A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

Vinyl

Arborist - Looking For Love [12"/CD]

Artist: Arborist
Title: Looking For Love
Format: 12” white vinyl | digifile CD | digital
Cat#: Fika122
Release date: 16th October 2026
Bandcamp

Love or its absence dominates the intimate songs on the new album from ARBORIST – the musical outlet of Mark McCambridge. Looking For Love, Arborist’s fourth album of exquisitely inventive Americana, places us firmly in his hometown of Belfast, allowing it to act as a microcosm of the wider-world, with all its foibles and charms. We find fictional protagonists scouring the dark corners of the city, wiling-away afternoons in strip clubs, wandering the streets in all weather and reflecting on the harsh reality of modern society, all in search of an elusive love – emphasising our need for it now more than ever.

Looking for Love is ARBORIST’s first album to be self-produced by McCambridge, largely from his home studio in Belfast – and at times it feels like we are in the room with him. It’s a different kind of record for him as previously he has always sought collaboration; whether it be with Kim Deal who chose to sing intertwined harmony on his debut single “Twisted Arrow”, or recording in The Curfew Tower owned by The KLF’s Bill Drummond who described Mark’s songwriting as being  “riven with more loss than any record since Leonard Cohen quit this world”, and who Matthew E White and his Spacebomb band collaborated with to such astonishing effect on the previous Arborist LP, 2023’s An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeros, winner of the prestigious Northern Ireland Music Prize. This time, with no outside producer steering the way, McCambridge found that the quiet hours were where he felt most at ease, despite periods of trial and error, and, by his own admission, moments of feeling genuinely lost in it all.

Despite playing many of the parts himself, McCambridge still called upon old friends from the community around him; Spacebomb’s resident bassist Cameron Ralston (Bonnie Light Horseman, Hiss Golden Messenger) again features throughout the record, alongside Eamon Ferris (The Waterboys) on drums, with the great and the good from Belfast’s vibrant music scene. Grainne Meyer plays concert harp and Aga Olek plays violin for the quasi-title track “Looking 4 Love” – an off-kilter love-letter to Belfast. Meilana Gillard provides a sleazy saxophone on “Bye Bye Johnny Cash” – a seedy tale of a man obsessively visiting a dancer in a club, and The Larne Community Youth Choir provide backing vocals for “Go Kill The Fatted Calf” – a song Mark wrote about his son growing up, a take on the parable of the prodigal son, with Jonny Ashe’s blistering guitar solo adding an album highlight. The Errigal Ensemble String Quartet and Aisling Agnew’s breathtaking flute solo feature on “What Is It You’re Asking” – a song about love, or its absence, both personally and universally in these times.

McCambridge was recently honoured with a “Fellowship” by the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University Belfast where he collaborated with such illustrious names from the literary world as Nick Laird, Caoilinn Hughes and Conor McPherson. Through the University he was given access to the music department's Steinways and pipe organs, and decided to try one out for the album’s centrepiece “I’ve Been A Flaneur”. As Mark explains, "The drone on the pipe organ — and the sound of it starting and stopping — was so visceral that I decided to try a half-written song against it right there and then, and this came out in one take… The song was a breakthrough artistically - I don't think I'll ever record in the same way again after this."

The album was engineered by longtime collaborator Ben McAuley (Van Morrison) and mixed by Jimmy Robertson (Anna Calvi, Beth Gibbons, Fat Dog). The results are staggering, devastating and uplifting in equal measure, calling to mind albums such as Songs Ohia’s Magnolia Electric Co., The Divine Comedy’s Regeneration, The Blue Nile’s Hats and Wilco’s Ode to Joy, as well as early-70s records from John Cale, John Lennon and Bill Fay.

Belfast native Mark McCambridge played his first show as Arborist supporting James Yorkston. A solo tour followed, and impressive performances led to notable support slots alongside Low, Cat Power, Echo & The Bunnymen and Guy Garvey. Arborist's debut single, the Americana-tinged "Twisted Arrow," caught the attention of the critics with an astonishing duet with Kim Deal of The Breeders. The debut album Home Burial (2016) and its follow-up, A Northern View, both received glowing praise, from The Guardian ("instant classic" ★★★★) to MOJO ("devastatingly bleak… upliftingly beautiful" ★★★★) to Uncut (8/10), with BBC 6 Music play from Cerys Matthews, Cillian Murphy, Lauren Laverne, Radcliffe and Maconie and Gideon Coe — and Steve Lamacq calling single "Taxi" "one of those records that makes you immediately stop what you're doing." He went on to even greater success with the 2023 Northern Irish Music Prize winning third LP, An Endless Sequence of Dead Zeroes, which was recorded at SpaceBomb Studios in Virginia with musician and producer Matthew E White. For his fourth LP, Looking For Love, he has signed with Fika Recordings and with a tour approaching in November, 2026 looks set to be a seminal year for the Irish artist.

