News Posts — Fika Recordings
A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

Mirrored Daughters - Mirrored Daughters [12"]

Artist: Mirrored Daughters
Title: Mirrored Daughters
Format: 12” black vinyl
Cat#: Fika106LP
Release date: 21st February 2025
Bandcamp | Spotify

Fika presents Mirrored Daughters - an album of lo-fi folk-pop and explorative woodland meditations from members of Firestations, The Leaf Library and Marlody. Bright-eyed, melodic music inspired by travels in Epping Forest as much as it was by spontaneous collaboration, these 11 tracks deliver an intriguing journey through (and beyond) the forest - crystal clear melancholy interspersed with benign drone rituals. 

The music on their self-titled debut takes a step away from the widescreen production of the artists’ other groups and instead revels in the instinctive, warm tones of acoustic instruments; guitars, cellos, clarinet, a harmonium and bells providing the earthy sonic environment for these spacious songs. 

Starting out as quickly-recorded acoustic guitar and bass pieces by Lewis Young (Leaf Library drummer) they were then taken up by Mike Cranny (guitarist and singer in fellow Walthamstow travellers Firestations), cellist Hannah Reeves and additional Leaf Library member Matt Ashton. Each added parts remotely, engineered in their home studios, before singer Marlody brought her crystalline voice to the music; layered harmonies and twisting, looping phrases that tie the story together.  

Alongside these sketches were Lewis’s trips to the forest with a train of bells and a battered old violin, all dragged through mud, fallen leaves and brambles to create otherworldly yet natural sounds - music that sounds like it’s sprung from the forest floor. Lewis likens this ritual to “uncovering music that’s always been… a summoning of spirit folk, used to appearing in autumn, taking a pilgrimage through forests with joy and frivolity. A Miyazaki-meets-Chaucer kinda vibe.” 

While the music is inhabited by these eerie and historic landscapes - camps, iron age forts, the folklore and the golden atmosphere of autumn - the lyrics speak to more personal (if occasionally abstract) concerns, both revelling in the escape enabled by the forest and worrying about the encroaching city at the edge of it. There are dreams of leaving (“Leave the sound and your heavy head behind” from first single City Song, “Silently running at the moment of waking” from Waiting At The Water) and fear of stasis (“I fell over in my sleep again, a head all cloudy with fine rain, depthless in the breaking day, tiredness is waiting, serpentine” from Unreturning Sun). 

The band name, taken from lyrics posited by Mike during the lyric writing process, perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere conjured here, neither sinister nor wholly comforting, unknown yet alluring. As author Will Ashon says in the sleeve notes to the album (an excerpt from his book Strange Labyrinth published by Granta Books), “Everything is always changing in Epping Forest. There’s the yearly cycle of growth and death, of course, and the daily iteration of this in new buds, new blossom, new leaves, dead blossom, dead leaves and so on, the tiny, inconsequential shifts which gradually add up to something more”.

From the album opener, the gently sinister Mirror Descend, to the skyward-looking, hopeful closing track of Mirror Ascend, this collection of songs and rituals leaves space for the listener to take their own journey through a half-real, half-imagined landscape, before emerging changed, re-entering the borderlands at the boundary of the suburban sprawl.

Biographies:

Mirrored Daughters are Marlody, Mike (Firestations), Matt and Lewis (The Leaf Library), and Hannah.

Marlody (Skep Wax) is a singer/songwriter based in Kent. Dominated by her extraordinary keyboard playing, Marlody’s songs are illuminated - and sometimes made sinister - by occasional bursts of programmed percussion, submarine bass and distant, chiming digital bells. 

Firestations (Lost Map Records) span genres from shoegaze to alt-pop and harmony-driven psychedelia. Their second album, The Year Dot, released in 2018, was followed by sonic collage album Dream Home in 2020 and the Automatic Tendencies EP project in 2020-21. The latter took the form of three EPs over a six-month period, each including alternative “sunken” versions by the band as well as covers and remixes of the band’s tracks by other artists. Thick Terrain, released in 2023, saw Firestations return to album format with ten tracks ranging from hypnotic sci-fi landscapes to addictive dream-pop jangles, exploring ideas around identity, conflict, progress and sanity.

The Leaf Library (WIAIWYA) 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, The World Is A Bell) and a double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One) on Where It’s At Is Where You Are, a collaborative LP with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb) on electronic label Mille Plateaux, and a recent EP of electronic pop songs on the Castles In Space label.

Sunturns - Christmas III [12"]

Artist: Sunturns
Title: Christmas III
Format: 12” transparent & purple splatter vinyl
Cat#: Fika105LP
Release date: 6th December 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

The Norwegian super-group with members from Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva return with a third album of original Christmas songs. 

Get into that alternative, Nordic Christmas spirit!

Christmas III at its heart is an alt-Christmas album: the songs are firmly rooted in December’s festivities, albeit not usually relying on the season’s traditional reference points. The songs hone in on the more ambivalent sides of Christmas - family, customs and the passing of time - with a keen eye towards the holidays’ most obvious function in countries close to the Artic circle: getting through the cold and dark times to celebrate the winter solstice and the turning of the sun. 

Drawing from Sufjan Stevens’ epic indie Christmas compendium and Phil Spector’s wall of sound classic A Christmas Gift From You, Christmas III is built on shimmering guitars, snow filled piano lines, gentle strings, springy vocals and dynamic drums - all steadily conducted by Sunturns’ own Sjur Lyseid (Flight Mode, The Little Hands of Asphalt) in the producer’s seat at his Globus studio in Oslo.

Songs like "I Do", "New Snow", "Colibri Heart" and "The Day Before the Day", have indeed been released as singles in the years after 2015, but the record is also packed with new Christmas songs about sunstroke, winter depression and everything other belonging. Beautiful First Winter was the first taste of the album already in October, and the Christmas singles Crash Course Christmas and Back in Town will make the Christmas bells ring in the right way.

With three songwriters (Ola Innset, Einar Stray and Sjur Lyseid) contributing to Christmas III, there’s an ever shifting sense of reflections. Parenthood and the struggles of the dark Norwegian winter is behind Ola’s track First Winter. “Some times I feel bad about bringing children into such a difficult world. Not so much with respect to daylight and the seasons, they’re just going to have to learn how to live with it, but with many other things – like war, poverty, climate change and even just death.” 

