There are only a few copies of the THWFoS album left now, and they’re exclusively available from this site (we recalled the remaining ones from shops in order to offer them direct at better prices for both you and us). Once they’re gone they’re gone, so don’t think about it for too long!

As for Hige Club, here’s a couple of nice pieces that popped up in the online music press:

Firstly a review of the album from Vanguard Online …

And secondly, a Hige Club interview from The Line of Best Fit.

Nice.

xx

Rather than revisiting Gainsbourg’s best-known work Phil wanted to dig up a “lost classic” – Charlotte For Ever, an album written by Serge for his daughter, Charlotte, and released in 1986 when she was just 12. A product of it’s time, Charlotte Forever hasn’t aged well – its 80s production values make it sound very dated.

But Phil is convinced it’s a songwriting masterclass, and wanted someone to re-record the entire album, stripped of the worst of its 80s excesses, and re-imagined to reveal the beautiful songs hidden within. So he came to us, and Hige Club was born to take on the challenge (there’s more info about them and the project on our Artists page).

We’re pressing up a limited run of just 200 Hige Club CDs, so make sure you get your order in early! We’ll be selling them mail order exclusively though this site, and at the two Hige Club live shows that are lined up:

30th July @ Curzon (Soho) Cinema, London

23-26th September @ Branchage Film Festival Jersey

You can pre-order the CD from our Shop page right now to make sure you’re among the first to get their hands on it – offical release date is 3oth July, but if we get the CDs back from the manufacturers before then we’ll send pre-ordered copies straight out.

And in the meantime, to whet your whistle, you can listen to the whole album right here:

1. Charlotte for ever

2. Ouvertures eclair

3. Oh Daddy Oh

4. Don’t Forget to Forget Me

5. Pour ce que tu n’etais pas

6. Plus doux avec moi

7. Elastique

8. Zero pointe vers l’infini

9. Lemon Incest

(We’d like to be able to post the original album here in it’s entirety too, for comparison, but we might get in trouble for that, so we’ll leave it up to you to seek it out – it’s well worth a bit of detective work!)

xx

xx

xx

You’ll all have heard last weekend’s very sad news by now – Mark Linkous from Sparklehorse took his own life. He made some of our favourite ever records, weird and beautiful and fragile and explosive, his influence on the records we make was always strongly felt, and his loss equally so.

Earlier this week Markus (ex-THWFoS) was contacted by Andy Jones from WTNR Radio who asked if he’d like to record a Sparklehorse track for a Mark Linkous tribute show (it goes to air on Sunday 14th March – tune in if you can). With half a day to throw something together, this was the result.

Junebug

It’s the sound of Markus learning to play the song and the ukulele at the same time, which gives it a sense of naievety and broken beauty that’s just right for a Sparklehorse tribute. Will there be more? Dunno yet, but in the meantime you can hop over to our download page to grab the track for free.

xx

We were approached by a group of student film makers from the London College of Communication (part of the University of the Arts, London) who are in the early stages of making their final year grad film, Cupidity. They wanted to use Their Hearts Were Full of Spring’s “Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind” for the soundtrack. Naturally we said yes.

Markus (ex-THWFoS songwriter) knocked up a quick instrumental version of the track for them and, once filming is complete, he’ll also be  composing new music for the film based on different parts of the song.

The film makers are still looking for voluntary help on all fronts, as well as donations towards funding it. So, if you have any expertiese, enthusiasm or piles of spare cash you’d be willing to throw their way, visit the website and get in touch with them – I’m sure they’d be happy to accept whatever you can offer. You’ll also earn yourself an invite to the launch party. Wooooo!

We’ll keep you up to date with progress on this project via these pages.

x

Somewhat belatedly we have now removed our Xmas Gifts page, but most of the tracks are still available from our Download page, so if you’re a latecomer you can still fill your boots with lots of free stuff.

More news very soon …

This includes some rare tracks, and a couple of never-before-released gems:

- A cover of Phil Spector’s Spanish Harlem which we licensed to Northern Star Records for a special edition 3″ CD split EP with SAY in 2008.

That’s all from us until next year – we’re off for a well-earned lie down.
Have yourselves a merry little Xmas!
x

PS. If you’ve missed any of the other free downloads we’ve been giving away so far over the festive season, you can find them all handily assembled in the same place on this page.

- Here Comes the Rain

- This New Happiness

Hopefully there’ll be more like this to come from these chaps in 2010, but for now enjoy what’s there!

Only one more Xmas gift to go – next up: Their Hearts Were Full of Spring … come back again Sunday for that.

x

Enjoy! More Xmas gifts coming your way in a couple of days – next up: The New Happiness …
x