"A staggering debut of depth and substance" - UNCUT

"An instant classic" - The Guardian

"Devastatingly bleak…upliftingly beautiful" - Mojo

"A poignant, beautiful record" - Lauren Laverne BBC6Music

Press for Looking For Love

“desolate love songs from the dark end of the street” Uncut 8/10
“on Looking For Love he continues to set an extraordinarily high bar for composition, songwriting, and arrangement, making him a songwriter and musician whose every contribution is essential listening” KLOF
“an expertly woven musical fabric with deft lyrical turns of phrase” Music OMH 4/5
“This album continues McCambridge’s trajectory of making beautiful, intelligent and masterful music, and it invites and deserves numerous listens, with each one bringing out different pleasures. Utterly beguiling.” Americana UK
“Looking For Love is a beautifully affecting work, both lyrically and from McCambridge’s delicately handled expansive instrumentation” The Bad Arts
“Sumptuous effort from Belfast balladeer” Hot Press
“Belfast Americana of the highest order, songs of darkness from society’s twilight underbelly, rich in pageantry, and a rare emotional depth, vulnerability and honesty” Music Love Music
“tenderness and grit in equal measure” Nialler9
“something in the songwriting that reminds me of Richard Hawley or even a pop-forward version of Leonard Cohen” Austin Town Hall

Freschard & Stanley Brinks - Pole Fitness [12"]

Artist: Freschard & Stanley Brinks
Title: Pole Fitness
Format: 12" album on green vinyl
Cat#: Fika121LP
Release date: 24th July 2026
Bandcamp

STANLEY BRINKS

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 alongside his brother, David-Ivar. 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 well in excess of 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on numerous occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.

FRESCHARD grew up in a farm in French Burgundy. Aged 18 she moved to Paris, where she baked pies and cakes in a cafe. There, a local musician and regular customer called Stanley Brinks wrote a few songs for her to sing. Homeless in Paris, she saved up just enough money to get herself a ticket to New York. There she found an old electric guitar and started writing her own songs. In 2004 she moved to Berlin, where she recorded her first LP, "Alien Duck". Her second album, "Click Click", recorded in 2006, features electric guitar by Stanley Brinks. On her third album, she plays the drums herself. On her fourth “Shh...” she also plays the flute, and she breaks out the washboard on her fifth “Boom Biddy Boom”.

Freschard & Stanley Brinks - Hotel Berlin [12"]

Artist: Freschard & Stanley Brinks
Title: Hotel Berlin
Format: 12" album on pink vinyl
Cat#: Fika120LP
Release date: 24th July 2026
Bandcamp

STANLEY BRINKS

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 alongside his brother, David-Ivar. 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 well in excess of 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on numerous occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.

FRESCHARD grew up in a farm in French Burgundy. Aged 18 she moved to Paris, where she baked pies and cakes in a cafe. There, a local musician and regular customer called Stanley Brinks wrote a few songs for her to sing. Homeless in Paris, she saved up just enough money to get herself a ticket to New York. There she found an old electric guitar and started writing her own songs. In 2004 she moved to Berlin, where she recorded her first LP, "Alien Duck". Her second album, "Click Click", recorded in 2006, features electric guitar by Stanley Brinks. On her third album, she plays the drums herself. On her fourth “Shh...” she also plays the flute, and she breaks out the washboard on her fifth “Boom Biddy Boom”.

Adam Ross - Bring On The Apathy [12"/CD]

Artist: Adam Ross
Title: Bring On The Apathy
Format: 12” green vinyl | digifile CD | digital
Cat#: Fika117
Release date: 15th May 2026
Bandcamp

Fika Recordings are pleased to present Bring On The Apathy, the third solo record from Scottish songwriter Adam Ross, out 15th May. 

The album was recorded onto tape, using traditional analogue techniques at Glasgow’s Green Door Studio with Samuel J. Smith. It showcases some of the most emotionally open, lyrically deft and characterful songwriting so far from one of Scotland’s most accomplished writers. The vintage recording approach brings a warmth and intimacy to a record which is in equal parts raw and organic while also beautifully arranged and performed as Adam is joined by a raft of excellent collaborators.