Back In Town might have been inspired by a discussion over whether Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” is a Christmas song or not, but it’s written about his youngest daughter Klara, to his elder daughter, about taking holidays with your family in a town you once lived.

Einar pulls in Phoenix and Mew by the way of Jesus and Mary Chain on Crash Course Christmas, resulting in a seasick wave of a pop tune. “It’s a song about the guilt of not prioritizing your relationships. It’s been year of rainchecks and Christmas finally gives you some time to reflect. You’ve experienced so much and changed so much as a person that you almost forget your origins. Coming home for Christmas can then be a ritiual of finding your way back to what you left behind."

Drawing on the knitwear from the film Love, Actually, Turtle Neck, taps into the Backstreet Boys by way of Mac Demarco, with a sneaky reference to the legendary Norwegian Christmas hit En Stjerne Skinner I Natt.

Album closer This Christmas / Next Christmas leans in on the hook for the Norwegian Christmas TV show Jul i Blåfjell, a multi-generational seasonal staple (essentially a daily children’s advent calendar kids show). “The song is about your parents ageing and needing your help – possibly really far away - while at the same time having your own children to take care of”.

If previous albums Christmas I (2011) and II (2015) are somewhat different from each other, then Christmas III represents a fusion of the two. Sunturns’ debut is full of youthful exuberance and was recorded with plentiful overdubs in Oslo, while 2015’s follow up is more pensive and somewhat darker, and was recorded live during one week in the Swedish forests. Einar elaborates: “I love making records like this: short, effective sessions with limited time and therefore no bland ‘perfection’. There’s a nerve to knowing you can collectively bring it all together without the luxury of time”. Christmas III represents a return to the lighter tone, on at least some of the songs, but with the wisdom of age that emerged on the second. You can’t just return to your twenties, however much you might want to!

The cover artwork is a homage to Christmas dress codes for Norwegian men. Suits and shirts are a rarity in day to day life, but there are a handful of occasions that require some form of formal attempt at a suit: New Year’s Eve, National Day, weddings & funerals, and Christmas Eve: resulting in various degrees of sartorial elegance on the day (and on this instance, a hot summer’s day stifling the Christmas vibes, with ambiguous apparel instructions ahead of the photoshoot!).

Sunturns will reconvene again in December for their annual Oslo show, complete with string section and choir at Parkteatret on the 13th of December.

Merry Christmas!

Sunturns are
Ola Innset – vocals, guitars, banjo
Sjur Lyseid – vocals, guitars
Einar Stray – vocals, keyboards, guitars
Eivind Almhjell – guitars, bass
Simen Herning – guitar
Jørgen Nordby – drums

“This is little Christmas music for people who don't like Christmas music, but with a Christmassy twist to it. With musicians from Little Hands of Asphalt and Making Marks, this is a sure hit for a hipper Christmas.” Aftenposten [5/6]

“There’s a Ronettes-style introduction to the album opener ‘New Snow’. This evolves into a jangle pop sound – complete with M Ward-esque guitar, choral backing vocals and self-reflection: I’ve been taking it too slow, now there’s blood in the snow’. Lead single ‘Crash Course Christmas’ follows with crashing drums and glockenspiel for that extra festive touch. Reminiscent of Los Campesinos’ Christmas EP, there’s air of heartbreak as they sing ‘Tonight I missed the sound of stupid Christmas songs I sang with you’. Sunturns’ ‘Christmas III’ is a warming soundtrack to a special, emotional time." Spectral Nights

“the album might find its way under more Christmas trees than Santa can handle” Nordic Music Central

“I have to feature this beauty” The Ginger Quiff

Stereogum

That’s Good Enough For Me

Mirrored Daughters - City Song [Digital]

Artist: Mirrored Daughters
Title: City Song
Format: Digital single
Cat#: Fika106SG1
Release date: 26th November 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Taken from the forthcoming self-titled debut album (Feb 2025)

Fika Recordings present Mirrored Daughters - an album of lo-fi folk-pop and explorative woodland meditations from members of Firestations, The Leaf Library and Marlody. Bright-eyed, melodic music inspired by travels in Epping Forest as much as it was by spontaneous collaboration, these 11 tracks deliver an intriguing journey through (and beyond) the forest - crystal clear melancholy interspersed with benign drone rituals. 

First single City Song is out 26th November, a swooning folk-pop number, an ode to a familiar journey, a tiredness with the city.

The music on their self-titled debut takes a step away from the widescreen production of the artists’ other groups and instead revels in the instinctive, warm tones of acoustic instruments; guitars, cellos, clarinet, a harmonium and bells providing the earthy sonic environment for these spacious songs. 

Starting out as quickly-recorded acoustic guitar and bass pieces by Lewis Young (Leaf Library drummer) they were then taken up by Mike Cranny (guitarist and singer in fellow Walthamstow travellers Firestations), cellist Hannah Reeves and additional Leaf Library member Matt Ashton. Each added parts remotely, engineered in their home studios, before singer Marlody brought her crystalline voice to the music; layered harmonies and twisting, looping phrases that tie the story together.  

Alongside these sketches were Lewis’s trips to the forest with a train of bells and a battered old violin, all dragged through mud, fallen leaves and brambles to create otherworldly yet natural sounds - music that sounds like it’s sprung from the forest floor. Lewis likens this ritual to “uncovering music that’s always been… a summoning of spirit folk, used to appearing in autumn, taking a pilgrimage through forests with joy and frivolity. A Miyazaki-meets-Chaucer kinda vibe.” 

While the music is inhabited by these eerie and historic landscapes - camps, iron age forts, the folklore and the golden atmosphere of autumn - the lyrics speak to more personal (if occasionally abstract) concerns, both revelling in the escape enabled by the forest and worrying about the encroaching city at the edge of it. There are dreams of leaving (“Leave the sound and your heavy head behind” from first single City Song, “Silently running at the moment of waking” from Waiting At The Water) and fear of stasis (“I fell over in my sleep again, a head all cloudy with fine rain, depthless in the breaking day, tiredness is waiting, serpentine” from Unreturning Sun). 

