short sharp shots

1 - Simon Davies has put out a wonderful album called 'A Day Full Of Sun', which is reminiscent of Robert Wyatt and Luke Smith. Review here

2 - Stephen Fry's Who Do You Think You Are? was compelling viewing last night. Such a sad story to his ancestry, one part of the family were paupers or contracted TB. The saddest thing was seeing the big fella welling up when he discovered how many of his distant family of Jews were murdered in concentration camps in the Second World War.

3 - On Stephen Fry related news, I've realised how much young Dan Mitchell is going to turn into Mr Fry. Which can only be a good thing as you know.

4 - Jim Noir - Tower Of Love. A collection of his EPs from last year. It bleeps, it gurgles and is chock full of fine off kilter pop songs.

5 - Arctic Monkeys. Props for pissing off the pretentious music fans on certain forums and being an extremly popular band that's actually good.

6 - The Rachael Neiman Experience on Bailrigg FM. For making Freedom Road Records label of the week for the duration of Tuesday's show. Lovely things said about my websites and plays for:
undertheigloo - Show Your Face
Compute - Dance With Me
Wallpaper Silhouettes - A Need To Know
nervous_testpilot - Darkstar

7 - Harlette 'Don't Call Me Creepy' EP, giving you nightmares soon!

that was the year that was

At the start of a new year it’s time for us at Freedom Road Records to look back over 2005 and reflect on what we’ve done and what people may have missed.

February saw the release of the ‘Dance With Me’ EP, some fine electro pop in the form of Sweden’s Compute. The band had briefly contained Jens Lekman before Ulrika Mild struck out on her own, leaving Jens to enjoy much success.

Music from the EP:

Compute - Dance With Me

Compute - Turn Your Head

Music not on the EP:

Compute - I Thought One Kiss Couldn't Do Any Harm

Compute - Every Chance

Words and pictures

June saw us release the ‘Echo the World’ album by Norway’s Wallpaper Silhouettes. Eighties styled indie pop in the mould of Orange Juice and the Chameleons.

Music from the album:

Wallpaper Silhouettes - A Need To Know

Wallpaper Silhouettes - Autumn Love

Music not on the album:

Wallpaper Silhouettes - The Marauder

Words and pictures

July saw us move into the murky world of trance with the release of nervous_testpilot’s ‘Determinance’ EP.

Music from the EP:

nervous_testpilot - Spacetime

Words and pictures

Finally November saw the release of undertheigloo’s debut album ‘Circlesend’. The band fall somewhere between Boards of Canada, Grandaddy and Radiohead.

Listen to the album:

undertheigloo - Circlesend

And that’s it for now...there’s new stuff planned for the first couple of months of this year, an EP from Harlette and a remix album from the Evenings.

If you like anything and want to buy a CD, you can do so here.

Have a good 2006!