The album itself is a reaction. Whether it be in the title, the lyrical content or the method in which the sounds were captured, the listener will find elements of pushback from Adam against the world around him:

“I was feeling fairly down and uninspired about the musical landscape” Adam explains. “The risk with digital recording where every instrument is overdubbed separately is that it can end up sounding metronomic, sterile and lacking personality or a sense of space. I also started to get a bit freaked out by the topic of AI-generated music and the insidious, creeping impact it’s already having. I therefore decided that, as a bit of a protest, I wanted to make something that sounded extra-specially human and hand-crafted, where you could hopefully hear the interplay between musicians.”

For this reason, Adam decided to record the majority of the album live, as a band, playing together in the same room without a click track. “I’d put a band together to tour my last album, Littoral Zone, and I really enjoyed the way we all worked together. I don’t like to micro-manage rehearsals or over-arrange songs and I realised that everyone in the band is very creative and instinctive, rather than being robotic “session musicians”. They’re all great at improvising and adding ideas without ever impinging or encroaching on what the song is trying to convey. I was really keen to capitalise on this with the new record and it suddenly became very clear that an analogue studio would be the ideal way to capture these little connections in a way that felt intimate and authentic.” 

Green Door Studio was chosen as the destination as it specialises in analogue sound production but it had an extra significance for Adam. “Green Door was the first studio I ever recorded in, back in 2009. My band Randolph’s Leap got a demo-development grant and we recorded our first EP there. The band had never actually been in the same room as each other and we were very naïve and unprepared. Recording to tape can be quite unforgiving and, in truth, we probably weren’t ready for it. It took me 16 years to build up the experience and courage to go back!” 

This time around, the “unforgiving” nature of tape recording became an inspiration. “The musicians on the record are such great players that they rarely make mistakes, so there was a confidence there that we wouldn’t need to rely on copious amounts of editing or post-production, which isn’t always possible with tape anyway. If the songs sped up or slowed down a bit or you heard the piano stool creak or someone breathing then that was all fine. I wanted it to sound as natural and “real” as possible. The vintage equipment brings a delicious amount of depth to things like the drums. I’m not sure I can go back to digital now!” 

The core band consisted of Owen Curtis-Williams on drums, Cameron Maxwell on bass, Pedro Cameron on violin, Gillian Fleetwood on harp and (long-time collaborator with Randolph’s Leap) Pete MacDonald on piano. Mercury Prize-nominated artist C Duncan was drafted in to write and perform backing vocal arrangements along with Amanda Nizich and Gillian Fleetwood.

Adam says “I made this album for myself and tried not to second-guess things when it came to stylistic choices. I’d been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan, Karen Dalton and Bill Callahan records and I thought it might be interesting to apply those sorts of influences to my brand of Scottish quirk-pop”. 

The title, ‘Bring On The Apathy’, sums up the mood surrounding the creation of the album. “I couldn’t get away from the sense that people are feeling quite jaded. I think it’s a natural response to the way the world is right now. There’s obviously a much wider, societal aspect to that idea, but it also relates directly to the way I feel about releasing music nowadays. There are lots of highs and many beautiful, rewarding moments that come from it but the act of promoting and marketing an album can be incredibly demoralising at times. It’s a fact that the majority of people will have nothing but apathy for the creative thing you’ve spent years cultivating and that’s totally understandable but, you know, it can be tiring. I think apathy is a big reason people decide to stop making art. So the title is meant to be empowering. It’s about recognising the abundance of apathy in the world and trying to inure myself to it and get some kind of control and power over it.” 

While those feelings of weariness and even cynicism are noticeable in the lyrics of the songs, Adam says, “I hope there’s plenty of positivity and optimism to be found in there too. I wanted there to be lots of grey areas rather than binary emotions though. There’s also a lot of playfulness and provocation in the words. I don’t necessarily mean everything I sing.” 

The sense of bittersweet melancholia is also tied in with another key theme of the record: aging. The album opens with Berkeley Street, a twisting and turning collection of snatched memories from Adam’s time living in Glasgow in his 20s. He has since relocated to St Cyrus, an Aberdeenshire village on the north-east coast. “I was in Glasgow for a Celtic Connections gig in January 2025. It was unseasonably warm and I was wandering the streets around where I’d lived over a decade earlier. It all felt entirely familiar but I bumped into a guy I used to know and his hair had turned grey since I last saw him. Now, I’ve got nothing against grey hair of course, but it was a clear reminder of the pesky old passage of time.” 

The closing track is, appropriately enough, entitled Time and examines the idea of purpose. “It’s something I didn’t think about much until recently. I’m quite good at living in the moment but as I reach my mid-late 30s I’m much more prone to a bout of existential dread.”

