Art Is Hard Records

There are three key things you need to know about Hot Shorts: 1. They released a summer Christmas single (Sex Christmas) in August 2014 2. A Google image search for their band name, does not present any photos of them 3. Their latest single references hair loss, web forums & monetising blog content

They are also a four piece band from Manchester who have been releasing music since 2014. They've had an exciting couple of months; December saw them appearing at the Los Campesinos! Leeds all dayer, in January they recorded a 6 Music session with Marc Riley, in February we can only assume they took the month off and now here we are in March with their latest single 'metaphor for [something]' due for imminent release.

It's all you could ever want from a Hot Shorts song. Sardonic observations play out over a chugging Guided by Voices bassline, occasionally interupted by a well-timed outbreak of ba-ba-ba's, all building to beautifully unsystematic conclusion. Metaphor for [something] will be released on postcard and digital download on March 10th by Art is Hard Records.

Today we’re delighted to announce our first proper release of the year, the debut album from Washington’s The Sea Life released on sea blue 12″ in partnership with ace US label Babe City Records. Having first found their way into our ears (and hearts) with their swelling sad-anthem Prozac and Merlot, we’re welcoming them to the family by sharing the opening track of the album, Red Eyes.

Red Eyes is a sprawling, scattering gut punch of a track that stumbles its way angrily through a sound that is hard to pigeonhole. Crisp sweet melodies slam against uneasy walls of panic and static, meanwhile Jon Weiss’s guttural howl is perfectly juxtaposed by Jules Hale’s haunting backing vocals. It’s a storming start to an album that barely lets up over its 26 wonderful minutes that mange to be both mightfully impassioned and strangely reflective. 

These are turbulent times we’re living in. Sure, you can have someone ride a burrito to your house in a matter of minutes or use the internet to speak to anyone basically anywhere, but you only have to catch the smallest snippet of news to get the sense we’re rolling downhill with the brake chords cut. The Sea Life know this all too well. Their self titled album is full to the brim with themes of disillusionment and self-awareness, while still infused with a real push for something, anything better. 

We’re looking forward to sharing more of this wonderful album with you, but in the meantime it’s available to pre-order ahead of the May 26th release date on sea blue 12″ (limited to just 100 copies). We are co-releasing this album with Babe City Records who are covering the US version of the release.

The Sea Life are on tour over the next few weeks and will be playing multiple shows at SXSW.

How would you like to receive new music on your doormat every single month of 2017?

Our 2017 singles club will be taking the form of a monthly postcard single from some of your favourite bands. Not only that but we'll be making four of the twelve postcards into playable postcard shaped records. There are only 100 subscriptions available and the club launched at the end of January with a new single from Penelope Isles.

Penelope Isles • Cut Your Hair • a Wavey Head film

What you get when you join the Postcard Club:

- A monthly postcard single sent to you from the likes of Trust Fund, Penelope Isles, Factory Seconds and more (12 in total) - A digital download of each exclusive single - A handwritten welcome postcard from us - A handstamped and handnumbered box to keep your postcards in - A Postcard Club pin and sticker - An Art is Hard pencil (to write us back) - Exclusive offers & discounts throughout the year

Or for just £14 extra become a pen(ultimate) pal and get:

- All of the above plus four flexidisc postcards that you can play on your record player. Yes you read that right, vinyl postcards! - Each is ltd to just 250 copies, the first is Penelope Isles, the second is Trust Fund, the third will be appearing at our 7th birthday and the fourth will be our annual Christmas single is December.

For a years basic subscription it costs just £21! (inc free UK P+P). That’s less than £1.60 per month (or half a pint of weak lager at your local wetherspoons).

2016 has been a year of (ch-ch-ch-)changes. You know that, we don’t expect you need to read another line written about it. So instead we’ve got something for you to wrap your ears around; the appropriately titled and brilliant sounding Flux from Brighton based MOONOVERSUN.

The song was created over the course of six months, scattered between bedrooms and eventually finished in a studio. In Flux, MOONOVERSUN smash together garbled electronics, languid beats and lo-fi, improvised vocals to create something that hovers just on the borders of the familiar. The subtle, hidden melodies certainly give the sense that this is pop music, but it’s an unsettling kind of pop; the beats don’t always keep up, dissonance nudges its way inbetween the harmonies and it’s not always clear what’s a vocal line and what’s a synth. Turn and face the strange.

We're giving away free stuff / fun treats / super discounts all throughout this festive month of giving.