The band name, taken from lyrics posited by Mike during the lyric writing process, perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere conjured here, neither sinister nor wholly comforting, unknown yet alluring. As author Will Ashon says in the sleeve notes to the album (an excerpt from his book Strange Labyrinth published by Granta Books), “Everything is always changing in Epping Forest. There’s the yearly cycle of growth and death, of course, and the daily iteration of this in new buds, new blossom, new leaves, dead blossom, dead leaves and so on, the tiny, inconsequential shifts which gradually add up to something more”.

From the album opener, the gently sinister Mirror Descend, to the skyward-looking, hopeful closing track of Mirror Ascend, this collection of songs and rituals leaves space for the listener to take their own journey through a half-real, half-imagined landscape, before emerging changed, re-entering the borderlands at the boundary of the suburban sprawl.

Biographies:

Mirrored Daughters are Marlody, Mike (Firestations), Matt and Lewis (The Leaf Library), and Hannah.

Marlody (Skep Wax) is a singer/songwriter based in Kent. Dominated by her extraordinary keyboard playing, Marlody’s songs are illuminated - and sometimes made sinister - by occasional bursts of programmed percussion, submarine bass and distant, chiming digital bells. 

Firestations (Lost Map Records) span genres from shoegaze to alt-pop and harmony-driven psychedelia. Their second album, The Year Dot, released in 2018, was followed by sonic collage album Dream Home in 2020 and the Automatic Tendencies EP project in 2020-21. The latter took the form of three EPs over a six-month period, each including alternative “sunken” versions by the band as well as covers and remixes of the band’s tracks by other artists. Thick Terrain, released in 2023, saw Firestations return to album format with ten tracks ranging from hypnotic sci-fi landscapes to addictive dream-pop jangles, exploring ideas around identity, conflict, progress and sanity.

The Leaf Library (WIAIWYA) 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, The World Is A Bell) and a double LP of rarities and compilation tracks (Library Music: Volume One) on Where It’s At Is Where You Are, a collaborative LP with Japanese artist Teruyuki Kurihara (Melody Tomb) on electronic label Mille Plateaux, and a recent EP of electronic pop songs on the Castles In Space label.

“The pleasantly endearing early foretaste from next February 2025 debut LP, unfurls on serene sparkling acoustic fingerpicking, stirred by soft percussions, round bass pulses, warm tonal cello inlays, and melancholic string flourishes, to frame heartfelt wide-eyed vocals, with the warmth and comfort of a nostalgic surrounding amid the encroaching menace of city sounds.” White Light White Heat

Fightmilk - No Souvenirs [12"/CD]

Artist: Fightmilk
Title: No Souvenirs
Format: 12” vinyl on paddling pool blue | digifile CD
Cat#: Fika104
Release date: 15th November 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Following the runaway success of their critically acclaimed 2021 second album Contender, the question for fast-rising London four-piece Fightmilk was always going to be “what next?” With a tight indie-pop sound that defined their early recordings, the answer was obvious to a band who seem hellbent on the notion of evolve or die…

The band originally formed in 2015 in a Brixton pub garden by Lily and Alex, who had both, separately, just been dumped and thought being in an angry punk band would cheer them up. Then they found Nick and Healey to hold the rhythm down and make them sound good. With three albums under their belt, they’ve perfected their chaotic, melodic brand of joy and rage-filled pop with full-throated yelling and sparkling guitar riffs as their trademark. They’ve graduated from angsty whippersnappers in their mid-twenties to overgrown teenage 30-somethings with mild ongoing back and shoulder pain.

Their previous two albums Not With That Attitude (2018) and Contender (2021) marked them out as an ambitious and rising prospect, and now on their forthcoming new album No Souvenirs the band eschew their former Britpop ties and edge further into DIY punk and heavier rock influences to reveal a leaner, meaner, more abrasive side to their cathartic lo-fi anthems.

Whilst collectively diving into their passion for Jimmy Eat World, frontwoman Lily Rae made a conscious decision to strengthen her “big loud yell” with influence from Alicia Bognanno (Bully), Nat Foster (Press Club), and Missy Dabice (Mannequin Pussy). “My voice is the biggest it’s ever been and I’m constantly thrilled when people are surprised at how loud I am, considering I’m so small in stature,” she grins. “Lyrically I always look to Bruce Springsteen for inspiration but I also really enjoyed the angsty candour of Sour by Olivia Rodrigo, and Kacey Musgraves’ impeccable one-liners.”

There are a few genre experiments on the record—Yo La Tengo in ‘Paddling Pool’, ‘Canines’ is part The Strokes and part Neu!, and ‘Back From Tour’ was heavily influenced by long term friends Johnny Foreigner. “You could probably make a case for ‘Inferno’ having a bit of Counting Crows to it, but we were never writing to emulate,” explains guitarist Alex. “The references and touchstones just happened along the way. As far as we’re concerned, they just sound like Fightmilk - and that’s a really nice place to be nearly a decade in.”

As a songwriter, I’ve disciplined myself to keep to ‘first thought best thought’ more, and not overwork lyrics and melodies into the ground - the line that needs to be there is usually the most obvious one,” says Lily of the process for this record. “As we’ve become more collaborative as writers, you can hear Healey’s DIY punk influence come in more, and Nick’s heavier rock influences. We’re more secure in keeping weird sh*t in, and not adding or cutting things because it feels like we’re supposed to.”

“That said, we’ve also been REALLY picky with the songs that made it onto the album - there’s probably another album’s worth of songs that didn’t feel right, even if we loved them. We got really good at finding the “magic thing” in each song that made it work.”

Spilling over with candid lyrics about death, doomed love, and dog bites, framed by endless punk energy and the kind of full-throated riff-rock that sounds just at home in a giant stadium as it does in a sticky-floored toilet bar, No Souvenirs is a triumphant return from the band, who are equally enthused by the album.

“It’s easily our best one yet,” says Lily of the record. “I want every track on it to be a Sunfly Karaoke song one day. It’s a big growly, grungy album with a healthy amount of yelling - but there’s lots of humour in it, too. Ideally it’s played very loudly with the bass turned up, three beers deep, and singing along to all the choruses.”