Self-interrogation threads its way throughout the album. “Is this a midlife crisis or is it art?” asks Adam on Crisis while I Never Thought You Couldn’t Not asserts that the path to success is “littered with the bodies of the easily distracted and the self-aware.” 

However, despite the ennui, Adam is keen to state that he has no intention of giving up. “Songwriting is a form of therapy. It’s good to explore these feelings and get them out there. I feel much better for it and, on the whole, music-making is a joyful thing for me. I’ve still got plenty of optimism and I’m already pouring it into new songs. I’m really proud of this record. It’s my favourite thing I’ve ever made. I hope people like it. Bring on the apathy.”

Pre-release praise for Bring On The Apathy:

"Masterful songwriting, memorable hooks and melodies at every turn, delicate arrangements and knowing and wise lyrics. A wonderful album. Highly recommended."  - Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) 

"Adam's music and songwriting comfortably inhabits the sweet spot between Edwyn Collins and The Beautiful South, and this album captures him in fine, fine form" - James Yorkston

"A clutch of literate and thoughtful new songs from Adam Ross, dressed in tasteful arrangements that revel in a rich chamber pop tradition. Adam’s lyrics are singular, raising eyebrows, smiles and spirits, usually in the same song." - Withered Hand

Carla J Easton - I Think That I Might Love You [12”]

Artist: Carla J Easton
Title: I Think That I Might Love You
Format: 12” vinyl
Cat#: Fika119LP
Release date: 8th May 2026
Bandcamp
A split release alongside our friends in the USA, Ernest Jenning Recording Co.

Throughout the process of making her acclaimed documentary Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland's Girl Bands, women kept telling Carla J Easton how they bought a guitar, learnt three chords, and dived headfirst into making music. Having built her career around playing keys – through four solo albums, her band’s Teen Canteen and Poster Paints, and currently as part of The Vaselines live setup – she couldn’t shake this idea of following where so many of her heroes had led. 

That seed of an idea soon became the basis for I Think That I Might Love You, Carla’s fifth solo album – still a pop album at heart, but also her first ‘guitar’ record. Produced by ​​Howard Bilerman (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Wolf Parade, Leonard Cohen, The Weather Station) the album finds Carla gathering up friends old and new to craft a record that feels like a natural but also significant leap forward. 

The new album was inspired not only by her time making the Since Yesterday film, but also by her work within Hen Hoose, the Scottish songwriting collective that unites a diverse array of female and non-binary artists, writers and producers to create new work collaboratively. As such, I Think That I Might Love You includes a number of co-writes across its eleven new songs, including Simon Liddell (Frightened Rabbit, Poster Paints), Hen Hoose’s MALKA (Hen Hoose), Glasgow’s Man of the Minch, Canadian singer songwriter Brett Nelson, and cult hero Darren Hayman of Hefner. 

Recorded live off the floor at Glasgow’s legendary Chem 19 studio – and with just a single day’s rehearsal – I Think That I Might Love You is a spirited expression of communal energy; an old school approach to a bold new chapter, a vivid capturing of human performance.

It is also, both suitably and understandably, an album about friendship – a celebration of such things but also a reflection on what it means to lose them. Indeed, the album’s path began in a recording booth at Third Man Records in Nashville, Carla side by side with her friend and songwriting companion Brett Nelson. “We started writing about this idea of the red thread, the red string of fate,” Carla explains. “It’s the idea that you have more than one soulmate, platonic as well as romantic. You’re usually only going to meet people in your postcode, but with billions of people on the planet you've probably got soulmates all over the world. So if you find any kind of thread, that's something really important and you should pick it up and follow it.”

Lead single ‘Oh Yeah’ is also the album’s glowing opener, setting things off with a bucketload of warmth. Co-written with her Poster Paints bandmate Simon Liddell, it’s animated and full of spirit, the track wrapped-up within two-minutes, flying along in a heady rush of melodrama, all glowing melodies and a dizzying sense of adventure. 

Then there’s ‘Let’s Make Plans For The Weekend’ – a co-write with Pedro Cameron – which buzzes in an appropriately colourful style. A buoyant and sharp three-minute pop song, Carla’s voice is spirited and jubilant as the song bursts forward, characteristically infectious, an undercurrent of restless energy. While ‘Red Kites In the Sun’ is classic Scottish indie-pop. Something of a slow-build, it opens with jangly guitars front-and-centre, before the instrumentation shines and swells around her, the song opening up into a warm-hearted gem, the wistful strings adding a whole heap of romanticism that feels deeply charming. 

