The Hayman Kupa Band - debut album on Fika Recordings in July

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.

<a href="http://shop.fikarecordings.com/album/the-hayman-kupa-band">The Hayman Kupa Band by The Hayman Kupa Band</a>

Bandcamp | Spotify | iTunes

My Old Friend video

Buy your copy of the 7" single here.

Christmas at Fika Recordings

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!

Introducing Enderby's Room

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.

Spotify | iTunes | Bandcamp

Here's Enderby's Room playing Lakeside live at Union Chapel for Daylight Music:

Enderby's Room

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...!

Turtle Dove now available on CD

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You've been asking us for a while for a CD version of Stanley Brinks & The Kaniks' "Turtle Dove", following it's vinyl only release for Record Store Day earlier in the year. So here it is - complete with lyrics booklet - in a gatefold style digifile sleeve. We're shipping copies now from Fika HQ, so if you were after one, now's your chance! It'll be available in shops shortly - we're expecting a mid December street date if you'd prefer to pick it up from your local record shop. Buy your copy here with an immediate mp3/wav/flac download: http://shop.fikarecordings.com/album/turtle-dove

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23rd June: Petito album launch show

A3 Palomica gig poster

June the 23rd - it's referendum day! You've got until 10pm until polls close to cast your vote - but we'd suggest you do that early, and come and join us from 8pm at Haunt for the launch of Palomica's Petito album. Support comes from The Nervy Betters and Actual Crimes. We'll have copies of Petito available to buy ahead of it's release on the 1st of July too. Advance tickets are £5 from WeGotTickets - they'll be slightly more on the door.

To get you in the mood, you can listen to the first single taken from Petito, Honeydew, which is released today!

<a href="http://shop.fikarecordings.com/album/honeydew">Honeydew by Palomica</a>

Math and Physics Club - In This Together

It's an absolute pleasure to announce that we're releasing In This Together, a compilation of EPs, b-sides and rarities from Math and Physics Club. It's the first time on vinyl for all of these tracks, and we've rolled the boat out to make it something truly special: heavyweight cream 12" vinyl wrapped up in a lovely gatefold sleeve, crammed full of release notes, credits and some wonderful liner notes from Tullycraft's Sean Tollefson.

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Longtime fans know that Math and Physics Club have never been ones to stash away their lesser material on EPs and b-sides. Some would argue that many of their best songs over the past decade have appeared on exclusive EPs and vinyl-only singles, which is why this collection of non-album tracks plays like one of the band’s finest full length albums, and works equally well for completists and as a starting point for new fans.

The songs here are carefully presented in reverse chronological order, starting with the stunning new track “Coastal California, 1985” that finds the band still in fine form with its chiming guitars and swelling harmonies. Side one continues without missing a beat, winding through several unreleased and hard-to-find tracks from recent years, including a soft and sweet acoustic arrangement of “Do You Keep a Diary” that turns the tables on the electropop version that appeared on their 2007 EP.

Side two features their beloved and previously out-of-print first two EPs, with the classic jangle of “Movie Ending Romance” kicking off a relentlessly cracking set of pop that, when presented together this way, serves to highlight the band’s remarkable first year.

You can pre-order the vinyl from us now - we'll be shipping these out shortly to ensure you get your copy by the release date on the 24th of June. If CDs are more your bag, then you're in luck too: our friends over at Matinee Recordings are putting the CD out from the USA - pre-order that from Matinee here.

New Sally Shapiro release on Fika Recordings

We've long been a fan of the Sally Shapiro project - so it's with a heavy heart to say that Sally Shapiro are calling it a day with the release of their new single If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind. It'll be released ten years to the day since their first ever release, I'll Be By Your Side. A retrospective compilation is in the pipeline for later in the year on Paper Bag Records.

This is it. Thanks for everything. We did the best we could. Everything came from the heart. Everything was in stereo.

Sally Shapiro

The name “Sally Shapiro” refers to both the Swedish duo, consisting of the producer Johan Agebjörn and an anonymous singer, as well as the pseudonym of the singer herself. In December 2004 Johan discovered Shapiro’s gentle and beautiful voice while the two were singing Christmas carols together. Their first track, I'll Be By Your Side, was released as a 12" single on May 12th, 2006, on the Austrian label Diskokaine (run by DJ/producer Wolfram Eckert).