With the quartet about 75% finished making their previous album Contender when Covid hit, a lot of their grand plans required a rethink. A heavily produced record, when the band were finally allowed to start playing shows again they found that some of the more elaborate songs ended up falling by the wayside. “On the plus side, it reminded us how much joy and catharsis we found in making a screaming racket in front of people,” says Alex on the genesis of the new album. “No Souvenirs was written with that joy and catharsis as a starting point.”

Recorded at Dean Street Studios in Soho, London over 2 or 3 manic weekends in 2022/23, new album No Souvenirs was produced by Keith TOTP, engineered by Sam Hogg and Tom Quigley, and mixed and mastered by Adrian Hall.

With no label and no plan, Fightmilk agreed they would just make the best album they could and worry about the logistics after the fact. “That took quite a lot of pressure off, and allowed us to relax in the studio and be a bit more creative on the day,” remembers Lily. “We’ve never finished writing songs whilst in the studio before, and similarly never had so many songs finished that we could shelve the ones we weren’t 100% sure on, so we had the shared experience of two albums behind us and a lot of hard work and discipline when it came to making sure the songs were exactly what they needed to be.”

“I only realised after we put the songs together how personal to me this album was,” explains Lily. “Not just because I’m writing about extremely specific sitcom episodes in my life (getting fired from bridesmaid duty, being bitten on the arse by a dog, being relentlessly asked when I’m going to have kids), but because whilst we were making it, I turned 30. It’s a significant age for women, especially in music, because aside from being something called a ‘geriatric millennial’, there’s an unspoken rule that there’s a cut-off point for you to have ‘made it’ and after that you have to settle down and be normal.”

“The music industry is freakishly obsessed with women’s youth and anyone older than 25 is considered ancient. (I’m maybe the world’s biggest Japanese Breakfast fan and there’s an interview with Michelle Zauner where she talks about this way more eloquently.) But when I hit 30, I felt like I was only just starting to have anything interesting to say, and had so much more curiosity and enthusiasm for everything!”

For Lily, writing for the album also aligned with the tenth anniversary of the death of a close friend, with the resulting track ‘No Souvenirs’ lending its title to the album as a whole. “It had taken me that long to write about it in a way I felt ok with. But I realised that I couldn’t have written it before,” she explains. “I needed that distance, and that maturity, to be able to articulate those feelings. It feels to me now like the album is about scorched earth, moving on, taking nothing with you for the next ‘thing’ - and realising that getting older is a privilege.”

When it comes to personal favourite tracks, Lily earmarks ‘Paddling Pool’ as her highlight. “It’s a step away from our usual big grungy pop fare, and we got to experiment with some really floaty, quieter sounds. It was nice to do Lucy Dacus singing instead of Courtney Love singing. ‘That Thing You Did’ has my favourite chorus, though. I never thought we’d write an earworm.”

The album’s artwork is, as ever for Fightmilk, meticulously crafted and filled with meaning. A framed display case full of…well, souvenirs…there’s one for each of the songs, and a bunch that aren’t.

“We’re very into visual metaphors here at Fightmilk,” laughs Lily.No Souvenirs means exactly that—you can’t take it with you. I’m a really sentimental keepsake-hoarder and I’ve got letters, birthday cards, empty perfume bottles, button badges, and all sorts from years ago. I can’t bring myself to say goodbye to them but, without being morbs about it, even if I hold onto these physical memories my whole life, someone’s probably going to put them in the bin when I die. There’s also a bit of that being a hangover from my 20s and trying not to bring any of that angst and self-doubt and uncertainty with me into the next part of my life.”

Bringing a huge amount of energy and joy with them whenever and wherever they hit a stage, interacting with the audience is a vital part of the Fightmilk live experience. “Without people singing and dancing at us we wouldn’t have gigs at all, so we want everyone to get involved!” says Lily of the band’s future tour plans. “I love hopping offstage and wandering through the crowd with a microphone, demanding people name a famous dog, so whatever happens there will always be crowd participation… oh, and bring earplugs. We’re really loud.”

Fightmilk is Lily, Alex, Healey and Nick - a London-based four-piece who write sweaty, loud, shouty pop songs. Formed in the beer gardens of South London in 2015, the band quickly drew attention with their debut album Not With That Attitude (Reckless Yes, 2018) - singled out by Drowned In Sound for its “package of massive, Godzilla-heft hooks” and “crack–like melodies.” Gaining support from 6Music and Radio X, the band swiftly hopped in the van to play shows with the likes of Art Brut, Desperate Journalist and Nova Twins, as well as touring Germany.

Not letting a seismic global clusterfuck stand in their way, the band released their second LP Contender in 2021 via Reckless Yes. Described as “a joyous riot from start to finish” by Kerrang, it was an album with something to prove, adding stacked harmonies, analog drum machines and even heftier riffs to the band’s arsenal, while still remaining decidedly true to the band’s spiky indiepop sound. As soon as they were released from lockdown they began a near relentless gigging schedule, taking in multiple trips around the UK, support slots with Johnny Foreigner, mclusky and Problem Patterns, plus a sold-out 2022 headline slot at Norway’s Indiefjord Festival, where a sweat-soaked Fightmilk crowdsurfed their way offstage at midnight only to find it was still light outside.

The band’s eighth year in action has seen them writing and recording their third album, to be released in late 2024 on Fika Recordings & INH Records. Fightmilk have turned the distortion up and the indiepop down with rougher and rawer songs about body image, death, and being fired from bridesmaid duty.

