A DIY INDIEPOP VINYL & CASSETTE LABEL

Victoria and Jacob - Festival

IMG_2750 Victoria and Jacob are yet another new signing to Fika Recordings! We first came across them around this time last year when they sent us some sublime demos from their upcoming album. The frantic nature of running a record label alongside a full time day job took its toll, and that particular email slipped down the list of important-things-to-get-done-when-I-get_home-from-work, slightly forgotten. Roll on a few months and to an East London pub, sitting enjoying a few drinks with Trev from Oddbox Records, Darren Hayman and John from WIAIWYA, while we discussed ideas (ridiculous and not-so) and tinkered with Darren's Excel spreadsheets, talk turned to demos received and demos that had slipped through the net from bands that went on to Bigger Things... Several pints later, John and I had decided that we'd be working together on the Victoria and Jacob, having both fallen in love with those early demos tracks and neither of us quite having had time to do anything about it yet!

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Fast forward 6 months from that meeting and we're just about ready to release the lead single from their forthcoming debut album. Festival will be out on the 27th of May, from both Fika Recordings and WIAIWYA, joined on the b-side by a cover of The Church's Under The Milky Way.

You can pre-order the 7" right now, with an immediate download of Festival from the Fika Recordings shop.

Victoria and Jacob - Festival remixes

Not only that, but we're giving away a free remix every Monday right up until the single release date. So far, we've had a Ralegh Long/Alex Pyper remix, one from Gringle and another from Alexander's Festival Hall. There's another five yet to come, and the final two are personal favourites! Keep up to date with the remixes here.

There's also a beautifully summery video for Festival, which you can watch below! Enjoy!

Cosines - Hey Sailor Boy! [7"]

Here's the start of a flurry of new releases during the spring on Fika Recordings! First up, we've got the debut single from Cosines! Hey Sailor Boy! will be out on May 20th as a 7" single/download.

Hey Sailor Boy! is a love song from one girl pirate to her sailor boy. Originally written by Alice for fictional band The Girl Pirates (who's extended membership included unwittingly comedian David Cross and Decemberists singer Colin Meloy), the band never got much further than one drunken rum soaked practice before "Hey Sailor Boy!" was packed away. The song took on a new lease of life with Cosines, with a stomping piano riff, soulful beat and sweet strings (arranged and performed by Elefant Record's A Little Orchestra); comparisons could be made to the classic pop of Camera Obscura, The Beach Boys, The Concretes and The Magnetic Fields.

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Cosines are a mathematical pop band from north London. Simon Nelson and Alice Hubley met on the London Underground after a Stereo Totale gig in 2009. Two days later Simon was round Alice's house unblocking her kitchen drain. Since then Simon has been round and put up two curtain rails, a blind and a shelf.

This unlikely meeting, got them talking and once the DIY was done they started making music together, fusing metronomic pop sensibilities, 60's grooves and krautrock noise. What you maybe would get if you mix Love, United States of America and Stereolab. As a band they are constantly trying to find the perfect meeting point between clean synths and fuzz guitars.

The band's line up was completed by Alice's old Loves bandmates Daniel Chapman and Jonny Drums and A Smile and A Ribbon's Kajsa Tretow.

The band played their first show in April 2012, and since then have played shows with Comet Gain, Shrag and Still Flyin' as well the Indietracks Festival. The band are currently working on a debut album and consequently doing less DIY.

You may recognise Cosines from such other bands as Arthur and Martha, Vermont, The Loves, Brother Francisco, Pocketbooks, The Duloks and One Fathom Down.

Listen to and pre-order Cosines - Hey Sailor Boy!

Tullycraft - Lost In Light Rotation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrlk82j4NB4 2013 has been a bit quiet on the release front so far for Fika Recordings, but don't panic, we're kicking into gear to bring you loads of exciting new releases over the next few months. First up will be the brand new album from Tullycraft, their first in absolutely ages! We'll be putting out a very limited (100 copies only) handmade cassette version of the album, towards the end of March. Fortuna Pop and Magik Marker Records are handling CD/LP duties in Europe and North America respectively. It's a stunner of an album; just the job to get this year off to a flying start.

So here's the brand new video for the single, Lost In Light Rotation. Enjoy!

Lost In Light Rotation available to pre-order from shop.fikarecordings.com

Distro

We're starting to do a little bit of distribution. Currently, it'll mainly be releases from artists working with Fika Recordings, who've released records previously/simultaneously on other labels. We want to help you explore their back catalogue, save on postage costs and enjoy more excellent music!So far, we've got the debut 7" single from Victoria and Jacob. We've just a handful of copies left of their single With No Certainty / There's A War - once they're gone, they're gone forever. And when they do, you'll need to keep your eyes peeled for their next digital single on Fika in April and their 7" single in May. As well as that, we've an LP and a CD from My Little Pony, who went on to become Making Marks having lost a member of the original band. Pick up a copy of their debut 12" LP Think Too Much, which features one of my favourite songs, and favourite lines:

And she said.. "Your love is like nuclear energy- it leaves a lot of stuff I don't know what to do with. And do you really love me or am I just in your network?"