Elsewhere, ‘Really, Really, Really, Really Sad’, written with with Darren Hayman is swooning and decadent, a 60s tinged burst of heavy-hearted pop, while  ‘Pillars Crash Down’, written with Brett Nelson on a vintage 60s organ, feels like the moment the album’s many shades come together; the heavy-hearted nature of the album’s more withdrawn moments finding a balance with its exuberance, to showcase what feels like a bold new chapter in Carla’s ever-shifting story. 

“When you're co-writing you can find yourself working with genres or sounds that you don't normally do,” Carla says, reflecting on the process. “And that’s great, because I like to keep learning. At this stage, I'm not really trying to reinvent the wheel, I'm here to have fun.”

If that sounds somewhat flippant it’s not supposed to. Carla’s songwriting has changed and improved over the years, and that growth had led her to approach the new album with a whole new dose of confidence. I Think That I Might Love You thrives within that approach, swept up in glistening immediacy, paying no mind to over-thinking. “There’s a shared euphoria that comes from finishing a song you’ve been co-writing with someone,” Carla says. “That’s the feeling we were trying to capture here.”

It’s captured in songs that stirred from a similar place to those women mentioned above, the ones who picked up a guitar, taught themselves to play it, and dived headfirst into spaces they haven’t always been invited to. Those songs grew from long road-trips through the States, through shared voice-notes from her home to friends near and far, and finally on to the Glasgow studio where the whole album came so vibrantly to life. As such, I Think That I Might Love You is a record of communal heart and power. That’s the thread that was followed, and it’s what runs right through these songs from start to finish, binding them all together. Cherry-red and glowing with life. 

About Carla J Easton

Carla J. Easton is an award nominated singer-songwriter, releasing 4 critically acclaimed solo albums. She is also a member of TeenCanteen and Poster Paints, and has written songs/music for Belle & Sebastian, BMX Bandits, Hen Hoose & National Theatre Scotland. Championed by BBC6 Music, she has performed at festivals across the UK and internationally (SXSW, Pop Montreal, The Great Escape, Celtic Connections, Indiefjord and Pop Cologne) touring the UK with Camera Obscura, The Vaselines and Kim Richey.

In 2018, she released the SAY Award Shortlisted 'Impossible Stuff’, produced by Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire/British Sea Power/Leonard Cohen) which featured singles that achieved Record of the Day, Guardian Track of the Week and BBC Scotland Single of the Week.

Her third album 'WEIRDO' was released in 2020 via Olive Grove Records - a record that Bandcamp Daily described as “all volume needles buried in the red, glitter bursting from every chorus.” The Line of Best Fit praised its “maximalist” tendencies while hinting that Scotland has found its own answer to the pop titans Carly Rae Jepsen and Taylor Swift and Pitchfork called it “bubblegum pop [with] the scrappy glamour of a homemade theatrical production”.

Her latest project Poster Paints was formed with Simon Liddell (Frightened Rabbit) during 2020. Their critically acclaimed self titled debut album was released by Ernest Jennings October 2022. 

Her fourth studio album ‘SUGAR HONEY’ was released in 2023 via Olive Grove Records and featured the singles ‘One Week’, ‘Blooming 4U’ and the album title track ‘Sugar Honey’.

She is currently completing her 5th solo studio album, reuniting with Howard Bilerman to produce at Chem19, which has been supported by Creative Scotland.

Carla is a member of the Hen Hoose Collective and Co-Director of the feature-length documentary ‘Since Yesterday: The Unsung Pioneers of Scot

The Leaf Library - After The Rain, Strange Seeds [12"/CD]

Artist: The Leaf Library
Title: After The Rain, Strange Seeds
Format: 12" album on yellow vinyl | CD in digifile sleeve
Cat#: Fika114LP | Fika114CD
Release date: 20th March 2026
Bandcamp

London quartet The Leaf Library return with their brand new album After The Rain, Strange Seeds (out on 20 March via Fika), a luminous collection of pastoral indiepop, drawing inspiration from suburban isolation, unreliable memories and the surreality of the weather. Their most immediate and melodic work to date, the richly evocative songs brim with chiming guitars, buzzing organs and warm, dulcet strings, evoking Yo La Tengo’s more contemplative moments, The Clientele’s autumnal jangle pop and early Stereolab’s motorik melodicism. The sound of the album is defined by mixer John McEntire, whose work with Stereolab and Yo La Tengo (as well as a member of Tortoise and The Sea And Cake) have been major inspirations to the band.

