F3NC3 R⅓CORDS’ CHART RUSE  is a new series of 7″ EP’s, showcasing Fence Records talent established and new.

The series will consist of 3 EP’s on 7″ vinyl (to be played at 33⅓rpm), released over the space of about 6 months.

Each E.P. will collect 3 songs by an artist, as well as a remix by a Fence Collective member.  They will initially be released on 7” vinyl only, but will also come with a means of downloading the tracks.  HOWEVER, in inimitable Fence-styleee, the download codes will not become active until a certain amount of copies have sold!

As if that wasn’t perverse enough … not all of the tracks will be downloadable, either!   The remix on each EP will stay vinyl only, until such time as we decide to compile them all, digitally.  OOH.

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SUBSCRIPTION

If you subscribe, or subscribe on someone’s behalf, we will send out 3 different E.P.’s over the course of 6 months.  You’ll also be put on a special mailing list that will entitle you to cheaper tickets for EP launch shows, other Fence gigs, and discounts on select releases over that period.

Subscription to the 3 E.P. set costs just £18 – and that is INCLUSIVE OF POSTAGE! (Postage is added for those outside the UK).

We’re wanting to keep details of the whole series a surprise – even the artwork! – but we can reveal that the first EP in the series is by Withered Hand and features a remix by King Creosote.  It is due for release on February 3rd, 2012.

Fresh from their Scottish tour, the King & Kids have got a brand new collaborative single for your ears – the 11th title in our Secret7 series!

The A-side, Creosote-penned ‘Homerun And A Vow’, is a reworking of an unreleased track given an rollicking rock-stomp twist by the Canaverals.

Kate Canaveral takes the lead vocal on the flip-side ‘Nowhere Near Half Done’ – a sugary slice of jangly-indie goodness, reminiscent of The Raincoats, with Creosote on 80′s synth duty.

This single comes on 7inch vinyl, which you can purchase on this page.  However, you can also purchase the ‘T-Shirt Tour Bundle’ – where you get a T-shirt AND a download code along with your copy of the vinyl. (T-shirt bundle available in men sizes AND skinny fit).

YOU CAN BUY THIS ALBUM NOW, FOR JUST £12.99
- Album ONLY AVAILABLE on 12″ vinyl LP, with a FREE Compact Disc copy inside!

THE SHIVERS are a rock-pop group, based out of Queens, New York, comprising the exceptional talents of Keith Zarriello (lead vocals, guitar) and Jo Schornikow (vocals, keys/organ).

Keith is your typical East Coast American tortured neurotic / love-lorn romantic, and part time estate-agent;  Jo, your typical Australian travelling dreamer, virtuoso keyboard player, and part time church-organist.  Together, they’ve created one of the most beautifully compelling albums you’re likely to hear all year: MORE.

MORE is The Shivers’ sixth album, and first with Fence – indeed, with any label in UK – and is their strongest, most focussed collection of songs yet.

The duo travelled over to the UK in 2010 with their drummer friend Tom Raysmith, and recorded straight to tape at Analogue Catalogue – an all analogue studio, in Manchester. The album was taken back over the Atlantic, mixed by Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Yo La Tengo), and mastered to tape by Joe Lambert (Dirty Projectors, Animal Collective, Deerhunter) – the band proudly declairing on the sleeve notes “no computers were used in the recording, mixing or mastering of this record”.

To maintain this non-digital feel and ethic, Fence have pressed the album on vinyl LP (ensuring that every copy comes with a CD, incase you don’t have a turntable!).

Although recorded in Manchester, MORE is very much rooted in New York City – Keith’s delivery steeped in the spirit of classic songwriters from his hometown and the surrounding scene, spread over the last 5 decades. From the Springsteen-sway of ‘Irrational Love’, and The Strokes-fuelled punch of ‘Used To Be’, to the biting Cohen-esque balladry of ‘Silent Weapons For Quiet Wars’, and the Dylan-soaked drawl of ‘More’; an emotional integrity and personality is preserved, infused with a reverence that never once strays into pastiche.

In much the same way as the band sought to capture a pure, untouched recording, at its core, this is an album of love songs that each possess an undeniable sincerity of expression and feeling. Frustration, lust, anger, relief, bitterness and yearning all exist in their separate guises across ten tracks – with Keith’s performance suitably volatile throughout.

