Posts Tagged ‘Lost Map Records’

SULKA – ” She Cares / You & I “

Posted: February 13, 2021 in MUSIC
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Lost Map Records Sulka is the lo-fi melodic scuzz-rock song writing and recording project of Glasgow-based Lukas Clasen. His debut single for Lost Map, ‘Fear It’, was released in October,  2020 on digital services and as part of Lost Map’s subscription service The PostMap Club.

“Take Care” which will be released in January 2021. The Album “‘Fear It’ channels a lot bands I listened to in my late teens,” says Lukas, “Cloud Nothings, The Cribs, Dinosaur Jr, Elliott Smith for example. So it has a kind of nostalgic but timeless feel to it for me. Lyrically there’s a lot of angst and turbulence in there which I think sets up some of the themes of the album quite well. I’m especially grateful to my friend Niamh from Moonsoup for adding some last-minute backing vocals which makes it a million times more listenable to me.”

Sulka has been putting out a steady stream of albums and EPs since 2017 via various local cassette labels including Gold Mold, Death Collective, Common and Negative Hope. Luka’s songwriting draws its main inspiration from figures of the late 90s and early 00s alternative scenes; Elliott Smith-esque acoustic compositions, scuzzy upbeat indie-rock tracks reminiscent of The Cribs and experiments in sound collage in the vein of Badly Drawn Boy. 

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The dynamic and stylistic range of the tracks are kept coherent through a DIY home recording aesthetic and a consistent lyrical tone. Throughout the tracks, raw personal subject matter such as relationships and mental health are often explored with a mixture of sincerity and tongue-in-cheek word play. Sulka has regularly performed live (both solo and as a full band), with highlights including opening slots for like-minded acts PAWS, Sorry, Current Joys and Jeffrey Lewis & the Voltage. 

This release was available exclusively via our membership series, PostMap Club, during the month of January 2021. To keep up with all our future releases, sign up from just £3/month: lostmap.com/club

Released December 28th, 2020

The PICTISH TRAIL – ” The Dream Wall ” EP

Posted: February 4, 2021 in MUSIC
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Johnny Lynch is a Scottish musician who performs under the pseudonym The Pictish Trail. After graduation from the University of St Andrews, Lynch ran Fence Records from 2003 until 2013 and has since been running Lost Map Records. Lynch has attended and played every Green Man Festival since its inception in 2003.

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Pictish Trail is Johnny Lynch, he lives on the Hebridean isle of Eigg, where he runs his label, Lost Map Records. 

Releases April 1st, 2021

SULKA – ” Take Care “

Posted: January 17, 2021 in Classic Albums, MUSIC
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Lost Map Records, the Isle-of-Eigg based label ran by Pictish Trail’s Johnny Lynch, still seems to constantly find ways to make things a little bit better, via releases from the likes of Martha Ffion, Firestations, Savage Mansion and Alexia Avina. With plenty already in the pipelines for the year ahead, they’ve recently announced the signing of Sulka, “the lo-fi melodic scuzz-rock songwriting and recording project of Glasgow-based Lukas Clasen”, who will release his debut album, “Take Care“, at the end of this month.

DIY in the truest sense, Lukas played every instrument on Take Care, a record that explores a particular period in his life, the post break-up summer of 2019, when he was feeling, “lonely and a bit reckless”. The resultant record seems to be a beautifully explorative affair, channelling the genre mashing style of Alex G, the emotive intensity of Kane Strang and the bedroom exploration of Elvis Depressedly. Having previously supported the likes of Jeffrey Lewis and PAWS, Sulka looks well placed to make a delightfully lo-fi splash.

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Releases January 29th, 2021

Written and produced by Lukas Clasen
Backing vocals on track 1 + 12 by Niamh Baker
Drums engineered and recorded by Luc Grindle

MARTHA FFION – ” Nights To Forget “

Posted: November 6, 2020 in Classic Albums, MUSIC
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Our love of Martha Ffion is no secret, we’re even quoted on her press release declaring her, “one of our favourite artists in recent years”, yet we’ll risk hammering home that point once more, because her new single is fantastic. The title track of upcoming album, “Nights To Forget” is the latest offering from the follow-up to Martha’s Scottish Album of the Year Award nominated debut, Sunday Best, which is set for release next week via Lost Map Records.