The album explores themes of memory and place, albeit through an abstract haze – returning again and again to specific moments frozen in time: midsummer bright hot days in the Chilterns (“Sun In My Room”), meteorology and the strange movement of the weather (“Colour Chant”), red kites circling over suburban motorways (“Some Circling”), and the uncanny feeling of dusk and nighttime creatures on “The Reader’s Lamp” (titled by celebrated film director Peter Strickland). The lyrics are vivid yet elliptical, strung with abstract ideas and imagery, conjuring a gently unsettling, though never unwelcoming atmosphere. Not quite trusting your own recollection of things, while marvelling at the oddness of the natural world, the album’s title is a good summation of the mix of strangeness and hope contained within.

As on past albums the band - founded by singer Kate Gibson and ex-Saloon guitarist Matt Ashton in the mid 2000s, and now completed by drummer Lewis Young and bassist Gareth Jones - have involved their extended musical family, including guitarist Mike Cranny (of fellow drone pop travellers Firestations) a member of the Leaf Library live band. The album also sees the return of James Underwood’s Iskra Strings, a quartet that features on four tracks, with sumptuous arrangements by Daniel Fordham, as well as regular contributor Melinda Bronstein on vocals and Will Twynham (Dimorphodons) on harpsichord. They also welcomed Paddy Milner (on Hammond organ) and Scott McKeon (guitar) – both current members of Tom Jones’ band – for a startlingly delicate rolling crescendo to closing track “There Was Always A Golden Age”.

After The Rain, Strange Seeds is the fourth studio album from The Leaf Library, which follows Daylight Versions (2015), The World Is A Bell (2019), About Minerals (2020) and a collaborative LP on Mille Plateaux with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb), a double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One - 2022) and a four track EP for electronic label Castles In Space. Band members have been involved with a plethora of solo projects, side-projects and collaborations, most recently Matt, Lewis, Mike from Firestations and singer Marlody in Mirrored Daughters.

Recorded across multiple studios between April 2022 and August 2023, After The Rain, Strange Seeds sees The Leaf Library challenging themselves with more traditional songwriting and more structured compositions (more chords and more choruses!) rather than just relying on sounds or textures. The result is The Leaf Library’s most accomplished and affecting work, John McEntire’s mix bringing a bold clarity to the band’s meticulous arrangements – closer to how they sound live than anything they’ve done before, and a culmination of where they’ve been heading over the years. With After The Rain, Strange Seeds they have created an album that is bright and transcendent yet blissfully intimate.

About The Leaf Library

The Leaf Library are a north London band playing melodic dream-like music built on layers of chiming guitars, pulsing electronics, noise and looping drones. They have released three studio albums (Daylight Versions, About Minerals and The World Is A Bell), a collaborative LP with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb), a recent double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One) and a four track EP for Castles In Space.

The band formed in the mid 2000s around singer Kate Gibson and ex-Saloon guitarist Matt Ashton and has settled into the core line up that includes drummer Lewis Young and bassist Gareth Jones.

On their studio albums the band have collaborated with musicians as diverse as Alasdair MacLean of The Clientele, singer Ed Dowie, noise group Far Rainbow and string collective Iskra Strings, and have provided music for a number of exhibitions, films and performances. Over the last few years they have released five Monument CDRs; an on-going series of experimental solo and side projects on their Objects Forever imprint (which also features releases by Michael Tanner, Melinda Bronstein and anrimeal, amongst others).

In their live shows the carefully constructed and occasionally delicate sound world of their albums is replaced by a sometimes noisier and more intense experience, helped by the addition of an ever-evolving collective of musicians including guitarist Mike Cranny (of fellow drone pop travellers Firestations) and keyboardist Irina Shtreis.

Associated Leaf Library bands include Beneather, Boa Resa and Molch (drummer Lewis Young), Mirrored Daughters (Lewis and guitarist Matt Ashton, plus Marlody and Mike Firestations), The Form Group (guitarist Matt), Sea Glass (guitarist Matt again, Melinda Bronstein and Mike Firestations again), The Nameless Book (guitarist SJ Nelson), Sun Drawing (Matt again), Wintergreen (bassist Gareth Jones), and Basic Design (Matt again).

Reviews for After The Rain, Strange Seeds:

“locates the avant-pop sweet spot” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Mojo
“Experimental Londoners hone sprawl into melodic brightness” [9/10] Uncut
”There is an eerie majesty threaded through this record that trickles through, burrows under the skin and then keeps going.” The Quietus
“a pure and unashamed blast of drone-pop heaven” Moonbuilding
“full of droney, dreamy indie rock” Brooklyn Vegan
“Taken together, it's a set that, like much of Stereolab's output, welcomes the art-school kids, stoners, and indie pop sentimentalists alike” All Music
“beautifully crafted and light” Is This Music
“a potent piece of pop music that brings to mind both Teenage Fanclub and Admiral Fallow” Spectral Nights
“An achingly opulent release” GigSlutz