“Having listened to this album for the last few weeks I’m still undecided what my favourite track is, or which I’d suggest is the standout. The same happened when I reviewed Contender. I think Alex hits the nail on the head when he says they just sound like Fightmilk, which is reason enough to buy this album, and play on repeat” Louder Than War [5/5]

“No Souvenirs is a smorgasbord of raw emotion, musical intelligence, juxtaposition and realism all wrapped into twelve songs that remind you that feeling bitterness may not be a bad thing after all. It’s certainly going to help Fightmilk on their quest across Britain and beyond.” Noizze [8/10]

“No Souvenirs wants to be a great album and wears that ambition on its face; there’s no shame about going bigger. If anything, it’s what makes Fightmilk excel at a rate far beyond their peers. The best of both worlds isn’t some unscalable summit, and No Souvenirs is set-in-stone proof how much it can achieve.” The Soundboard

“Offering rage, joy, and catharsis, FIGHTMILK lay it all on the table on No SouvenirsDistorted Sound

“Masterfully produced and faultlessly performed, it’s easy, melodic and relaxed, and it demonstrates – to anyone who may have any doubts remaining – that Fightmilk are much, much more than a power pop generating machine.” At The Barrier

“Their ability to match cutting sarcasm with big catchy tunes and their propensity for penning a pitch perfect sad banger made them an instant hit in Joyzine HQ.” JoyZine [Track by Track]

“No Souvenirs is an invitation to shed past baggage, scream louder, and embrace the messiness of living. For a band nearing a decade, Fightmilk has managed to keep their music youthful yet matured. They are proof that getting older can be liberating.” Amplify The Noise

“the album is encrusted with jangly indie-pop jewels such as Canines, Yearning and Pining, and Inferno, which deftly suck out all the Aussie slacker-pop drawl of the Quivers aesthetic to just leave everything that is perfect about three-minute jangly indie-pop when it is conveyed with precocious British aloof” Jangle Pop Hub

“enticing and clever; satirical at times but not haphazard or misguided” Ghost Cult Mag

“This will definitely be getting more time on my stereo and is certain to be in my Top 3 Records Of The Year.” The Counterforce

Driving guitar chords, ecstatic pop-rock choruses: With playfulness and passion, the London band deals with destructive ideals of beauty, their own grief and much more.” Frequenz Magazine

“paired with an array of luscious melodies that are delivered in various forms. ‘Summer Bodies’ is a spunky mix of indie-punk and doo-wop. ‘Inferno’ swirls with a laid-back power-pop quality” Already Heard [Behind The Artwork]

Sunturns - Crash Course Christmas [Digital]

Artist: Sunturns
Title: Crash Course Christmas
Format: digital
Cat#: Fika105SG3
Release date: 13th November 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Crash Course Christmas is the third track to be taken from the new Sunturns album “Christmas III”, out on December 6th on transparent & purple splatter vinyl and digitally.

The Norwegian indiepop super-group with members from Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva return with a third album of original Christmas songs. 

They play The Shacklewell Arms, London on December 1st, and Parkteatret, Oslo, December 13th.

Get into that alternative, Nordic Christmas spirit!

Crash Course Christmas is a seasick wave of a pop tune, constantly on the brink of breaking down - think Mew by Phoenix meets The Jesus and Mary Chain.

This one is penned by Einar Stray, one of the three songwriters in the band. He expands: “I love making records like this: short, effective sessions with limited time and therefore no relentless drive for “perfection”. There’s a nerve to it. 

It’s a song about the guilt of not prioritizing your relationships. It’s been year of rainchecks

and Christmas finally gives you some time to reflect. You’ve experienced so much, and

changed so much as a person, that you almost forget your origins. Coming home for

Christmas can then be a ritual of finding your way back to what you’d left behind.

Christmas III at its heart is an alt-Christmas album: the songs are firmly rooted in December’s festivities, albeit not usually relying on the season’s traditional reference points. The songs hone in on the more ambivalent sides of Christmas - family, customs and the passing of time - with a keen eye towards the holidays’ most obvious function in countries close to the Artic circle: getting through the cold and dark times to celebrate the winter solstice and the turning of the sun.

Drawing from Sufjan Stevens’ epic indie Christmas compendium and Phil Spector’s wall of sound classic A Christmas Gift From You, Christmas III is built on shimmering guitars, snow filled piano lines, gentle strings, springy vocals and dynamic drums - all steadily conducted by Sunturns’ own Sjur Lyseid (Flight Mode, The Little Hands of Asphalt) in the producer’s seat at his Globus studio in Oslo.

Songs like "I Do", "New Snow", "Colibri Heart" and "The Day Before the Day", have indeed been released as singles in the years after 2015, but the record is also packed with new Christmas songs about sunstroke, winter depression and everything other belonging. Beautiful "First Winter" was the first taste of the album already in October, and the Christmas singles "Crash Course Christmas" and "Back in Town" will make the Christmas bells ring in the right way.

With three songwriters (Ola Innset, Einar Stray and Sjur Lyseid) contributing to Christmas III, there’s an ever shifting sense of reflections. Parenthood and the struggles of the dark Norwegian winter is behind Ola’s track First Winter. “Some times I feel bad about bringing children into such a difficult world. Not so much with respect to daylight and the seasons, they’re just going to have to learn how to live with it, but with many other things – like war, poverty, climate change and even just death.” 

If previous albums Christmas I (2011) and II (2015) are somewhat different from each other, then Christmas III represents a fusion of the two. Sunturns’ debut is full of youthful exuberance and was recorded with plentiful overdubs in Oslo, while 2015’s follow up is more pensive and somewhat darker, and was recorded live during one week in the Swedish forests. Einar elaborates: “I love making records like this: short, effective sessions with limited time and therefore no bland ‘perfection’. There’s a nerve to knowing you can collectively bring it all together without the luxury of time”. Christmas III represents a return to the lighter tone, on at least some of the songs, but with the wisdom of age that emerged on the second. You can’t just return to your twenties, however much you might want to!

Merry Christmas!

Sunturns - Back In Town [Digital]

Artist: Sunturns
Title: Back In Town
Format: digital
Cat#: Fika105SG2
Release date: 23rd October 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Back In Town is the second track to be taken from the new Sunturns album “Christmas III”, out on December 6th on transparent & purple splatter vinyl and digitally.

The Norwegian indiepop super-group with members from Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva return with a third album of original Christmas songs. 

Get into that alternative, Nordic Christmas spirit!

The second track from Christmas III is another written by Ola Innset [of Making Marks, and half of Elva alongside Allo Darlin’s Elizabeth Morris].

