Whartone Records

We’ve been a bit quiet over here at Whartone HQ, but behind the scenes it’s been a non stop summer of plotting and performing and we’ve got some stuff to bring you right about now...

First up, our fresh new merchandise has landed and is already flying out of the office. T-shirts, snapbacks, stickers and slipmatts, just some of what’s on offer, you can find the full range here. So go and check it out and keep those eyes peeled for future additions to the Whartone collection, including one or two extremely limited pieces that could pop up unannounced in the future.

On the tour front, things have been equally productive and interesting. We recently hosted our first party in Ireland, with our head boy Sonny Wharton and Whartone podcast host Jason Young providing the beats at our secret party in Letterkenny which went off in style.

There’s also been trips to Seoul, Shanghai, a Glastonbury debut, possibly the best setting for a festival we’ve ever seen in Ostrava, a special night celebrating 20 years of Skint with the legendary Fatboy Slim, and to top it all off we even had glorious sunshine in Scotland for our annual outing at The Wickerman whilst the rest of the country was a washout.

Our last little bit for today is our new Office Beats mixtape. Compiled from trusty go-to’s and new favourites that have soundtracked our travels over the summer, whether it’s the pre-party flight to Seoul or the post-party, hangover-laden train journey from Ostrava to Prague (where if you want to take a dog on first class you need to put him in a plastic bag - sorry Shaun), it’s now up and online for your listening pleasure on our Soundcloud page along with our latest podcast and releases.

Shout out to all the legends that have played their part in our summer shenanigans, there’s too many to name but we feel blessed and look forward to the next time!

We're in a process of recovery at Whartone Towers today.

 A trip to Lancaster's A-Wing, a Castle-turned-prison, for head honcho Sonny to play alongside Pete Tong has left us in the fetal position for the majority of this Bank Holiday Monday. 

The gig was one of three hosted by A-Wing over the weekend, with High Contrast and Mark Knight leading the way on Friday and Saturday, at what can only be described as a fantastically unique venue to host a rave.

We'll have Sonny's full 3 hour set from A-Wing coming to you soon, so keep your eyes open on our social media and Soundcloud for that one.

Back to today though, and we thought we'd give you our latest Office Beats mixtape to sooth the headache and keep the embers of the long weekend burning a little longer.

This mixtape's made for days like today. Days and evenings that don't really get out of first gear, when the bbq's out and hammock's in use. Beats that provoke nothing more than a nod of the head or a tap of the foot in your primary mission to remain horizontal..

Shout out to everyone who took part in our Bank Holiday shenanigans. The Pirates - Barny and Wob - for being top sea dogs, Scott and Billy for making an extra special journey down from Glasgow, and the whole Skiddle crew for accommodating us generously and putting on a damn fine event.

We hope your Bank Holiday was as good as ours, now all that’s left to do is assume the position, and press play. ️ 

The Whartone team and office are a vibrant mixture of characters, colours and sounds, and for this reason we thought we’d launch a blog, opening a door into the goings on at Whartone HQ, sharing the stuff that makes us laugh, gasp or tap our feet, and somewhere we can give a nod to our heroes, influences and peers that keep us pushing forward.

It’ll also play host to a couple of new, free, downloadable mix series’. One to keep your eye out for coming soon, and another that we think is a suitable launching point in this little insight into what makes us tick.

So for your first instalment, we asked Gee to put together a short mix of some of the different sounds away from our usual releases, beats that soundtrack some of our most creative days, our Office Beats.

Enjoy.