A little more radio play, courtesy of Graham Lovatt of The Eclectic Eel Show and Chris Evans of The Curve Ball. Thank you, gentlemen!
https://www.mixcloud.com/GrahamLovatt/the-eclectic-eel-radio-show-29-24022015/
https://www.mixcloud.com/radioshoes/curve-ball-february-23-2015/
Monday, 16 March 2015
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Buddy System
Canadian label Kingfisher Bluez has a very special 7" single club this year - they've asked 12 of their favourite indie labels to curate a single each
wiaiwya asked Smile Down Upon Us and the Leaf Library to be on theirs - there's more information below, and you can sign up here:
Every month in 2015 we'll be releasing a 7" curated by one of our favourite record labels. This singles club is a celebration of selection- whether it's DJing, running a label, or making a mixtape. It's the thrill of hearing a great song and wanting to show absolutely everyone you know (and instantly convert them!). It's the reason I started making records with Kingfisher Bluez, and I still love that feeling. These labels are inspired, creative, and run by really fantastic people. The bands are all pretty great too!
By subscribing, you will receive all 12 7"s. You will also receive a complementary copy of KFB050, which will be a very special 7" release. The first 100 subscribers will ALSO receive a copy of KFB060; ("I'm Worried" by Mike Adams At His Honest Weight) on 7" vinyl, chosen by our friends at Flannelgraph Records.
There will be 3-4 mailouts throughout the year. Every mailout will include randomly inserted goodies like stickers, promo-only 7"s, badges, test pressings etc. There will be a strict one-time pressing of /300 hand numbered 7"s, 200 subscriptions will be available in total.
The curating record labels are:
Cloudberry (New York, NY, USA)
Elefant (Madrid, Spain)
Where It's At Is Where You Are (London, UK)
Polyvinyl (Champaign, IL, USA)
Chapter Music (Northcote, VIC, Australia)
K Records (Olympia, WA, USA)
Fatcat (Brighton, UK)
Slumberland (Oakland, CA, USA)
Moshi Moshi (London, UK)
Fortuna Pop! (London, UK)
Flying Nun (Christchurch, New Zealand)
Shelflife (Portland, OR + San Francisco, CA, USA)
and BONUS record (first 100 subscribers) by Flannelgraph Records (Bloomington, IN, USA)
So if you're counting, that's 14 records total!!!
If the shipping seems a bit pricey, it's because we are based in Canada!
Friday, 6 March 2015
Thursday, 19 February 2015
we have a press release!
Smile Down Upon Us release second LP
The second album from UK/Japanese group Smile Down Upon Us is released by wiaiwya on deluxe vinyl, in a delightful gatefold sleeve designed by artist Yuji Maruyama, on Record Store Day, April 18 (a CD version is released in Japan soon after). It’s a delicate, intimate, playful record that’s equal parts Cibo Matto pop, Vernon Elliott soundtrack and animated Marc Chagall painting, its music a perfect navigation between childlike wonderment, impish eccentricity and sophisticated intricacy.
Smile Down Upon Us is the duo of London-based multi-instrumentalist Keiron Phelan (littlebow, Phelan-Sheppard, Silver Servants, etc.) and Tokyo-resident singer/electronicist moomLoo. They are assisted on this album by, among others, guitarist/percussionist David Sheppard (Ellis Island Sound, Snow Palms, and Keiron’s erstwhile partner in renowned UK post-rockers State River Widening), cellist Katie English (Isnaj Dui, Doomed Bird of Providence, littlebow) and nomadic sonic alchemist Tui (Orla Wren).
Brimming with invention and gleaming instrumentation, the album proffers a cavalcade of plangent acoustic plucking, mellifluous woodwinds and head-spinning electronica topped-off with moomLoo’s sweetly exotic, acrobatic vocals and Keiron’s contrastingly declamatory baritone. Fans of Tunng, Psapp, Tenniscoats, World Standard, Lucky Dragons and Contact Field Orchestra will all find plenty to wet their whistles here.
moomLoo and Keiron were first introduced via social media and recorded the entire first Smile Down Upon Us album (which was also eponymously titled) by exchanging files and without ever meeting in person. That album was released in 2008, to much critical acclaim, by Static Caravan in the UK and by Yacca/P-Dis in Japan, since when Keiron and moomLoo have been in the same room precisely twice.