Press Quotes:

“World-weary yet innocent, blissful dreampop” – Uncut

“A sensory deprivation tank of experimental sometimes-pop” – Concrete Islands

“Like experiencing The Clientele’s ghostly pastoral elegies warped through the drone melodies of Stereolab" – PopLib

"A melancholy wonder" – The Guardian

"Fascinating, bold and experimental drone-pop" – Louder Than War

“Music for a rainy Tuesday afternoon of the soul” – Pete Paphides

The Just Joans - Romantic Visions of Scotland [12"/CD]

Artist: The Just Joans
Title: Romantic Visions of Scotland
Format: 12" album on black vinyl with lyrics insert | CD in digifile sleeve
Cat#: Fika113LP | Fika113CD
Release date: 23rd January 2026
Bandcamp | Spotify | Tidal

 The Just Joans' new album Romantic Visions of Scotland finds the Glasgow band in characteristically melancholic form, pairing shambling indie pop with sharp observations on romantic pratfalls and everyday disappointments, all delivered with sardonic Scottish wit, fronted by siblings David and Katie Pope, whose wry lyrics and heartfelt vocals remain at the heart of the band’s distinctive sound. 

Originally inspired by a grandiose exhibition title spotted on Glasgow buses in 2019 for a show at the National Museum of Scotland called Wild and Majestic: Romantic Visions of Scotland, the new album arrives six years later as a collection of semi-autobiographical snapshots from the Central Belt of Scotland. Whilst some of the details have been exaggerated for comic (or tragic) effect, the songs are based on personal experience of mundane failings, bitter regrets and missed opportunities that make up an unremarkable life.

Recurring themes of nostalgia for a bygone era and the fear of being left behind by lovers, friends and peers run throughout the album. Musically and lyrically, the band channels Village Green-era Kinks, with nods to The Television Personalities, The Smiths and Dolly Mixture.

In the past they have always recorded by themselves in a variety of bedrooms, living rooms – and the occasional toilet. For the first time they have abandoned their DIY recording practices to create what songwriter David Pope calls, “a corporate behemoth in an actual studio.” The album was recorded at Chem19 in Blantyre with Paul Savage, who is best known as a founding member of local legends The Delgados. He has also produced and recorded the likes of Teenage Fanclub, Arab Strap and Camera Obscura, and has captured a slightly more muscular version of the band while retaining their ramshackle charm.

The album artwork by vocalist and painter Katie Pope depicts Motherwell Train Station – an ordinary, boring place that speaks to the subject matter of the songs, but with a hint of potential escape. As David Pope explains, “For me, the painting reminds me of the ending of Billy Liar in which Billy tries and fails to leave his hometown for the bright lights of London. Half the band also live in Motherwell, so it seemed appropriate.”

Funded by Creative Scotland, the recording allowed the band to bring in bass and cello arrangements, adding depth and a sheen of musical proficiency to their signature sound. 

About The Just Joans

The Just Joans were formed in Glasgow in 2005 by songwriter David Pope. Early demos were collected together and released as a loose concept album, Last Tango in Motherwell, in 2006. Chris Elkin joined on guitar and was followed shortly after by David’s younger sister, Katie, on vocals and Fraser Ford on bass. Over the years they have released EPs and albums on WeePOP! and Fika Recordings and have gained a cult following as Scottish pop miserabilists. 

The current line-up consists of Katie Pope (vocals), David Pope (vocals, guitar), Chris Elkin (lead guitar), Fraser Ford (bass), Arion Xenos (keyboards) and Jason Sweeney (drums).

Press Quotes:

“This is gold star indie-pop but with none of the affected feyness of Belle & Sebastian. From the stomp of album opener Think Fast, Make Conversation to electro banger Romantic Visions (Prepare For Disappointment), this is librarian louche with muscle” The Skinny [4/5]

“These ‘Romantic Visions of Scotland’ are ones you’ll want to take in” Spectral Nights

“Simple, easy-pleasing hokiness does still have a place in music, and The Just Joans know how to make it work.” The Soundboard

“This set of songs mines a great tradition of British miserabilism; like The Smiths with a smile; a sense that things are as bad as they seem but we can laugh at them and that makes it all worthwhile.” Vanguard Online

“eleven aural equivalents to Allan Bennett kitchen sink dramas, each individual vignette is an everyday tale of life in the world of The Just Joans and in turn each is a perfectly formed and utterly relatable microcosm of the day to day realities of life in the West of Scotland” The Ginger Quiff

Brutalligators - Still Here [12”]

Artist: Brutalligators
Title: Still Here
Format: 12” Vinyl LP | Digital
Cat#: Fika112LP
Release date: 21 Nov 2025
Bandcamp | Spotify

BRUTALLIGATORS RETURN WITH RAW AND RESILIENT SECOND ALBUM “STILL HERE

A queer indie-punk love letter to learning to accept all that life throws at you, with big sing-along choruses and heart-on-sleeve lyrics about relationships, friendship and gender.

