Category Archives: News

INTRODUCING RENTAL YIELDS

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Front & Follow and the Gated Canal Community present RENTAL YIELDS – a multi-release collaboration project raising money to tackle homelessness in Manchester.

This is Volume One, featuring the likes of Elizabeth Joan Kelly, The Leaf Library, Polypores, yellow6, Spaceship and more.

GRAB IT HERE

All money raised will go to SPIN (Supporting People in Need), whose purpose is to feed, shelter, clothe and generally support the homeless and people in need of Greater Manchester.

“Welcome to the future. Welcome to skyscraper living.

 

You can never leave.

 

Skyscraper District is waiting for your abodement.

 

Live the life you deserve. Make sure others live the life they deserve.

 

Welcome to the future. Experience Rental Yields.

 

Live in the sky. Live apart. Luxury living in Skyscraper District.

 

This is the future. Welcome to the future. Welcome to Rental Yields.”

 

Coming soon… Volumes 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE

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Front & Follow and the Gated Canal Community present YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE – alternative soundtracks to a luxury apartments advert, featuring 31 artists including Field Lines Cartographer, Elizabeth Joan Kelly, Her Majesty’s Coroner for Wirral, The Leaf Library, Polypores, Hattie Cooke and many more.

Why? We aren’t sure, but it all started with this video and went from there.

GRAB THE ALBUM HERE NOW

This project is not affiliated with Deansgate Square in any way – the video was our inspiration for this project, and for each artist’s soundtrack.

All sales from this release will go to Coffee4Craig, which provides vital support for Manchester’s homeless and people in crisis. Find out more here – coffee4craig.com.

“Sharply dressed sales assistants and eagle-headed PPI enthusiasts march over freshly risen piazzas. Oxbow lakes of cement dissolve into dreamy quadrants. A Yo Sushi was there.
Now it isn’t.

This is where the gold is. The real gold, tucked under the receding gum-lines of once cobbled streets, stuffed into the rain-tinted domes hidden in plain view. Ignore the fringe of green that laps forever onto the city’s shores. Forget the municipal spaces, their fleshy tales creeping from beneath roller shutters and seeping from the cracks in boarded windows.

And as you stride about with vertical chin, you feel a prickle inside of something sharp but unfamiliar. Like a snagged cricket jumper you begin to unravel, spooling out behind yourself as you walk ever onwards.

Find them in the Imitation Rothko Gymnasium.
Smashing it in the Imitation Rothko Gymnasium.”

ISOLATION AND REJECTION – VOL 5 NOW NOW

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Our journey of ISOLATION AND REJECTION comes to a close, with our fifth and final volume of rejected and orphaned sounds, collated for your pleasure and also raising money for The Brick, a brilliant charity in Wigan.

GRAB VOL 5 HERE

We’ve raised £2,000 so far, which is amazing – and we’ve also given a home to sounds otherwise left out in the rain or down the back of the sofa, or brutally cast aside by evil record label bosses as they seek fame, fortune or some kind of ‘coherence’ to their own charity compilations. The fools.

The full tracklist…

  1. Assembled Minds – The Eerie Machine Hums a Barley Song to the Sun
  2. Accidental Tones – Mute
  3. R.C. Soundtracks – Exhibit F
  4. Cahn Ingold Prelog – Diweddion
  5. The Both And – Tomorrowland
  6. Simpl_Machine – The Worst In Me
  7. Bit Cloudy – Secret Genes
  8. Utility Player – Heat Evolution
  9. The Metamorph – The Wisdom Of Orac
  10. das fax mattinger – Sommerhit (live at Fluc Mensa)
  11. Isobel Ccircle~ – Devour Isolation
  12. Laica – (Kakinuma) Traces of the soul
  13. jonny mugwump – the mirror cracked
  14. Petrine Cross – Absorbed In Artificial Night
  15. Jonathan Sharp – Brides Beck
  16. Synthetic Villains – Rhythm & Weep (Remix)
  17. Mammoth Beat Organ – Mast
  18. The Phlod-Nar – Flames & Thunder
  19. Blood Everywhere – Retaliate First
  20. Quartersized – Limiting
  21. Dogs Versus Shadows – C.C.P
  22. Digital Observations – Robot Isolation
  23. The Kendal Mintcake – ∞%Y
  24. Dominic Bradnum – Lo-Fi Symphony for Portslade-by-Sea (Requiem for BLANK 5)

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ISOLATION AND REJECTION – VOL 3 OUT NOW

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Our adventures into the weird and wonderful world of rejected sounds continue with Volume 3 of our ISOLATION AND REJECTION project, featuring the likes of Farmer Glitch, Kieran Mahon, Sone Institute, The Declining Winter, Alison Cotton, Fragile X, Dolly Dolly and more.

GRAB IT HERE

ISOLATION AND REJECTION was born out of thinking about what happened to all the tracks that didn’t make it onto those fancy compilations, and is now turning into an ongoing project to collect, collate and promote rejected sounds. This is not an isolation project – it’s a rejection project.

