowitz [UK] Horowitz are “the sound of the indiepop underground”. The two piece have penned some of my favourite pop songs over the past years, with both I Need A Blanket and Popkids of the World Unite guaranteed to get me shuffling my feet at any disco. After releases on indie staples Cloudberry and Thee SPC, we’re very proud to be releasing their next EP. http://www.myspace.com/horowitzband
Moustache Of Insanity [UK] I love this band. Over the past 18 months or so of seeing Moustache Of Insanity across the UK and Sweden, no other band has made me grin like a buffoon, jump about so much or make me feel quite so alive. Shambolic, adorable and utterly essential. http://www.moustacheofinsanity.com/
Lisa Bouvier [SE] Lisa Bouvier took the brave leap into the pop world 2007, having grown tired of compromises in various band formations. She quickly made a name in southern Sweden as its most frisky popstar with handclaps, vocal harmonies and a bloodied guitar that could get any pop club or living room dancing along to her catchy songs. This is Lisa's first solo show (though she'll be joined by her backing band of exceptionally talented Swedes) in the UK, before playing Oddbox and Big Pink Cake night's later in Feb and March. http://lisabouvier.se/
Lost Summer Kitten [SE] Lost Summer Kitten was born late in Lund, Sweden, sometime around December 2005. The duo have since been joined by friends to perform their tales of bittersweet heartbreak. This is their very first UK show! http://www.myspace.com/lostsummerkitten
Tickets are £5 advance from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/103538 Tickets will be available on the door (£6, £4 unwaged). Doors at 8, LSK on at 8:30pm.
For more details see http://fikarecordings.wordpress.com/ and here for the facebook event,
We're very excited to be able to announce our first two releases will be from two of my favourite Swedish artists: Lisa Bouvier and Lost Summer Kitten. Lisa's EP is chock full of cracking energetic pop songs; Lost Summer Kitten have a delightful EP of downtempo wintery songs. Both will be released in February at the same time as cassettes from two of my current favourite UK artists - one are indiepop legends from the potteries, the other closely connected to a band who have made my favourite album of 2010... we'll be announcing names shortly, along with details of our launch party. We'll be showcasing all four artists, there'll be cakes and some indiepop tunes after to dance well into the night.