Jo (who is pictured on the album’s sleeve) compliments Keith’s passion with arrangements that provide a rich warmth and gritty confidence to MORE – taking care not to overwhelm the songs. Her feel for balance and symmetry is apparent as soon as the needle drops, with both sides of vinyl opening with instrumentals; ‘My Mouth Is For My Love’ mirrors a melodic theme from album closer ‘More’; side B opens with ‘Two Solitudes’, an atmospheric organ-led coda to the previous side’s ‘Love Is In The Air’.

Honest, considered, and heartfelt – such is the nature of MORE, in both recording and performance, you’ll agree that it sounds and feels timeless.

12″ VINYL, which comes packaged with CD

Over the past 12 months, Edinburgh-based indie poppers Kid Canaveral have worked harder than any other band in the country – touring at every available opportunity, saving up all their pennies to play SxSW, and in the process building up a loyal troup of sing-along fans on the back of their thrilling debut album, SHOUTING At Wildlife.  Amongst those fans are Fence Records label bosses, The Pictish Trail and King Creosote - who invited the band to play prominent slots at their most recent Away Game and Home Game festivals.

The band have now signed to Fence Records, and, from today, we’re taking pre-orders on the new vinyl re-pressing of their debut.

Across twelve tracks, the band showcase the breadth of their indie-rock and DIY-pop songwriting skills – proving that they are not just a throng of catchy A-sides, but are also kings and queens of the slow-burner.  Here, harmonies soar as well as settle – and whispered middle-eights are every bit as captivating as wailing guitar feedback.

The songs on SHOUTING At Wildlife have been remastered for this vinyl pressing by Reuben Taylor (James Yorkston & The Athletes) – and they have never sounded better.   And, on the matt-finished outer sleeve of the vinyl, the fantastic artwork by Eve McConnachie really comes to life – larger, bolder, lovelier.

Don’t have a record player?  Don’t worry!  The vinyl comes with a copy of the CD, with all the tracks on there.

“Shouting At Wildlife is a thrilling, uplifting and generally all-round spiffing combination of indie-pop skills, lyrical wit, and choruses sung through smiles.”   THE SKINNY **** (4 stars)

“This debut is packed with singalong melodies, frisky jangles and a real sense of purpose, with ‘Left and Right’ and the joyous ‘Smash Hits’ reminiscent of the best bits of Bis or The Shop Assistants. A jubilant and skillful racket.” THE LIST **** (4 stars)

* RELEASED ON 12″ VINYL – AND EACH COPY COMES WITH A CD OF ALL THE TRACKS!

* ON GENERAL RELEASE FROM JANUARY 3rd, 2011 – PRICED AT £10.99!

In December 2009, The Pictish Trail partook in a project devised by his pal, stand-up comic Josie Long, entitled ‘100 Days To Make Me A Better Person’.  PT set himself the task of writing and recording a new song every day, across 100 days – a task which he failed miserably.  Nevertheless, the project did give birth to 50 brand new songs, all of which are assembled on In Rooms.  Given the quantity of material, one might assume this album would be a gargantuan multi-disc collector’s set, of Magnetic Fields’ proportions.  However, each of PT’s new songs are precisely 30 seconds in length – thus, the album clocks in at exactly 25 minutes.  Which fits perfectly over two sides of vinyl, playing at 45rpm.  Yum.

Drawing inspiration from Beck’s Stereopathicsoulmanure, Lone Pigeon’s 28 Secret Tracks and Hot Chip’s Made In The Dark, the album is purposefully a collection of disparate styles and themes – that can be enjoyed as an album from start to finish, but also as a randomised jumble.  As such, each copy of the vinyl comes with a compact disc, individually hand-stamped and numbered with its very own customised tracklisting.

Songs were recorded over 3 months, from a bedroom in Cellardyke, Fife and from a well-ventilated basement in Connecticut, USA.  They were listened to extensively on train journeys going back and forth to London, and they were expertly mastered in Edinburgh by Reuben Taylor (James Yorkston & The Athletes). Artwork was, as ever, put together by illustrator-extraordinaire Christian Ward.

Fence Records kicks off 2010 with the debut single from Bristol’s OLO Worms!

Pressed on glorious 7″ vinyl, ‘Back From England / The Elastic Waste Band’ is the tenth release on Fence’s ‘Secret 7’ series of singles.

A-Side, ‘Back From England’, opens with a fanfare of pop explosions, before a rolling bassline ushers in a husky chant, some honey-coated harmonies, and a slew of deranged voices … “D-d-d-d-dino frrreaak”!

On the flip, the OLO’s serve up a ‘lo-fat cut’ of their blissed-out theme tune – ‘The Elastic Waste Band’.  A dreamy rhumba, to sleep-shuffle to.