Discussing the track, Martha has suggested Night To Forget is her, “reflection on my own negative experience of objectification as a woman“. It finds Martha reflecting on the optimism of youth, and how it tends to fade from women as reality bites, before towards the end of the track seeming to reclaim her rights to be whoever she wants with the repeated refrain, “won’t owe you anything”. Perhaps counterintuitively to the track’s themes, it was the jumping off point for Martha exploring a more distinct pop direction, the start of a mission to, “make a record that she wanted to hear, rather than a record that felt like an obvious follow-on from its predecessor”. Here that pop-vision manifests via a slinky lead-guitar line, Tropicalia-laced percussion and warms beds of smooth synth perfection. If this is Martha Ffion’s idea of a modern-pop record, then it’s one that gives you hope for pop music’s future; creative, intriguing and quickly becoming one of 2020’s most exciting albums.

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Martha Ffion is the musical project of Claire Martha Ffion McKay. From Warrenpoint & based in Glasgow. Her debut album, ‘Sunday Best’, released in March 2018, was long-listed for the Scottish Album of the Year prize, alongside the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Mogwai and Young Fathers. 

Released August 2020

Nights To Forget is out August 14th via Lost Map Records.

MARTHA FFION – ” Nights To Forget “

Posted: July 29, 2020 in Classic Albums, MUSIC
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Nights to Forget is the much-anticipated second album from Scottish Album of the Year Award nominated Glasgow-based Irish singer-songwriter Claire McKay, AKA Martha Ffion. Set for release on August 14th, 2020 on 12” vinyl and via digital platforms, it’s a bold and exciting departure from her previous work, embracing Claire’s love of envelope-pushing contemporary pop, forgoing the storytelling of her debut album Sunday Best in favour of personal reflections on loss, letting go, looking forward and the futility of nostalgia. The album is preceded by the singles ‘After the Fact’ and ‘Want You To Know’, both of which are available now.

Produced by Dave Frazer and recorded at his home studio in Glasgow, Nights to Forget finds Claire pondering on everything from politics, feminism and depression to David Attenborough, and channelling her love of artists from St. Vincent and Roisin Murphy to Anderson .Paak and Grimes, on a mission to make a record that she wanted to hear, rather than a record that felt like an obvious follow-on from its predecessor.

“Most of it was written the summer after Sunday Best came out,” explains Claire. “It was an uncharacteristically hot summer by Glasgow standards but I spent most of it holed up in my flat on Garageband. When I would venture out for a walk, I kept bumping into my friend, Dave Frazer and we’d end up chatting about music for ages. I told him about the kind of record I wanted to make – something more fresh and modern – and we decided to give it a go together. I wasn’t tied to any label or timeframe, so we ended up gradually rebuilding and reworking my demos over the course of a year. We mainly worked in his flat, after work or on weekends. Everything was given so much breathing space – it was nice to let each song properly develop in its own time rather than having the pressure of studio deadlines. Deciding when to say it was finished was the hard part.”

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My new album ‘Night to Forget’ – out 14.08.2020 on Lost Map – is now available to pre-order at a special price.
If you’re thinking about getting a copy (or buying releases by other independent artists) it would be good to do so today while all revenue goes directly to artists/charities!

Releases August 14th, 2020

MOLLY LINEN – ” When They Didn’t Care “

Posted: October 5, 2019 in MUSIC
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Glasgow-based songwriter Molly Linen is too release a pair of tracks that are set to feature on her debut EP, “Outside”, available from on Lost Map Records. Ahead of the release this week, Molly has shared the latest track lifted from the record, “When They Didn’t Care”.

