A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

Adam Ross - Shrinking [Digital]

Artist: Adam Ross
Title: Shrinking
Format: digital
Cat#: Fika099SG3
Release date: 17th April 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

"Did you think I wasn't ready? 

Did you think I had to grow?

I've been shrinking since before the day I met you

 Don't you know?"

Shrinking is the third single from Scottish singer-songwriter Adam Ross's forthcoming solo album, Littoral Zone (out 24/05/24). It showcases a newfound sense of musical melancholy and lyrical contemplation far removed from the sprightly indie-pop Adam has become known for with his band Randolph's Leap. 

The album is produced by multiple Scottish Album of the Year Award nominee Andrew Wasylyk who brings a sonic palette of bone-dry drum kits, modulating keyboards and sparkling piano, all topped off with heart-stirring string arrangements by Pete Harvey, yearning vocals by Gillian Fleetwood and punctuating brass by Rachel Simpson.

Adam explains:

"This song helped define the direction and purpose of Littoral Zone. My first solo album, Staring At Mountains, was very stripped-back and I knew I wanted the next one to have more of a band sound. But it had to have its own identity and justify its existence as a solo project detached from Randolph's Leap. Shrinking explores sounds and feelings that I haven't attempted before in my songwriting as it moves away from indie-pop and into something more laidback and poignant, I suppose. It's a ponderous song about self-doubt and it was built around a simple piano arrangement with a sort of loungey 70s folk-pop sensibility.

"The beginning of the vocal melody was partly inspired by the traditional Gaelic ballad Mo Mhathair after hearing Callum Kennedy's version on the radio during a long car journey while at a low ebb. The emotion in the melody hit me hard. The lyrics were slightly inspired by the poem Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith and are about the way we often mask our feelings of inadequacy."

Shrinking is released on 17th April as a digital single. It comes ahead of the release of Littoral Zone by Fika Recordings on 24th May on vinyl, CD and digital. Adam launches the album with a live gig featuring a 6-piece band on 30th May at Mono in Glasgow.

Mammoth Penguins - Flyers [Digital]

Artist: Mammoth Penguins
Title: Flyers
Format: Digital Single
Cat#: Fika0100SG3
Release date: 10th April 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Fresh from a slot at Wales Goes Pop over Easter, Cambridge indie pop trio Mammoth Penguins are pleased to reveal their new single ‘Flyers’ set for release on 10th April 2024.

The track is the latest to be taken from their forthcoming new album Here set for release on 3rd May 2024 via Fika Recordings, and follows on from lead singles ‘SPECIES’ and ‘Everything That I Write’ released in the last months.

Commenting on the track, vocalist Emma Kupa says: “I was going through some old boxes and came across a load of papers from gigs - posters, flyers and set lists. The flyers and posters were often really beautiful but then I also remembered how few people were there at the time and what a shame that was. All that effort by the promoters and the bands. I then started thinking about the other hard bits. It’s a slog being in a band; I really don’t understand why we kept going for years without anyone else encouraging us, but we did.
In that moment I picked up my guitar and wrote and sang this song with a simple few chords, then when I took it to the band it became this angular power punk song.”

Recorded, edited, and mixed at Sickroom Studios in Norfolk by Owen Turner, the new album was produced by drummer Tom Barden, with string arrangements, cello and violin on Here and Success by Mary Erskine, and mastered by Joe Caithness.

Here leans into the band’s raw pop-punk power-trio sound more than ever, with a deep growl of layered guitars and bursts of percussion and harmony. The songs and artwork explore themes of finding a home for yourself and familiarity with people and places.

Although they return to a classic three-piece sound, Mammoth Penguins weren’t restricted by that palette, adding finishing touches of percussion, extra guitars and backing vocals in short bursts in a garden shed, and also bringing in gorgeous strings to sweeten the title track.

The ‘Penguins have already been hard at work smashing some high-profile support slots in the lead up to the album release, including Allo Darlin’s joyous reunion at Islington Assembly Hall (Oct 2023) and Muncie Girls last ever London show (Dec 2023).

They head out on a UK co-headline tour with Broken Chanter (Chemikal Underground) in support of the new album in May 2024, with tickets on sale now.