Sally Shapiro’s debut album, Disco Romance, was a nostalgic trip back to romantic italo disco of 1984. The album was revered by the press, nominated as “dance/electronic album of the year” at the U.S. Plug Awards and was given a spot in Pitchfork’s Top 50 albums of 2007. The tracks on the album were subsequently remixed by Lindstrøm, Tensnake, Junior Boys, CFCF, and Juan MacLean.

Sally Shapiro is known for her shyness: she does not reveal her real name, will not even let Johan into the studio when she sings, and has never performed her songs live. After a handful of DJ dates in 2008, she decided to never ever stand on stage again. However, the duo released two more studio albums, My Guilty Pleasure in 2009 and Somewhere Else in 2013.

Apart from a collaboration single with Tommy '86 - Why Did I Say Goodbye - and a few appearances on Johan's solo album Notes in 2015, Sally Shapiro has been silent since the last album. The new two-track single is scheduled for a release on the 10th anniversary of I'll Be By Your Side - May 12th - and will be the last recorded piece of music by Sally Shapiro.

They explain why: ”Our musical tastes don't overlap that much anymore. Johan is more into 90s-style electronica these days, and Sally is into non-electronic pop. In three years, we've only managed to record these two songs as Sally Shapiro, so with this single we have decided to call our musical project a day, and we would like to thank everyone who followed us on this journey.”

The A-side, If You Ever Wanna Change Your Mind, was co-written by longtime collaborator Roger Gunnarsson and co-produced by Mitch Murder (Kung Fury OST). The B-side, Dangerous, is an acoustic interpretation of the David Guetta hit, with guitar played by Johan's cousin, Jonas Agebjörn. The digital editions of the single come with two remixes by French synthwave artist Tommy '86 as well as UK nu-disco producer Ben Macklin.

Pre-order the white 7" single from the Fika Recordings shop.

Stanley Brinks and The Kaniks - Turtle Dove

For the first time ever, Fika Recordings is getting involved in Record Store Day!Record shops, and the people who own and work in them, are wonderful. Before Fika got going (back when I had 'free time'!), there'd be nothing better than spending lazy afternoons in Selectadisc in Nottingham, or Zulu in Vancouver, or Soundclash in Norwich, simply browsing, chatting and listening to records... buying a record I'd been meaning to pick up, and coming out with a few other treats that were completely new to me, many of which have gone on to become some of my favourite albums, and which still take me back to that very shop, listening to it for the very first time, all off the back of a recommendation from someone who really cared. That's what record shops mean to Fika, and that's what Fika wants Record Store Day to be about - a celebration of great music, great people and great shops. So here we are, our first RSD release - here hopes we can all crowd out yet another over-priced deluxe re-issue double vinyl package of an album your Dad bought and never really liked anyway...

Following the albums Gin and My Ass recorded with The Wave Pictures in un-gentrified East London, Stanley Brinks (aka André Herman Dune) returns with a new collaborative album, this time with the Norwegian folk collective The Kaniks as his backing band. Eschewing a traditional recording studio, André took The Kaniks to a remote island outside the small town of Egersund in south west Norway. Over the course of week of midnight sun, midnight swims and midnight beers on their isolated rocky island, living and recording in the only building on the island, the (now un-manned) mid 19th century Vibberodden lighthouse at the invitation of the town’s mayor, Stanley Brinks and The Kaniks recorded three albums of material; Turtle Dove is the first of those three to be released. Brinks is renowned for his unique antifolk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. His fondness for calypso and the unusual provide the perfect foil to The Kaniks’, whose folk instrumentation and country and bluegrass influences take these 12 songs to a joyous place Brinks hasn’t been before in his extensive back catalogue.

Turtle Dove comes on blue vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with full download and bonus download of 2 track single “Too Much Women”. It is a Record Store Day exclusive release, on 16th April 2016. It is released digitally on the 22nd of April, from when any remaining copies will be available to order from the Fika Recordings online shop. It is preceded by the two track digital single Too Much Women on the 8th of April.

Stanley Brinks and The Kaniks

Stanley 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.

The word "kanik" first came about when some people in the church choir realized how out of tune they were, and decided to call themselves the "cannots" (Norwegian "kan ikke”): those who can not sing. The Kaniks are all traditional Norwegian musicians, and they actually are good singers. Brinks met them partying in the harbor of Egersund, a fishing town in the wild Southwest of Norway. They were all in different bands of all kinds, playing Cajun music, Johnny Cash covers, Norwegian folk songs, modern jazz, communist anthems, and West African instrumentals.

StanLighthouse