New single Back In Town might have been inspired by a discussion over whether Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town” is a Christmas song or not, but it’s written about his youngest daughter Klara, to his elder daughter, about taking holidays with your family in a town you once lived and attempting to make the most of it.

Christmas III at its heart is an alt-Christmas album: the songs are firmly rooted in December’s festivities, albeit not usually relying on the season’s traditional reference points. The songs hone in on the more ambivalent sides of Christmas - family, customs and the passing of time - with a keen eye towards the holidays’ most obvious function in countries close to the Artic circle: getting through the cold and dark times to celebrate the winter solstice and the turning of the sun.

Drawing from Sufjan Stevens’ epic indie Christmas compendium and Phil Spector’s wall of sound classic A Christmas Gift From You, Christmas III is built on shimmering guitars, snow filled piano lines, gentle strings, springy vocals and dynamic drums - all steadily conducted by Sunturns’ own Sjur Lyseid (Flight Mode, The Little Hands of Asphalt) in the producer’s seat at his Globus studio in Oslo.

Songs like "I Do", "New Snow", "Colibri Heart" and "The Day Before the Day", have indeed been released as singles in the years after 2015, but the record is also packed with new Christmas songs about sunstroke, winter depression and everything other belonging. Beautiful "First Winter" was the first taste of the album already in October, and the Christmas singles "Crash Course Christmas" and "Back in Town" will make the Christmas bells ring in the right way.

With three songwriters (Ola Innset, Einar Stray and Sjur Lyseid) contributing to Christmas III, there’s an ever shifting sense of reflections. Parenthood and the struggles of the dark Norwegian winter is behind Ola’s track First Winter. “Some times I feel bad about bringing children into such a difficult world. Not so much with respect to daylight and the seasons, they’re just going to have to learn how to live with it, but with many other things – like war, poverty, climate change and even just death.” 

If previous albums Christmas I (2011) and II (2015) are somewhat different from each other, then Christmas III represents a fusion of the two. Sunturns’ debut is full of youthful exuberance and was recorded with plentiful overdubs in Oslo, while 2015’s follow up is more pensive and somewhat darker, and was recorded live during one week in the Swedish forests. Einar elaborates: “I love making records like this: short, effective sessions with limited time and therefore no bland ‘perfection’. There’s a nerve to knowing you can collectively bring it all together without the luxury of time”. Christmas III represents a return to the lighter tone, on at least some of the songs, but with the wisdom of age that emerged on the second. You can’t just return to your twenties, however much you might want to!

Merry Christmas!

Fightmilk - Yearning and Pining [Digital]

Artist: Fightmilk
Title: Yearning and Pining
Format: digital single
Cat#: Fika104SG4
Release date: 15th October 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Hot on the heels of announcing their third album, DIY power pop quartet Fightmilk are unleashing its final single, “Yearning and Pining” on 15th October 2024.

Singer and lyricist Lily Rae explains that the title came first following a band discussion about how there were no straight up romantic Fightmilk songs, and what followed was a tongue-in-cheek love song.

"Yearning & Pining is a two-minute country-punk biscuit about having the cosmic horn for someone. Being so lusty that you give yourself an asthma attack. We've all been lost in the sauce of an all-encompassing crush, and this song is for those currently drowning in it. We also filmed it entirely on a doorbell cam."

The track is taken from the band's upcoming third album No Souvenirs, A riotous combination of riffage, pop hooks, angst, heartfelt emotions, wit, and wisdom crashed out with infectious, gleeful abandon, the new album will be released on 15th November 2024 via Fika Recordings (Mammoth Penguins, Fortitude Valley) and new kids on the block INH Records.

Three years in the making, the 12-track album is preceded by  third single ‘That Thing You Did’, released 17th September 2024, with the album also available to pre-order now.

Following swiftly on from the success of the album’s well-received first two singles ‘Summer Bodies’ and ‘No Souvenirs’, which explored issues of body imagine and death respectively, Fightmilk are increasing the tempo as they build toward the album release which is to be marked with a headline show at London’s Paper Dress Vintage on 15th November 2024 with a full tour to follow.

Having relished in the visceral pleasure of playing together and live on stage again post Covid, the band’s new sound reflects that joy, the abandonment in doing what you love and the catharsis of doing so. Moving on with their third album and embarking on a more intuitive and collaborative style of writing, the band have embraced their influences and gone with their instincts.

The new single demonstrates how well they have achieved those ambitions, and how making a screaming racket in front of people can be both elemental and fun, sensitive and muscular within the span of moments. 

“As a songwriter, I’ve disciplined myself to keep to ‘first thought best thought’ more, and not overwork lyrics and melodies into the ground,” says Lily of the new approach. “We’re more secure in keeping weird shit in and not adding or cutting things because it feels like we’re supposed to.”

New single ‘Yearning and Pining’ is released 15th October 2024 via Fika Recordings/INH Records

Fightmilk is Lily, Alex, Healey and Nick - a London-based four-piece who write sweaty, loud, shouty pop songs. Formed in the beer gardens of South London in 2015, the band quickly drew attention with their debut album Not With That Attitude (Reckless Yes, 2018) - singled out by Drowned In Sound for its “package of massive, Godzilla-heft hooks” and “crack–like melodies.” Gaining support from 6Music and Radio X, the band swiftly hopped in the van to play shows with the likes of Art Brut, Desperate Journalist and Nova Twins, as well as touring Germany.

Not letting a seismic global clusterfuck stand in their way, the band released their second LP Contender in 2021 via Reckless Yes. Described as “a joyous riot from start to finish” by Kerrang, it was an album with something to prove, adding stacked harmonies, analog drum machines and even heftier riffs to the band’s arsenal, while still remaining decidedly true to the band’s spiky indiepop sound. As soon as they were released from lockdown they began a near relentless gigging schedule, taking in multiple trips around the UK, support slots with Johnny Foreigner, mclusky and Problem Patterns, plus a sold-out 2022 headline slot at Norway’s Indiefjord Festival, where a sweat-soaked Fightmilk crowdsurfed their way offstage at midnight only to find it was still light outside.

The band’s eighth year in action has seen them writing and recording their third album, to be released in late 2024 on Fika Recordings & INH Records. Fightmilk have turned the distortion up and the indiepop down with rougher and rawer songs about body image, death, and being fired from bridesmaid duty.