Mammoth Penguins live:
May 23 - Cambridge - The Blue Moon
May 24 - Rainham - The Oast
May 25 - Coventry - Just Dropped In Records
May 30 - London - The Grace
May 31 - Oxford - Florence Park Community Centre
June 1 - Sheffield - Delicious Clam

July 13-14: Indiefjord festival, Norway

https://linktr.ee/mammothpenguins

https://linktr.ee/fikarecordings

Mammoth Penguins - Everything That I Write [Digital]

Artist: Mammoth Penguins
Title: Everything That I Write
Format: Digital Single
Cat#: Fika0100SG2
Release date: 13th March 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Fresh from a slot at Indiepop All-dayer in Leicester, Cambridge indie pop trio Mammoth Penguins are pleased to reveal their new single ‘Everything That I Write’ set for release on 13th March 2024.

The track is the latest to be taken from their forthcoming new album Here set for release on 3rd May 2024 via Fika Recordings, and follows on from lead single ‘SPECIES’ released last month.


Commenting on the track, which examines the dynamics of trust and intimacy in a long term relationship, vocalist Emma Kupa says: “Transparency is important in relationships and sharing your location can help someone not worry when your partner is travelling home late at night. This song is mainly about when someone has access to every part of your life and brain, and then in the last verse I’m just complaining.”


Recorded, edited, and mixed at Sickroom Studios in Norfolk by Owen Turner, the new album was produced by drummer Tom Barden, with string arrangements, cello and violin on Here and Success by Mary Erskine, and mastered by Joe Caithness.

Here leans into the band’s raw pop-punk power-trio sound more than ever, with a deep growl of layered guitars and bursts of percussion and harmony. The songs and artwork explore themes of finding a home for yourself and familiarity with people and places.

Although they return to a classic three-piece sound, Mammoth Penguins weren’t restricted by that palette, adding finishing touches of percussion, extra guitars and backing vocals in short bursts in a garden shed, and also bringing in gorgeous strings to sweeten the title track.

The ‘Penguins have already been hard at work smashing some high-profile support slots in the lead up to the album release, including Allo Darlin’s joyous reunion at Islington Assembly Hall (Oct 2023) and Muncie Girls last ever London show (Dec 2023).

They play Wales Goes Pop in March, before heading out on a UK co-headline tour with Broken Chanter in support of the new album in May 2024, with tickets on sale now.

Alison Eales - Four for a Boy [7"]

Artist: Alison Eales
Title: Four for a Boy
Format: 7” vinyl EP | digital
Cat#: Fika101
Release date: 8th March 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Following the release of her debut solo album Mox Nox last year, Four for a Boy is a four-track EP of songs co-written by Alison Eales and her long-term collaborator Garry Hoggan.

Like its sister record Mox Nox, the EP was recorded and mixed by Paul Savage at Chem 19 studios, mastered by Reuben Taylor, and features artwork by Rhian Nicholas at The Passenger Press – but in a departure from the approach to the album, Four for a Boy keeps its arrangements sparse in order to showcase Hoggan’s gift for melody.

The songs

The lead track is Minuet, a minimalist love song that pits its protagonists against zombies and nanobots and which is accompanied by a lyric video by magician Billy Reid.

Rain Song, with its drip-drip-dripping ukulele and piano, captures the experience of suffering with depression, while the shining autoharp and accordion of The Earliest Blue expresses the hope of recovery. These are also accompanied by an animated lyric video.

The EP closes with Play Along, a plaintive reimagining of the Carpenters’ Superstar.

Alison Eales

Alison is a long-standing member of the band Butcher Boy, playing piano, accordion and other keyboards as well as arranging for choir and brass. She is also a member of Glasgow Madrigirls and has collaborated with bands including The Color Waves (USA), The Very Most (USA), The Just Joans (Glasgow), Featherfin (Norway) and The Powdered Earth (UK).

Her debut solo album Mox Nox was released on Fika Recordings in March 2023.

“Delightful is also one of the apt descriptions for Alison Eales’ Four for a Boy EP, a sweet collection fuelled by ukuleles, accordions and charming vocals. It could be the ideal antidote to tough days.” Snack Mag

“Four songs is all you get and four songs is that you need when you are in the company of Alison Eales. Her eloquent sentimentalism stole my heart a long time ago and I won’t be asking for it back anytime soon. Pure class”. Blues Bunny

“supremely talented” Glasgow Music City

Adam Ross - Apogee [Digital]

Artist: Adam Ross
Title: Apogee
Format: digital
Cat#: Fika099SG2
Release date: 6th March 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

"I am the way I am, I’ve always been this way

I have no choice in this, my dear

You said I’m wrong, you said we always have a choice

You said it’s consequence I fear"

Apogee is the second single from Adam Ross's new album, Littoral Zone. The song is an optimistic evocation of the strength of love, with Adam’s thoughtful lyrics tied up in a sweeping orchestral-indie production (courtesy of Andrew Wasylyk) which brings to mind the likes of Camera Obscura and Belle & Sebastian.