So, while it’s not quite Lost in Translation, part of the allure of the new album is in its own internal mystery and playful inscrutability. Its lyrics are sometimes delivered in Japanese, at others in English, and Keiron, who speaks no Japanese, generally has little idea what moomLoo (who commands only limited English) is actually singing about. These things, however, Keiron knows for sure:
The insanely catchy ‘Millwall’ is about a Japanese girl-gang who live in London and become unlikely football hooligans (while claiming they are no such thing).
‘Gusano’s Travels’ is about the worm in the bottom of a Mexican tequila bottle going on holiday and being too inebriated to build a leaf house(!) – the counting is in Polish (which neither Keiron nor moomLoo speak), and a nod to the Hans Christian Anderson ‘Inchworm’ song.
‘The gorgeous ‘Butterfly Morning’, meanwhile, is a cover of a song on the soundtrack to the Sam Peckinpah western, The Ballad of Cable Hogue.
Ultimately, exact meanings and precise definitions are not what this beguiling, multi-hued album is all about; but for anyone with open enough ears and room in their heart, it’s a record that offers a seductive, dream-like world that is joy to be immersed in again and again.
The second album from UK/Japanese group Smile Down Upon Us is released by wiaiwya on deluxe vinyl, in a delightful gatefold sleeve designed by artist Yuji Maruyama, on Record Store Day, April 18 (a CD version is released in Japan soon after). It’s a delicate, intimate, playful record that’s equal parts Cibo Matto pop, Vernon Elliott soundtrack and animated Marc Chagall painting, its music a perfect navigation between childlike wonderment, impish eccentricity and sophisticated intricacy.
Smile Down Upon Us is the duo of London-based multi-instrumentalist Keiron Phelan (littlebow, Phelan-Sheppard, Silver Servants, etc.) and Tokyo-resident singer/electronicist moomLoo. They are assisted on this album by, among others, guitarist/percussionist David Sheppard (Ellis Island Sound, Snow Palms, and Keiron’s erstwhile partner in renowned UK post-rockers State River Widening), cellist Katie English (Isnaj Dui, Doomed Bird of Providence, littlebow) and nomadic sonic alchemist Tui (Orla Wren).
Brimming with invention and gleaming instrumentation, the album proffers a cavalcade of plangent acoustic plucking, mellifluous woodwinds and head-spinning electronica topped-off with moomLoo’s sweetly exotic, acrobatic vocals and Keiron’s contrastingly declamatory baritone. Fans of Tunng, Psapp, Tenniscoats, World Standard, Lucky Dragons and Contact Field Orchestra will all find plenty to wet their whistles here.
moomLoo and Keiron were first introduced via social media and recorded the entire first Smile Down Upon Us album (which was also eponymously titled) by exchanging files and without ever meeting in person. That album was released in 2008, to much critical acclaim, by Static Caravan in the UK and by Yacca/P-Dis in Japan, since when Keiron and moomLoo have been in the same room precisely twice.
So, while it’s not quite Lost in Translation, part of the allure of the new album is in its own internal mystery and playful inscrutability. Its lyrics are sometimes delivered in Japanese, at others in English, and Keiron, who speaks no Japanese, generally has little idea what moomLoo (who commands only limited English) is actually singing about. These things, however, Keiron knows for sure:
The insanely catchy ‘Millwall’ is about a Japanese girl-gang who live in London and become unlikely football hooligans (while claiming they are no such thing).
‘Gusano’s Travels’ is about the worm in the bottom of a Mexican tequila bottle going on holiday and being too inebriated to build a leaf house(!) – the counting is in Polish (which neither Keiron nor moomLoo speak), and a nod to the Hans Christian Anderson ‘Inchworm’ song.
‘The gorgeous ‘Butterfly Morning’, meanwhile, is a cover of a song on the soundtrack to the Sam Peckinpah western, The Ballad of Cable Hogue.
Ultimately, exact meanings and precise definitions are not what this beguiling, multi-hued album is all about; but for anyone with open enough ears and room in their heart, it’s a record that offers a seductive, dream-like world that is joy to be immersed in again and again.
Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Friday, 30 January 2015
album artwork ideas
here are some of the rejected ideas for the artwork for the second Smile Down Upon Us album:
 |
| first up: 2, 3, 4 and 5 sided shapes |
 |
| then it became more Record, Play, Stop, Rewind |
 |
| and then a little more brown |
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