Live Dates:

15.11.24 - London - Paper Dress Vintage (album release show)
16.11.24 - Cambridge - Indie Pop All Dayer
22.11.24 - Rainham, The Oast
27.11.24 - Sheffield - Sydney & Matilda (with Slash Fiction)
28.11.24 - Glasgow - Stereo (supporting Slime City)
29.11.24 - Manchester, The Castle Hotel (support New Starts).

New album ‘No Souvenirs’ will be released 15th November 2024 via Fika Recordings/INH Records

Sunturns - First Winter [Digital]

Artist: Sunturns
Title: First Winter
Format: digital
Cat#: Fika105SG1
Release date: 2nd October 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

The Norwegian super-group with members from Making Marks, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Mildfire, Flight Mode and Elva return with a third album of original Christmas songs. 

Get into that alternative, Nordic Christmas spirit!

Christmas III at its heart is an alt-Christmas album: the songs are firmly rooted in December’s festivities, albeit not usually relying on the season’s traditional reference points. The songs hone in on the more ambivalent sides of Christmas - family, customs and the passing of time - with a keen eye towards the holidays’ most obvious function in countries close to the Artic circle: getting through the cold and dark times to celebrate the winter solstice and the turning of the sun. 

Drawing from Sufjan Stevens’ epic indie Christmas compendium and Phil Spector’s wall of sound classic A Christmas Gift From You, Christmas III is built on shimmering guitars, snow filled piano lines, gentle strings, springy vocals and dynamic drums - all steadily conducted by Sunturns’ own Sjur Lyseid (Flight Mode, The Little Hands of Asphalt) in the producer’s seat at his Globus studio in Oslo.

With three songwriters (Ola Innset, Einar Stray and Sjur Lyseid) contributing to Christmas III, there’s an ever shifting sense of reflections. Parenthood and the struggles of the dark Norwegian winter is behind Ola’s track First Winter. “Some times I feel bad about bringing children into such a difficult world. Not so much with respect to daylight and the seasons, they’re just going to have to learn how to live with it, but with many other things – like war, poverty, climate change and even just death.” 

If previous albums Christmas I (2011) and II (2015) are somewhat different from each other, then Christmas III represents a fusion of the two. Sunturns’ debut is full of youthful exuberance and was recorded with plentiful overdubs in Oslo, while 2015’s follow up is more pensive and somewhat darker, and was recorded live during one week in the Swedish forests. Einar elaborates: “I love making records like this: short, effective sessions with limited time and therefore no bland ‘perfection’. There’s a nerve to knowing you can collectively bring it all together without the luxury of time”. Christmas III represents a return to the lighter tone, on at least some of the songs, but with the wisdom of age that emerged on the second. You can’t just return to your twenties, however much you might want to!

Merry Christmas!

Adam Ross - I Get It Wrong EP [Digital]

Artist: Adam Ross
Title: I Get It Wrong EP
Format: digital
Cat#: Fika099SG4
Release date: 20th September 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Following the release of Littoral Zone, the second solo album from Randolph’s Leap frontman Adam Ross in May 2024, comes a digital only EP with live recorded and demo versions of two tracks lifted from the album.

“I Get It Wrong is quite a key song to the album, thematically. The album title, Littoral Zone, refers to coastlines and this song is about the sea. I relocated to a coastal village in 2021 and spent a lot of time walking around the cliffs and beaches while writing lyrics. Life was moving fairly slowly around that time and the barrenness of the landscape and the gradual movement of the tides seemed to reinforce that feeling, hence the lyric about time moving in “different directions”.

It's a song about over-reflecting on mistakes and personal insufficiencies but also seeing the person you love going through those same thought processes. There’s some religious imagery in there (not for the first time on the album) which I suppose is linked to the idea that you can’t completely escape your upbringing even if your beliefs change. The song is also a bit about wild swimming.

The live version came from some video sessions I recorded in Glasgow with my live band. The album itself was painstakingly layered up and mixed one instrument at a time so it’s fun to approach the songs in a looser, more spontaneous way when playing live. There are some great people in the band: Andrew Wasylyk on bass, Owen Curtis Williams (Withered Hand, eagleowl) on drums, Pedro Cameron (Man of the Minch) on violin and Gillian Fleetwood on piano.”

Littoral Zone is a heavily lyrical collection of warped 70s-esque indie-folk ballads inspired by Adam’s relocation to the coast. The album is produced by multiple Scottish Album Of The Year Award nominated composer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Wasylyk and released on London record label Fika Recordings. Arts bodies Creative Scotland and Help Musicians have supported and funded the album.

The writing of the album saw Adam move away from guitar and onto piano, having bought a slightly battered upright piano from a local antiques warehouse as a first priority after moving house in 2021. Chords, melodies and musical ideas were recorded on Adam's phone before lyrics were slowly built up during his walks on the beach and clifftops around the village of St Cyrus where he now lives. 

I Get It Wrong pays tribute to the natural beauty and mystery of coastal landscapes, while he album's darker edges can also be discovered in Ego which dwells on aging and self-doubt.

* * *

Tour dates

22nd September - Glasgow, Gathering South Sessions
29th September - Findhorn Bay Festival (with band)
1st October - Montrose Playhouse (with band)
2nd October - Stirling Tolbooth (with band)
3rd October - Edinburgh Sneaky Pete’s (with band)
4th October - Glasgow Hug & Pint (with band)
5th October - London Two Palms (supporting Withered Hand & Kathryn Williams)
9th October - Coventry The Tin
10th October - Nantwich Applestump Records
12th October - Aberdeen, Lemon Tree (supporting Kirsten Adamson)
16th October - Manchester Yes Basement (supporting Roddy Woomble)
17th October - Liverpool St Michael’s Church (supporting Roddy Woomble)
9th November - Rainham The Oast
10th November - Sheffield Dorothy Pax
14th November - Kirkcaldy Acoustic Music Club
15th November – Linlithgow St Peter’s Church

Adam Ross is a songwriter based in north-east Scotland. He has led the cult indie band Randolph's Leap for over a decade, releasing music with independent labels Fika Recordings, Olive Grove Records and King Creosote and Pictish Trail’s Fence Records and Lost Map Records. He released his debut solo album 'Staring At Mountains' in 2022. He is known for his intricate, storytelling lyrical style which often blends humour and poignancy.