DAY 1: First up and hot on the heels of our 6th anniversary compilation 'False Grails', you can now download all 36 tracks for FREE until 3pm tomorrow! Head here to bag it, and stay tuned for more festive fun.

Totally are a London five-piece who have quietly amassed a loyal audience since their formation in late 2015, and we’re pleased as punch to present their debut single ‘Falling Apart’ as the latest instalment of our Pin Pal club.

Though early demos were recorded by Sauna Youth’s Lindsay Corstorphine, the band hit the studio for the first time proper with Misha Hering (Holy Mountain Studios). The single retains the lo-fi aesthetic and dreamy harmonies of the original demos, with an added lushness and fuller sound that richly ooze through the lug holes incurring multiple listens.

Grab yourself a pin here and look out for more from Totally in the coming months!

We're delighted to welcome newcomers Luxury Death to the Pin Pal family, making up the sixth part of our series with ‘Painkiller’.

The Manchester boyfriend/girlfriend duo are made up of old friend Ben Thompson (whose tones you may recognise from Fruit Bomb / Nai Harvest) and sprightly newcomer Meg Williams, accompanied by Tommy Stewart on bass and Luke Rowland on drums for live performances. 

“Painkiller” was recorded, produced and mixed by Luke Rowland and mastered to tape by Dan E Brown. Order a pin here!

We've had a bit of a break punctuated by moving house and our 6th birthday at Knee Deep Festival but today we're back with the debut single from Holiday Ghosts, punchy paranoia fueled garage pop.

Having dug up this treasure from within sadly otherwise lost tape sessions at Troubadour in Falmouth, Stacpoole (The Black Tambourines) and fellow Kernow stars Katja Rackin, Ben Woods (Lost Dawn), and Charlie Murphy (The Red Cords) bring the melodic erudition of their other projects together into a melting pot of loose pop and timeless malaise.

Happy Cassette Store Day! We’ve decided to celebrate by giving one of our favourite EP’s of recent times a proper physical release, it is of course Comfortably Swell, the debut EP from Brighton brother and sister duo Penelope Isles. 

Originally self released on their own Waveyhead label, Comfortably Swell is seven tracks of wonderfully varied melodic beach pop. I often find it quite a struggle to write about music that I love so dearly, but thankfully our pal Ross has already done a pretty great job of describing what makes this release so special.

Opening slowly with each listen,  the way the group engage is in their apparent ease in writing such compelling melodies. Each chorus swells with emotional value; the gentle delivery of their vocals producing the most stirring effect. Lily sings with an innate ability to evoke child-like curiosity, ‘Apple Juice‘ full of wonderment in it’s loose and adventurous moments, ‘The Loop‘ dwells on love’s disorientating nature as guitars sweep and mingle in swelling distortion, while ‘Tea‘ dreams nostalgically of the coast, patters of synth topped with another heart-wrenching chord progression through it’s chorus.

It all builds around an empathetic belief in the reminiscent romance of growing up and it’s influence on what’s happening in the very present. ‘Bad Head‘s introduction is of wishful thinking and a proactive need for change; “I’m trying to act my real self / but I don’t think it’s working.”. A plea for difference and positivity opens the record to the colourful remembrance of youth, ‘Apple Juice‘s comfort and buoyancy in simplicity is the complete antithesis; “I think I’m the better swimmer / after only two weeks” Lily’s lyrics are convivial in their simplest form, yet are penned by an irrepressible melancholy, trying to hold onto the happiest of memories that allow at least a moment of escape, “grab your bucket and spade / before the memory fades“.

If it had been left to me I would’ve just gone for the much less eloquent description of “Comfortably Swell is the sound of your favourite Beach House and Deerhunter records spinning round inside a tumble dryer full of glitter and that one good Melody’s Echo Chamber album.

As anyone who arrived early at our Label Mates party in March or our 6th Birthday in August will attest, live, these songs take on a new form as they soar and swell. Despite their early billing both times, I think I can honestly say both times they have been my favourite band I’ve seen that day. We’re really excited for whatever they come up with next, but in the meantime we thought giving this amazing EP a bit of attention served as a nice stick in the ground.

Order from our shop (shipping straightaway) or download for free on Bandcamp. Penelope Isles have a few dates coming up:

Running a record label and receiving demos is a bit like the halcyon days of dashing to the doormat every day wondering what would drop through the postbox. Most days it's just utter junk, stuff that’s barely even relevant (we’re looking at you the people who send in laughably bad hip hop) but every now and then an unexpected surprise drops through and makes the whole ritual worth it.