Discussing the inspiration behind the track, Molly has suggested When They Didn’t Care is about, “worrying too much about what other people think, and the moment you realise that they don’t actually really care”. While the realisation that someone doesn’t care at all can be crushing, it can also be liberating, freeing you from trying too hard to impress, as Molly sings, “rows of everything you want to show, thinking always of what they can know”. Musically, it might be Molly’s most ambitious production to date, as the prominent bass melds into the steady rhythms of guitar and drums; it’s a track with as much in common with Ultimate Painting or Amber Arcades as it does with the folky comparisons she’s received previously.

Further fire for the growing evidence that Molly’s debut EP might just be the year’s finest to date.

Molly Linen is a Shropshire-born, Glasgow-based songwriter and guitarist. Her beguiling voice is both emotive yet serene recalling the dulcet whispered tones of Cat Power, layered upon melodic guitar lines which draw influence from artist such as Devon Sproule and Nick Drake. Linen’s latest single ‘When They Didn’t Care’ touches on,  The single follows the release of Linen’s wonderfully received debut single ‘Away’ (May 2019), which was described as “remarkably mature, so beautifully focused, and so frightfully exciting” by influential blog For The Rabbits, with radio play from the likes of BBC 6Music (Gideon Coe) and BBC Radio Scotland (Vic Galloway and Roddy Hart). Whilst at Spotify the single was added to several high-profile playlists including NPR’s .

The Outside EP, from which both singles are taken, is a collection of accomplished, atmospheric and personal songs written in, and inspired by, Linen’s life in rural Shropshire and the West End of Glasgow where the EP was recorded. As Linen expands “Some of the songs on the Outside EP reflect on my personal experiences of being out in nature and feeling the many emotional benefits, whilst others are observations of being in particular environments and noticing small details.” The Outside EP was written by Molly Linen (guitar/vocals) and features Beth Chalmers (keyboard, harmonium and vocals), Liam Chapman (drums, synth and vocals) and Gemma Fleet (bass). It was recorded by Ronan Fay at Green Door Studios, Glasgow,

Outside EP is out today via Lost Map Records.

Lazy Day – ‘Hiccup’

Posted: February 23, 2018 in MUSIC
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Lost Map Records are delighted to welcome the return of London lo-fi dreamy-grunge quartet Lazy Day with their shimmering and soaring new track ‘Hiccup’ . It’s the thrilling first taster of their forthcoming EP Ribbons, which is due for release on 10” vinyl . The single precedes Lazy Day’s first UK headline tour .

‘Hiccup’ follows Lazy Day’s now long-since sold-out Record Store Day 2015 split 7” single with Tuff Love, ‘Portait’ / ‘Groucho’, and the ‘Disappear’ 7” single, which was accompanied by a stunning and trippy video hailed by many as “yet more evidence of Tilly’s growing ambitions, as she amps up with a full band, and hits down on the accelerator”.

Lazy Day began life in 2014 as the bedroom solo project of Tilly Scantlebury. Self-recording her tracks on Garageband and making them available to hear via SoundCloud, she quickly gained extensive attention and praise from many respected music websites and blogs. Since expanding to a four-piece band currently featuring drummer Beni Evans, guitarist Liam Hoflay and newest member bassist Jake Head, they’ve gone on to twice be longlisted for Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition, appear at festivals including LeeFest: The Neverland, SWN Festival and the Beacons Festival and earn radio play from BBC 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne.

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“I wrote ‘Hiccup’ two summers ago when I found myself in a romantic situation that I wasn’t ready for,” says Tilly. “The song is about not knowing what someone else is thinking and ending up in your own head. I wanted to play with the idea of a ‘hiccup’ – a weird involuntary bodily reflex that causes disruption, even if only for a second. A hiccup is like an unpredictable bump in the road, and it was a way for me to express the lack of control I felt I had at the time. I had a lot of fun mirroring this in the music, especially with the band in the studio – chopping and changing the pace and feel of the song so you’re never quite sure what’s next.”

‘Hiccup’ was recorded by Bottle Rocket Recording at The Crows’ Nest Studios, mixed by Adrian Hall (Anna Calvi/Goldfrapp) at Clever Pup Studios and mastered by Andy ‘Hippy’ Baldwin at Metropolis. Artwork and press shot by Eleanor Crewes.