The gorgeous string arrangements were written by Pete Harvey and the song also features guest vocals by Gillian Fleetwood and brass by Rachel Simpson. It was recorded during a series of sessions in Andrew Wasylyk’s Dundee studio and the release is accompanied by a live video featuring an 8-piece ensemble and filmed in Abdie & Dunbog Parish Church in Lindores.

Adam says about the song:

“I wrote Apogee during a pretty special two-month songwriting stay in a former lighthouse keeper’s cottage at Todhead near Catterline a few years ago. My wife would visit at the weekends and then I’d be left on my own throughout the week so this song was for her, really.

“Todhead Lighthouse was where I wrote and recorded half of my first solo album, Staring At Mountains, but Apogee didn’t feel right for that album. I had a couple of different ideas about where to take it but Andrew suggested Camera Obscura as a loose reference point since we knew were going to be lucky enough to work with a string ensemble. When I arrived at the string recording session, this is the song they were playing and it was a really lovely moment for me to walk into the room and hear it all coming together. I love Pete Harvey’s arrangement.”

Apogee is released on 6th March as a digital single. It follows the first single, Free Will, which has received regular radio play on BBC Radio Scotland, BBC 6 Music and Amazing Radio. The album, Littoral Zone, is released by Fika Recordings on 24th May on vinyl, CD and digital which is currently available to pre-order.

Mammoth Penguins - Species [Digital]

Artist: Mammoth Penguins
Title: Species
Format: Digital Single
Cat#: Fika0100SG1
Release date: 13th Feb 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

Cambridge indie pop trio Mammoth Penguins are delighted to announce their return with new album Here set for release on 3rd May 2024 via Fika Recordings.

To celebrate the news, the band are sharing lead single ‘Species’ which is released on 13th February 2024 via all good digital service providers—a jagged, explosive firework of a song from vocalist Emma Kupa about finding a place in the world, that’s rapidly becoming a live favourite with fans.

Mammoth Penguins are a 3 piece indie pop powerhouse, showcasing the songwriting and vocal talents of Emma Kupa (Standard Fare, The Hayman Kupa Band) backed up by the noisiest rhythm section in indie pop, Mark Boxall (bass, keys, vocals) and Tom Barden (drums, percussion, vocals).

Reminiscent of the pop melodies of The Beths, the indie dissonance of Land of Talk, and the guitar forward slacker rock of Weezer, Mammoth Penguins marry heart-ache indie pop with spiky guitars and Kupa’s frank, confessional songwriting.

Following the release of 2019’s big, bold, and confident album There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win, plus the initial shock of the global pandemic cancelling a trip to SXSW in 2020, the band returned to the studio in the summer of 2021 to start laying down material.

Recorded, edited, and mixed at Sickroom Studios in Norfolk by Owen Turner, the new album was produced by drummer Tom Barden, with string arrangements, cello and violin on Here and Success by Mary Erskine, and mastered by Joe Caithness.

Here leans into the band’s raw pop-punk power-trio sound more than ever, with a deep growl of layered guitars and bursts of percussion and harmony. The songs and artwork explore themes of finding a home for yourself and familiarity with people and places. Although they return to a classic three-piece sound, Mammoth Penguins weren’t restricted by that palette, adding finishing touches of percussion, extra guitars and backing vocals in short bursts in a garden shed, and also bringing in gorgeous strings to sweeten the title track.

The new record’s sonic palette builds on their first album, Hide and Seek, which was released with the much-loved and sorely missed Fortuna POP! in 2015. The follow-up LP John Doe in 2017 was an ambitious concept album, exploring the feelings of loss and anger at a man who fakes his own death only to return years later, expanding well beyond the 3-piece rock‘n’roll template, with washes of strings, synths and samples.

Their third album, There’s No Fight We Can’t Both Win, was released in April 2019 via Fika Recordings, exploring classic themes of love, loss and conflict (mostly) given a hopeful and optimistic spin that opposition is neither inevitable nor hopeless.