In the case of our latest signing Ski Saigon (the solo project of Rhys Griffiths), there were no bold proclamations of how they were going to make our label money or how they already had management and at least 3 blogs interested. There was just a link to the music and a small description. We hit play and started reading.

“Stationed across Indochina during the 1940s and 50s, French troops grew tired of the tropical climate and yearned for the alpine scenery and colder weather that many of them had left behind in Europe. Incredibly, in the Vietnamese city of Saigon L'institut indochinois pour les sports d'hiver was founded, and plans were drawn up to build and operate indoor ski slopes in Saigon and Phnom Penh for use by soldiers, expats and interested locals.

Building began in both cities, but was only completed in Phnom Penh due to the war in Vietnam with the insurgent Viet Minh. ‘Ski Saigon’ ­– as the private enterprise charged with operating the ski slopes was named – opened in Phnom Penh in 1949. The great Cambodian singers Ros Serey Sothea and Sinn Sisamouth performed at its inauguration. Yet problems arose almost immediately, and the project was abandoned within 4 months.

Following French evacuation from the city, the huge concrete building housed a variety of short-lived enterprises, including a renowned recording studio. Artists from as far away as Europe and America travelled to write and record in the Pearl of Asia during Cambodia’s Golden Age.”

And that was that. We were sold. After a few months of sitting on this EP we’re incredibly excited to be sharing it with you and releasing it as a book/CD. ‘Brings the Storm Cloud’ was recorded at Holy Mountain studios in London and is inspired by Khmer pop and the fictional historical events from which it takes its name. 

In doing so Ski Saigon have perfectly captured the humidity and closeness of a jungle and channeled it into bedroom pop wooziness. Imagine Public Service Broadcasting and Bradford Cox popping a couple of Valium and jamming it out and you’d probably end up with something similar to this.

With the extensive backstory surrounding the EP we felt the only way to release it would be as a book. 32 pages long and limited to just 100 copies the book details in beautiful photos and words the complete history of Ski Saigon (the historic events not the band). It’s due for release August 26th and is available to pre-order over on our shop now. 

PRE ORDER HERE

We're delighted to be teaming up with long-time AIH pal Gorgeous Bully as well as relative newcomers Something Anorak, for a four track split 7" due for release 27th May. 

We're joining forces with Bad Vibrations to bring Art Is Hard to their annual Label Mates season. Alongside Heavenly, Burger, Bella Union, Fortuna Pop! and many more, we'll be bringing friends & extended family to an all dayer at THE VICTORIA on SATURDAY, 12th MARCH.

TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS TIXX TIXX BUY TIXX HERE

Which coincidentally is 59 years to the day since The Velvet Underground & Nico was released so to headline we have one of our favourite bands paying tribute to the album

The lineup so far is as follows: The Black Tambourines (celebrating 59 years of 'The Velvet Underground & Nico) Lazy Day Grubs Early Ghost Manuka Honeys Two White Cranes Penelope Isles

Doors are at 3.30pm with the first band on at 4pm. We might not have a birthday party this year, so come and hang!

Not only that, in honour of Label Mates we will be creating a one-off release available to only those in attendance. The release will take the form of a lathe cut 7" and will include a bootleg Black Tambourines single taken from their performance on the night - available to pre-order over on our shop!

Although we might be coming to the end of our 2015 Singles Club, we may just have saved the best for last. Still Parade is the project of Berlin-based Niklas Kramer, who has steadily been growing in stature since he started sharing dreamy folk-pop back in 2013.  Upon receiving a new tape recorder as a gift from his father he started to experiment with different sounds and rather wonderfully has ended up creating 07:41.

Unfortunately not 07:41 long, the track glides and bounces along driven by a Tame Impala’esque drumbeat. Of the track Niklas says 

“ “07:41″ is about this weird feeling when you’re new somewhere. you feel like a stranger and no one really seems to care about you. But there’s also the chance to build up something new. It’s the point when you just don’t know what’s going to happen. Can be quite scary and exciting at the same time.”

We’re psyched beyond psyched to be hosting the Bristol date of the upcoming DIET CIG UK TOUR! Arrrrg! It’s going to be such fun having them in the country. If that wasn’t enough, support at most of the dates will come from solid pals of ours and yours, Bruising.

Bag tickets for the Bristol date here, all others are available from Songkick. You can still also listen to / purchase our recent single with Diet Cig here!