* * *

May 2024 saw the release of a brand-new solo album produced by multiple Scottish Album Of The Year Award nominated composer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Wasylyk and released on London label Fika Recordings.  Arts bodies Creative Scotland and Help Musicians have supported and funded the album in recognition of what is shaping up to be one of the most exciting musical collaborations of 2024.

Adam has a track record of playing at venues and festivals across the country such as Green Man, Celtic Connections, Belladrum and The Edinburgh Fringe. His reputation as an engaging, witty, storytelling performer was further cemented by his role in ‘The Isle of Love’, a country-wide touring theatre show inspired by his songs.

His music has received regular airplay on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC 6 Music including various singles and albums of the week. He has also received excellent press in newspapers such as The Herald and The Scotsman.

One of Scotland’s most talented singers and songwriters” – Folk Radio
Ross’s storytelling and songwriting is still second to none” – The Skinny
Sheer class” – BBC Radio Scotland

Fightmilk - That Thing You Did [Digital]

Artist: Fightmilk
Title: That Thing You Did
Format: digital single
Cat#: Fika104SG3
Release date: 17th September 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Hot on the heels of announcing their third album, DIY power pop quartet Fightmilk are unleashing its third single, “That Thing You Did” on 17th September 2024..

The track sees Fightmilk return to their vicious and riff-heavy best, as singer and lyricist Lily Rae explores trying (and failing) to forgive someone after a bad relationship.

Rae explains that the song’s origins came from one of the band’s regular discussions about cover versions. “That Thing You Did started with the title. Alex wanted us to cover That Thing You Do for a show, and I liked how putting it in the past tense made it sound so much more ominous and vengeful. So I wrote the song from the viewpoint of somebody who’s just trying to move on from a bad relationship, but the ‘souvenirs’ in this case just won’t leave. As we were writing it, the meaning started oozing out without realising.”

“It’s about refusing to forgive somebody.” Lily adds. “Just because somebody says sorry, it doesn’t mean you have to accept it.”

Talking about the song’s creation, guitarist Alex Wisgard says: “We kept banging our heads against That Thing You Did for about eighteen months, because we were trying to be too clever about it - we’ve lost a lot of good songs that way, but we all had faith in this one. The version you hear was maybe the fifth or sixth time we’d played it, recorded about half an hour after we nailed the arrangement. Lily came back with a whole new chorus the next day, and that was that - the only time we’ve ever finished a song in the studio. And I still want to cover That Thing You Do.”

The track is taken from the band's upcoming third album No Souvenirs, A riotous combination of riffage, pop hooks, angst, heartfelt emotions, wit, and wisdom crashed out with infectious, gleeful abandon, the new album will be released on 15th November 2024 via Fika Recordings (Mammoth Penguins, Fortitude Valley) and new kids on the block INH Records.

Three years in the making, the 12-track album is preceded by  third single ‘That Thing You Did’, released 17th September 2024, with the album also available to pre-order now.

Following swiftly on from the success of the album’s well-received first two singles ‘Summer Bodies’ and ‘No Souvenirs’, which explored issues of body imagine and death respectively, Fightmilk are increasing the tempo as they build toward the album release which is to be marked with a headline show at London’s Paper Dress Vintage on 15th November 2024 with a full tour to follow.

Having relished in the visceral pleasure of playing together and live on stage again post Covid, the band’s new sound reflects that joy, the abandonment in doing what you love and the catharsis of doing so. Moving on with their third album and embarking on a more intuitive and collaborative style of writing, the band have embraced their influences and gone with their instincts.

The new single demonstrates how well they have achieved those ambitions, and how making a screaming racket in front of people can be both elemental and fun, sensitive and muscular within the span of moments. 

“As a songwriter, I’ve disciplined myself to keep to ‘first thought best thought’ more, and not overwork lyrics and melodies into the ground,” says Lily of the new approach. “We’re more secure in keeping weird shit in and not adding or cutting things because it feels like we’re supposed to.”

New single ‘That Thing You Did’ is released 17th September 2024 via Fika Recordings/INH Records

Fightmilk is Lily, Alex, Healey and Nick - a London-based four-piece who write sweaty, loud, shouty pop songs. Formed in the beer gardens of South London in 2015, the band quickly drew attention with their debut album Not With That Attitude (Reckless Yes, 2018) - singled out by Drowned In Sound for its “package of massive, Godzilla-heft hooks” and “crack–like melodies.” Gaining support from 6Music and Radio X, the band swiftly hopped in the van to play shows with the likes of Art Brut, Desperate Journalist and Nova Twins, as well as touring Germany.

Not letting a seismic global clusterfuck stand in their way, the band released their second LP Contender in 2021 via Reckless Yes. Described as “a joyous riot from start to finish” by Kerrang, it was an album with something to prove, adding stacked harmonies, analog drum machines and even heftier riffs to the band’s arsenal, while still remaining decidedly true to the band’s spiky indiepop sound. As soon as they were released from lockdown they began a near relentless gigging schedule, taking in multiple trips around the UK, support slots with Johnny Foreigner, mclusky and Problem Patterns, plus a sold-out 2022 headline slot at Norway’s Indiefjord Festival, where a sweat-soaked Fightmilk crowdsurfed their way offstage at midnight only to find it was still light outside.

The band’s eighth year in action has seen them writing and recording their third album, to be released in late 2024 on Fika Recordings & INH Records. Fightmilk have turned the distortion up and the indiepop down with rougher and rawer songs about body image, death, and being fired from bridesmaid duty.

Live Dates:

15.11.24 - London - Paper Dress Vintage (album release show)
16.11.24 - Cambridge - Indie Pop All Dayer
27.11.24 - Sheffield - Sydney & Matilda (with Slash Fiction)
28.11.24 - Glasgow - Stereo (supporting Slime City)

New album ‘No Souvenirs’ will be released 15th November 2024 via Fika Recordings/INH Records