The band have previously seen support from BBC 6music, Radio X, idobi Radio, Brooklyn Vegan, Louder Than War, London in Stereo, Drowned in Sound, Exclaim!, God Is In The TV, and a whole host of blogs and specialist radio shows for their raw and incisive brand of lo-fi pop.

The ‘Penguins have already been hard at work smashing some high-profile support slots in the lead up to the album release, including Allo Darlin’s joyous reunion at Islington Assembly Hall (Oct 2023) and Muncie Girls last ever London show (Dec 2023). They play the Leicester Indiepop all-dayer and Wales Goes Pop in March, before heading out on tour in support of the new album in May 2024, with tickets on sale now.

Adam Ross - Free Will [Digital]

Artist: Adam Ross
Title: Free Will
Format: digital
Cat#: Fika099SG1
Release date: 17th January 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify

"Tattoos versus religion

A choice between the two

One's a permanent mark you'll regret in later life...

...the other's a tattoo"

Free Will is the first single and the opening track from Adam Ross's new album, Littoral Zone. The song is a stream-of-consciousness journey through a list of doubts, desires, demons and disputes as warped synths and rolling bass guitar slowly build to a sweeping orchestral conclusion. Free Will is a perfect scene-setter showcasing Adam's wry lyricism and the masterful skills of his musical collaborators. The album is produced by Andrew Wasylyk who brings a sonic palette of bone-dry drum kits, modulating keyboards and sparkling piano, all topped off with heart-stirring string arrangements by Pete Harvey, yearning vocals by Gillian Fleetwood and punctuating brass by Rachel Simpson.

Recorded in 2023 during a series of studio sessions in Dundee, the song takes you on a stroll through a north-east village as the narrative flits between parochial and existential concerns, introspection and shabby romance. It marks a departure from the sparse folk of Adam’s previous album and opens up the new, expansive musical world of the Littoral Zone.

Adam says about the song:

"I was thinking about the idea of blame and guilt, having read a book about free will. There's a theory that says free will doesn't exist because there's evidence we make choices before our brains have the chance to actually think about them. And if that's true then it's either a scary/depressing realisation or potentially a liberating one because then there's no need for blame or shame - stuff just happens.

“Naturally, that led to a line about religion. I had a pretty positive experience with a religious childhood but I don't believe anymore and the only hangover is sometimes finding it hard to shake the idea I'm being watched, which is sort of where the tattoo line came from. I'm really pleased with how this song turned out, particularly the way the outro loops and builds. It felt like a pretty good opening statement for the album."

Free Will is released on 17th January as a digital single. It also comes as a free download with pre-orders of Littoral Zone which is released by Fika Recordings on 24th May on vinyl, CD and digital.

Steven Adams - Drops [12”/CD]

Artist: Steven Adams
Title: Drops
Format: 12” vinyl LP | digipack CD
Cat#: Fika098LP | Fika098CD
Release date: 10th November 2023
Bandcamp | Spotify

“A national musical treasure" The Guardian

Steven Adams, formerly of The Broken Family Band releases new album DROPS on Fika Recordings in November 2023.

Since calling time on TBFB at the height of their success, Adams has released half a dozen albums under various names (Singing Adams, Steven James Adams, Steven Adams & The French Drops), his witty, incisive lyrics and melodic sensibilities taking in DIY indie rock, folky introspection, and off-kilter pop hooks. 

Originally from South Wales, Adams now lives in East London.

“Every record I’ve made has been in a hurry of some sort” says Adams of his new album, “and with this one I took my time”. DROPS is the first album to be credited to him as a solo artist since 2016’s Old Magick, his first new music since 2020, and his noisiest record to date.

Armed with a new batch of material, he began by upping sticks to the Welsh countryside to experiment with drummer Daniel Fordham and bassist David Stewart - both formerly of psych oddballs The Drink. The trio then took the songs to Big Jelly, a converted chapel on the south coast, with co-producer Simon Trought (Comet Gain, Johnny Flynn, The Wave Pictures) to lay down the basic tracks for DROPS.

Eschewing a full band set up (“I wanted to concentrate on one thing at a time”), recording sessions in East London followed with Laurie Earle (Absentee) on guitar and Michael Wood (Hayman Kupa Band, Michaelmas) on keyboards.