FIRESTATIONS – ” Receiver “

Posted: February 23, 2018 in Classic Albums, MUSIC
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Walthamstow’s finest dream-pop band is probably a more open competition than you’d imagine thanks to the existence of The Leaf Library and The Great Electric, but definitely one of the finest are Lost Map signed quintet, Firestations. The band are set to release their new album, The Year Dot, in April and have this week shared the second single from it, “Receiver”.

Our new single, Receiver, is out now on Lost Map. You are the receiver, you get the message”. You send out a signal and hope that it reaches someone – it’s our dystopian sci-fi electro-pop love song.

It’ll be out as a ltd edition PostMap postcard as well, with an exclusive track, on 16th March.

Described by frontman Mike Cranny as being about, “the joy of finding someone who can receive your frequency and just knowing they’re in the world making everything bearable somehow”, it’s an early contender for the year’s most scientifically accurate love song. With its clinking electronics and driving rhythms, there’s a touch of retro-futurism about the sound, like a child of the 1980’s picturing what pop music would sound like in 2018, which it turns is much better than what most actual pop music sounds like.

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Firestations have suggested The Year Dot was written as a distillation of a world of admin jobs, depression and dreaming the days away, listening to Receiver it’s hard not to get whisked away in a moment of pure, perfect escapism.

The Year Dot is out April 6th via Lost Map Records.

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Band Members
Mike Cranny, Laura Copsey,
Martin Thompson,
Giles Littleford, Tom Hargreaves

 

FIRESTATIONS – ” Build A Building “

Posted: January 11, 2018 in Classic Albums, MUSIC
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Releasing a new single on Lost Map Records (Pictish Trail, Kid Canaveral, Rozi Plain). It’s a song called ‘Build A Building’, and it’s about seeking release from feeling like a cog in a machine.

The band are Mike Cranny, Laura Copsey, Martin Thompson, Giles Littleford and Tom Hargreaves. Together they write lyrical alt-pop songs which are filtered through joyous surges of collective noisemaking and bursts of electronic sound from synths and guitars. The debut album ‘Never Closer‘ came out at the end of 2014 and the new album ‘The Year Dot’ will be out on Lost Map Records in early 2018. The first single taken from it ‘Build A Building’ is out now.

For The Rabbits blog premiered it and described it as: “a lush flourish of sound – breezy guitar lines combined with sun-dripped melodies and bursts of textural electronic noise”.

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LAZY DAY – ” Oldiest Friend / Hiccup “

Posted: September 10, 2017 in Classic Albums, MUSIC
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Earlier in the year, London-based Lazy Day unveiled their track ‘With My Mind’, and now they’re gearing up to release their debut EP ‘Ribbons’ on 15th September!

Before the EP gets fully unveiled next week though, Tilly Scantlebury and co have unveiled a green screen-tastic video for their latest single ‘Hiccup’. In it, Tilly lets her imagination roam free via the power of green screen, transporting herself from being an explorer in Africa to a top chef, a superstar footballer to being pampered on the beach. She also becomes a rock star, but to be honest we thought that one was already a reality…

Speaking of the track and video, she said: “‘Hiccup’ is a lot about guessing what someone else is thinking and doing. When you don’t know someone very well it makes figuring out what’s going on in their mind pretty hard. That constant guessing can mess with your own head too, and I wanted ‘Hiccup’ to have a video that visualised that kind of on-going confusion, how your thoughts can end up all crashing together. I suppose the video is a weird window into my mind – and what it feels like when you’re trying to see into someone else’s”.

She continued: “I met the director, Eliza, when we were both working in a gallery, effectively being bodyguards for really expensive art. We were meant to guard silently, but we couldn’t stop talking. We walked around in our uniforms and concocted ideas and plans, and the days would speed by. I felt so lucky to have an amazing all female crew working on this. We had so much fun, and I think that joy and camaraderie really comes through in the final video”.

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