This single was initially available at a series of special Fence Records shows in January … however, we’ve now got a limited quantity of copies in stock on our webshop.  Sure to be a collector’s item – so buy quick!

For his third full length album, François returned to the comforts of his hometown, and recruited members of local friends Unkle Jelly Fish and Bost Gehio (an all-female polyphonic vocal group from the Basques country) to be his ʻAtlas Mountainsʼ. Plaine Inondable, (which translates as ‘Flood Plains’) refers to the townʼs winter landscape – where the Charente river often bursts its bank, completely covering the surrounding fields.

Françoisʼ previous releases often featured casio-beats, and lo-fi electronics – but Plaine Inondable marks a departure from that style. Here, piano chords swell, electric guitars gently shimmer, and Françoisʼ soft croon floats throughout – his bilingual songs melding the bitter-sweet yearning of Leonard Cohen with the melodic playfulness of Serge Gainsbourg and Françoise Hardy.

The album also takes inspiration from recent compilations of African music recorded in the 1970ʼs (Ethiopiques, Mali 70) released by various European labels. The atmospheric rhythms and percussive elements, as well as some guitar parts and scales, absorb this influence:
“’Be Water’ is built on a Ethiopian scale called Tezeta, the guitar on ‘Remind’ is inspired by the style of Ali Farka Toure and Group Doueh”

The result is a confident and unique blend of styles, that dreamily infuse with one another; a semi-conscious state, which is further reflected in the fluctuation between French and English lyrics.

Double 7″ EP in a gatefold sleeve, with a free CD + bonus track!

The eighth and ninth in our series of secret 7″ singles come packaged together in this special EP, courtesy of our American home-recording song-writing wonder, Jeremy Radway, aka PLAYER PIANO.

The vinyl has four incredibly well-crafted pop gems over its four sides – all recorded and performed at home by Jeremy himself, with some of his friends providing incrediby lush string arrangements.  Sides A and B are slick hair-gelled glam crooners, whereas Sides C & D are sugar-coated guitar pop stomps.

Stylistically, this might be something a little different from the regular Fence fayre, but for us it’s all about the songs – and these are dazzling.  For a wee taster, check out Mad Dog on our MySpace player …

Both bits of vinyl are lovingly housed in a superb gatefold sleeve, with artwork by Christian Ward (who also did artwork for The Pictish Trail’s Secret Soundz album) – and IT COMES WITH A FREE CD OF ALL THE TRACKS … AND A BONUS TRACK!

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MAD DOG – “TRACK OF THE DAY”, Q Magazine Online:

“‘Julia, don’t go near that boy/ Use a great big caution, use a great big lie’. From the opening lines of Mad Dog, the Player Piano sound is familiar but not immediately easy to pin down.

Vocally, former Indiana native (now London-based) Jeremy Radway sounds like a more lazily delivered, more articulate, Julian Casablancas crossed with the baritone depth of John Grant from The Czars.

Instrument-wise by the time the piano flourishes kick in on Mad Dog there’s reminders of Ben Folds (Whatever And Ever, Amen period) and vocal harmonies / arrangements that might not sound out of place on an Ed Harcourt album.

All of these references might give you some idea or just serve to confuse, but they do illustrate the mercurial melting pot of Player Piano. As I’m writing this I’m now thinking Beck as well – probably best to just have a listen and decide for yourself…”

—Q Magazine Online

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Recorded over a weekend in the tiny meeting hall of the Anstruther Improvements Association, the four tracks of this EP boast the unmistakably grubby prints of our very own King Creosote, who recorded and mixed the songs as well as contributing his own trademark flourishes of falsetto vocal, accordion, and various unidentifiable percussive instruments.

The songs featured are all glisteningly new – only barely complete, in fact, when Dan’s lyric book blew out of his van door in Anstruther and straight into the harbour, from which he was able to retrieve only a few sodden sheets. Despite this early crisis, the words possess all the clock-stopping impact we have come to expect of his songwriting – full of pathos, and achingly familiar even in their specificity. ‘Big Ten Four’ represents a tribute to the late Paul Carter, much-loved Edinburgh artist, whose work adorns the cover of the EP:

“I still wear your cast-off shirt – I lose a button, man that hurts… We don’t need this memorabilia.”

The FOUND lads have returned with an E.P. of all new material – that is harder, faster, brighter and more eletronic than anything they’ve done before.  8 tracks of music spread across two formats – 12″ vinyl and CD (which come together in a complete package)