Adams then took the recordings home and to the French countryside, to work alone.“I finally got my head around home recording in 2020, while things were a bit quiet. Once I worked out how to record things I realised I didn’t have to think about time. I could let the songs evolve and change once we had the basic tracks down. After a while I started to think of them as paintings; trying something one morning, painting over it in the afternoon and attempting something completely different… it was about enjoying the process, making some bangers, playing around... and giving Simon the producer a mess to sort out when it came to mixing the record". Whenever Tom from Fika Recordings checked in to see how the album was progressing Adams would reply, “it’s taking ages but it’ll sound like it was recorded in an afternoon”.

The result is a dynamic and spirited collection of songs, with Adams's love of 90/00s US underground rock (Pavement's Bob Nastanovich is a fan) to the fore.

DROPS is a sonically compelling piece of work: from bleak/exultant opener Out to Sea and the motorik Living in the Local Void to the weirdly funereal Fascists (where Adams imagines the “little skip in our steps” that we’ll have upon outliving some baddies), and Day Trip's psychedelia in miniature. There are also moments of tenderness: the avalanche of empathy on closing track Cheap Wine Sad Face, and I Tried to Keep it Light’s “worse things could happen… I don’t know how, but give me time”.

Adams says: “I'm preoccupied by the passing of time and the way it affects how we feel. This record is about time and bewilderment and trying to make sense of things".

Press for Drops:

“characteristically compelling” Uncut

“instant melodies, Adams’ intimate voice and observational lyrics… urban Britain has generated its very own equivalent of Stephen Malkmus” Mojo

“wry, heartfelt indie-pop that should resonate with anyone who enjoys sympathy in their music” Record Collector

“Adams has delivered his most satisfying album since the heady days of the Broken Family Band… clever, funny, inviting” Americana UK

“Drops still demonstrates Adams’ facility for social observation, gorgeous melodies, verbal dexterity and wordplay – with some trenchant social and political themes thrown in for good measure” Folk Radio

“Among the highpoints are opener Moderation, with some fine reverb guitar and the classic New Wave sounding Heads Keep Rolling” Neon Filler

“your favorite parts of modern indiepop sounds fused with the fuzzy pop of greats like Grandaddy” Austin Town Hall

“a spirited and witty collection of spontaneous sounding indie” Norman Records

Stanley Brinks - Good Moon [12"]

Artist: Stanley Brinks
Title: Good Moon
Format: 12" album on opaque moon coloured vinyl
Cat#: Fika096LP
Release date: 20th October 2023
Bandcamp

The prodigiously prolific Stanley Brinks’ (f.k.a. André Herman Dune) latest solo album Good Moon is a collection of love songs, of drinking songs, caught in the dusk as the sun retreats and the moon takes centre stage.

The good moon comes after the full moon, when everything comes down and you can finally get some work done - be it building a house, or a boat, or recording an album…
It's the most achieved album Stanley Brinks ever made.

Good Moon follows a series of acclaimed albums with The Wave Pictures, a pair of folk shanty and old-time calypso albums alongside Norway’s The Kaniks, and is scheduled for release shortly after another new record from Stanley, Iron Eye, this time alongside longtime collaborator and touring-partner Clemence Freschard.

Freschard appears on drums throughout Good Moon, with backing vocals from guests including anti-folk legend Jeffrey Lewis, The Burning Hell’s Mathias Kom, The Moldy Peaches’ Toby Goodshank and Maltese multimedia artist Alexandra Aquilina.

Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. 

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.  

Freschard & Stanley Brinks - Iron Eye [12"]

Artist: Freschard & Stanley Brinks
Title: Iron Eye
Format: 12" album on transparent red vinyl
Cat#: Fika097LP
Release date: 6th October 2023
Bandcamp

Iron Eye is an irresistibly charming collection of late night tales, woozy ballads and uptempo sing-alongs. Clemence Freschard’s beautiful vocal tones lend this a rich, French indiepop/chanteuse vibe, complemented by Stanley’s wistful timbre and characteristic warm instrumentation. Iron Eye follows a succession of collaborative albums in Lion Heart, Tequila Island and Pizza Espresso in recent years.

In West Africa, where the only water you can find is in the Ocean, Stanley Brinks & Freschard put on their best carnival costumes to get to the bottom of every bottle of rum they could find. 
They found a lot.

Stanley Brinks is renowned for his unique anti-folk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. 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 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”.