We've also got a handful of copies of their second album, called Making Marks, available on CD.

Red Shoe Diaries

With great sadness, we can announce that Red Shoe Diaries have decided to call it a day and concentrate on new projects. They were the first artist to release a vinyl record with Fika Recordings, and as such, they'll always occupy a special place in our hearts. It is a beautiful sounding record and a beautiful looking sleeve. "After 4-ish years together, Red Shoe Diaries have decided to bring things to an end.

We are so grateful for all the support we have received from you all, whether it has been coming to gigs, buying our records or generally just being nice to us. We have had some great times.

But far from feeling like an end, this is a new beginning for a lot of us. One of those new beginnings is ‘Seabirds’, a new band featuring members of Red Shoe Diaries. We are very excited about this new venture, and look forward to making more music for y’all!

Seabirds’ first performance will be at the Leicester Indiepop Alldayer on Saturday 23rd March." Red Shoe Diaries

We have the last few copies of their 10" EP, When Will I Find My Heart..., available from the Fika shop for £5.

Making Marks on tour

Making Marks are off on tour around Germany and France supporting Allo Darlin'. Catch them at the dates below below! 17.11.12 – Lido, Berlin (DE) 18.11.12 – TBA, Jena (DE) 19.11.12 - Blaue Fabrik, Dresden (DE) 20.11.12 – Astra Stube, Hamburg (DE) 21.11.12 - Die hängende Gärten, Köln (DE) 22.11.12 - Workshop of Dorian Rollin, Ribeauville (FR) 23.11.12 - L’Internationale, Paris (FR) 24.11.12 - Le Rouge, Lille (FR)

You can buy their debut 7" single Ticket Machine from the Fika Recordings webshop.

Halloween Special Offer

As it is almost Halloween, you're going to need something suitably awesome and suitably gory to listen to. But fear not! We've just the album you need! We've slashed the prices on Moustache Of Insanity's Album Of Death to just £5, on both the LP and the CD. It's an album bursting with blood, guts and tales of zombie sex. Those dodgy looking characters lurking in the shadows? Why, they're Nik Vestberg [Fulhäst] and Bill Botting [Allo Darlin'], teaming up for a 13 tracks of getting attacked by human cats, gameboy screams from hell and, er, dinner parties with the recently deceased.

The vinyl comes all wrapped up in a blood smeared inner sleeve too - every one provides a different window into the darkest part of my/Bill's/Nik's inner most nightmares...

Plus a download code and all sorts of other goodies. Just a fiver. Go here http://moustacheofinsanity.fikarecordings.com/album/album-of-death to buy Album Of Death and here http://shop.fikarecordings.com/ to browse the rest of Fika's back catalogue. Offer ends in November. Be quick or have a slightly more rubbish Halloween.

Johan Hedberg (Suburban Kids With Biblical Names) remix

So the 'debut' 7" single from Making Marks is out on Monday the 15th, and not content with two wonderful tracks on the vinyl, we've added a bonus remix track to the download. It comes courtesy of Johan Hedberg, ed half of Sweden's Suburban Kids With Biblical Names [Labrador Records]. Johan describes it as "sample based laid-back"; it makes us think of Ace of Base! With such a great remix, it only seemed fitting that we made a video for it too! http://vimeo.com/fikarecordings/ticketmachineremix

You can buy the Ticket Machine 7" now from http://shop.fikarecordings.com/album/ticket-machine and get an immediate download of Ticket Machine, Like Spinning and Johan's remix.

Making Marks - Ticket Machine

Making Marks start their UK tour tomorrow and we've released the video for their 7" single Ticket Machine to celebrate! It was filmed in Oslo and features archive footage from the 1946 short film, The Bus Driver. http://vimeo.com/fikarecordings/ticketmachine

Making Marks UK Tour Sep 2012 Thursday 13th: Undertone, Cardiff Friday 14th: Zanzibar, Liverpool Saturday 15th: The Victoria, Birmingham (w/ Tigercats) Sunday 16th: The Lexington (free afternoon show as part of The Hangover Lounge, w/ White Town) Wednesday 19th: Underbelly, Hoxton, London (w/ The Rosie Taylor Project and Owl & Mouse) Thursday 20th: Caboose Cafe, Ramsgate

The 7" is now available to pre-order. It'll be available in the shops on the 15th October, as well as on iTunes, Spotify etc. Buy from us and there'll be a very special bonus track remix of Ticket Machine from another Scandinavian Fika Recordings favourite...