Cassette Tapes

One-off improvised ambient jam recorded live for NTS Manchester 15.09.2019.

Them There Records presents the new album ‘Solarphones’ from Yorkshire based musician and sound artist Chris Ruffoni. These new recordings are taken from a touring installation project in which Chris explores positioning his bespoke, handbuilt wooden sculptures named Solarphones amidst various outdoor spaces to interact with the sunlight, shadow and the architecture of the setting.

Presented on this release as two 22 minute field recordings, chosen as highlights from numerous installations in woodland and reservoirs around West Yorkshire between April and May 2020. The instruments are tuned in modes using just intonation, each side of the tape reflects one mode.

Throughout Summer 2020 ‘Solarphones’ has been invited to be installed at several (unfortunately postponed) UK festivals including Supernormal and Bluedot Festival. 

Carl Brown announces a new project ckeener and turns in his first album for Them There. ‘Decoration’ sees a swift sidestep for Brown, bridging the unfettered field recording led work as Preston Field Audio with Them There Records’ principal pop absurdity. Using found sounds and recordings collected on an iPhone and Zoom for over two years, Brown has shaped an album of raucous plunderphonics and freesound sampledelia.

Until now Brown’s work has been focused on his now internationally celebrated project Preston Field Audio, including recent collaborations with KAARST, Plymouth artist Keith Harrison and sold out releases for Concrete Tapes and his own label Set Foot Press.

Mastered by Tim Crompton at Another Studio Manchester, the album also features additional production from Them There’s Pun Collins. A proper in-house job.

Five tracks of bedroom produced, speaker-tickling, unhinged noise digressions, and layers of fuzz-punk blast are delivered with an ice-cold, laconic air. 'Destroys the Moon' will chime with those hipped to Moe's work with her other bands, Dog Legs & As Ondas, as well as those who had their ears pricked up by her only other previous release, the now long sold out, 'Saves Planet Earth' E.P.

Stoned Out Two neatly takes off from where the 2010 debut Stoned Out: Miami Beach left us. That time around Jeremy was feverishly writing and recording whilst in his final months of study at University of Michigan, resulting in a wonderfully intimate and glitchy pop record inspired by the likes of Beck, Panda Bear, Captain Beefheart, Haruomi Hosono & Tadanori Yokoo, Freddie Mckay, and Pregnant.

Now two years down the line, we find East Coast native Daly making the jump to the warmer tropes of Los Angeles. This sophomore collection of songs shows an evident liberation thanks to the transition in temperature (hinted at by the Hockney-esque pool scene artwork), as well as the newly-afforded freedom to develop musically within the sprawling isolation of L.A.

From the redemptive gospel tones of ‘Countertop’, to the undeniable afro-beat samples that make up standout, ‘Fellow American’, Stoned Out Two.. is a potent and persuasive compendium of re-structured grooves and samples, found sounds, and home recordings, ably embellished with Daly’s succinct melodic flourishes, and innovational, genre-hopping production.

The album is restricted to 100 cassette copies. Each copy comes with hand assembled album covers, designed by U.K. based illustrator, Jiro Bevis.

Pun Collins lands back at Them There for his new solo release titled 'Dying Together’. Following on from his previous LP for Them There, 2018’s minimalist-pop ‘Lunar Influence’, ‘Dying Together’ proves a natural progression for Axel Lacan as he further explores the peripheries of post-genre dance music for an optimistic perspective on the end times. Prophetic themes of isolation are a linchpin to Lacan’s often bleak narratives. In navigating us through this new record, Lacan searches for the dim lights on the horizon, frequently weaving in moments of sheer new-age ecstasy so as never to let the vibe settle.

Offering up his essential pallet of spectral synths, deep subs, and organic, layered percussion as a framework, darkly cinematic architectures crumble away as Lacan once again holds us at the precipice of a myriad of musical influences. The abstract sound world created here is a highly nuanced blanket, detailed with Pun Collins’ signature dynamic and pacing smoothly draped over a bed of Ambient, Trance, Funk, and Soul.

Formed in Leeds in 2017, The Vat-Egg Imposition are musically indebted to The Fall, Julian Cope and various others of their post-punk ilk, but with a noticeable injection of groove, the lyrical/performance side of the band is more in the surrealistic, comedic vein of Frank Sidebottom, John Shuttleworth, Flight Of The Conchords and John Otway.

‘Sheriff of Nottingham’ is available on all major streaming services from 12th June 2020 and on limited edition apricot cassette, featuring b-side ‘Get My Green Mug Back Again’ which is available to pre-order for delivery on 10th July 2020. This is released in collaboration by Alphaville Recordings and Safe Suburban Home Records as part of a six-part cassette series running throughout 2020.