Hitchin-based indie-punk four-piece Brutalligators are back with their second album, Still Here, a powerful, cathartic, and joyously loud collection of songs about survival, identity, and moving forward. From shout-along anthems to intimate confessions, the album explores grief, friendship, queer identity, aging, and that ever-complicated feeling of simply trying to exist.

Following 2021’s This House is Too Big, This House is Too Small, the new record marks a sonic and emotional evolution for the band — trading heartbreak and endings for resilience, and healing, bringing the raw energy of Brutalligators debut with more melodic moments, blending the indie punk of PUP and Menzingers with the cleaner indie sound of Future Teens and Weezer.

Still Here is an album with the mantra of “I’m still here, and I’m alive” says vocalist/guitarist Luke Murphy (they/them). “Looking at how me and my identity hasn’t been accepted in the past, and focusing on the attitude of ‘fuck you, I am who I am, this is what makes me me’”. 

There’s plenty of positivity on Still Here too, ‘Safe Haven’ and ‘Giving Up’ are both completely heart-on-sleeve love letters to the life that we have now – kind of spiritual sequels to ‘Josie’ from the first record – whereas ‘Wrong Words’ is a similar vein to ‘November 4, 2016’ from the first EP, revelling in how awesome it is to have solid friendships.

The breadth of Still Here showcases the progression of Brutalligators as artists who have been grafting in the DIY scene for the past eight years. ‘Still Here’ and ‘Get Better’ are flagbearers for the typical sound of the band, blending lyrics about queer acceptance with the energy and shout-along choruses that wear their influences of bands like Los Campesinos! and Iron Chic on their collective sleeve. However, ‘Nice Try’ showcases the more restrained side of Brutalligators – an ode to feeling stuck, that brings in influences like The Beths and Aarron West And The Roaring Twenties. Meanwhile, ‘Wrong Words’ almost feels like an old Deftones track, with soaring screamed vocals and heavy, chunky rhythms driving the song forward and closing out the album. 

Still Here is a proudly DIY project, largely recorded, produced, and mixed by drummer Rhys Kirkman - a return to the homegrown feel of early EP Animals I Wish I’d Seen. Rich Mandell (Happy Accidents, Me Rex) recorded Hold Fast, allowing the light and shade to shine through with lush layers of synths, piano and organ, while What’s Next was engineered by Tom Hill (Modern Rituals, Muttering), who’s got a real knack for capturing the energy of a track; Tom had recorded the debut Brutalligators album.

Brutalligators are:
Luke Murphy - they/them (vocals/guitar)
Paul Wade - he/him (guitar/backing vocals)
Simo Lee - they/them (bass/backing vocals)
Rhys Kirkman - he/him (drums/backing vocals)

Brutalligators started in late 2016 when Paul and Luke met for a coffee and discovered a mutual love of 90s and 00s emo and hardcore. Having been in various hardcore and emo bands throughout the 00s and 10s, they decided to try and write some songs together and Brutalligators was born. Simo and Rhys joined soon after, before they debuted at The Good Ship in Kilburn in 2017. They self-released their first EP Animals I Wish I’d Seen in 2017, following with the second EP Friends I Wish I’d Had in 2019 via Real Ghost Records. Their debut album This House is Too Big, This House is Too Small was released in 2021 on Beth Shalom Records, which Noizze commented that the album “presents the band in their greatest, most intimate and most cathartic form.” Since releasing This House is Too Big… Brutalligators have been tearing up stages across the UK and Europe, supporting bands such as Fresh, Michael Cera Palin, Dikembe, Johnny Foreigner and Martha. 

Luke and Paul also run the vinyl subscription server Nothing Sounds Good, spreading the word of DIY punk and indie around the UK. Luke is also a contributor to How To Make Friends, a DIY promotion collective that runs gigs across the UK, and hosts the How To Make Friends podcast, which interviews DIY bands about what it is to be a musician today. Paul also plays in the party-metal collective Needle in the Cross, and makes award-winning short films under Wade Bros Productions. Rhys performs solo folk-punk as Rhys Kirkman. We think Simo might be a fey creature that sustains themself on glitter and multi-sided dice, but we are unsure…

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.

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)