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ISOLATION AND REJECTION – VOL 2 OUT NOW

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Hey everyone,

Following hot off the heals of Volume 1, we are delighted that Volume 2 is available, featuring 24 wonderful artists inc. Time Attendant, Gagarin, Conflux Coldwell, The Revenant Sea and more.

ISOLATION AND REJECTION is a multi-volume compilation of rejected sounds, all for The Brick, a fantastic charity in Wigan.

GRAB VOLUME 2 HERE

From small ideas and a little hope come rejection, loss and disappointment.

But we won’t let you down – you are safe here.

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ISOLATION AND REJECTION was born out of thinking about what happened to all the tracks that didn’t make it onto those fancy compilations, and is now turning into an ongoing project to collect, collate and promote rejected sounds. This is not an isolation project – it’s a rejection project.

With over 100 artists signed up, we are going to release five volumes over the next few months. Each volume will showcase those lost gems, discarded and abandoned but now lovingly embraced and put front and centre for your enjoyment. We’ll also be sharing the stories behind the rejection – funny, weird and sometimes a little heart breaking.

Here’s the full track list for Vol 2:

  1. Lose a Leg – Thinking About It
  2. Gagarin – Studio 54 Revisited
  3. Time Attendant – Binocular Visions
  4. Caper One & Vandal Deca – Ghostmiles (Tin Cans & Strong Mix)
  5. Andrew Haines – Full Moon @ The Shaman’s Oak
  6. Audio Obscura – Castles On Earth
  7. Conflux Coldwell – Ran Aground Off Thanet
  8. Crisp Packet Jackets – Dreadful Own Brand
  9. Aged – heinrichwave dot wave
  10. Sairie – The House Of The Rising Sun
  11. James A. McDermid – Starved Lips in the Gloam
  12. Acid Wilhelm – My Aharonov–Bohm Effect
  13. The Revenant Sea – No Later
  14. Hwyl Nofio – Music For Broken Toy Pianos
  15. Sparkling Seagull – Cosmic Furniture
  16. Free Magic Show – odwołany lot do Krakowa
  17. St James Infirmary – Higging
  18. Baron Farg – Sin Mission
  19. Drunk Keith! – The Poltergeist Wife!
  20. Stu & Rav. – Blahk
  21. Pete Warren – Brief Respite
  22. Von Heuser – Bring Me The Head Of J.W.
  23. Jeffrey Sinibaldi + JS Adams – Axe Marks The Spot
  24. Kallie Marie – In The Arms of Overreach

Artists contributing to the series include Time Attendant, Howlround, Dolly Dolly, Cahn Ingold Prelog, Alison Cotton, Farmer Glitch, Rupert Lally, Sone Institute, The Declining Winter, TVO, Ekoplekz, Kemper Norton, Boobs of Doom, Grey Frequency, Elizabeth Joan Kelly, Thomas Ragsdale and many many more.

Some you will know and some maybe you won’t.

Volumes 3, 4 and 5 of ISOLATION AND REJECTION will follow shortly.

ISOLATION AND REJECTION – VOL 1 OUT NOW

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Hey everyone,

I’m delighted that Volume 1 of our new project is now available.

ISOLATION AND REJECTION is a multi-volume compilation of rejected sounds. Vol 1 features the likes of Ekoplekz, Kemper Norton, Boobs of Doom, Elizabeth Joan Kelly, Grey Frequency and Thomas Ragsdale.

All the official blurb is below, but first…

GRAB VOLUME 1 HERE

Recent coverage…

“It has been most thoughtfully compiled and programmed so that its strange cargo of rejects contrast and complement one another as part of a remarkable whole.” – Echoes and Dust

“Isolation & Rejection Vol 1 is a magnificent collection at any time, but also serves as a contemplative soundtrack to strange and troubling times. It’s also classic F&F.” – Aural Aggravation

Check it this guest mix featuring tracks from across the five volumes, made for Kites and Pylons.

Thanks also to Phantom Circuit, Soundsphere, The Séance, Rebellious Jukebox and Dark Train for featuring the project.

We also got mentioned in Warren Ellis’ newsletter Orbital Operations (the writer not the musician).  I’ve sent him the Front & Follow releases since we started, and some he’s liked and mentioned.  The experiences that have been shared by women working with him/knowing him are just horrific, and we stand with them and believe them.  I also thought his apology and “I didn’t realise how powerful I was” excuses were complete bullshit. That is our official position.

The blurb

From small ideas and a little hope come rejection, loss and disappointment.

But we won’t let you down – you are safe here.

ISOLATION AND REJECTION was born out of thinking about what happened to all the tracks that didn’t make it onto those fancy compilations, and is now turning into an ongoing project to collect, collate and promote rejected sounds. This is not an isolation project – it’s a rejection project.

With over 100 artists signed up, we are going to release five volumes over the next few months. Each volume will showcase those lost gems, discarded and abandoned but now lovingly embraced and put front and centre for your enjoyment. We’ll also be sharing the stories behind the rejection – funny, weird and sometimes a little heart breaking.

All money raised is going to The Brick in Wigan – an amazing charity supporting some of our most vulnerable communities.

Here’s the full track list for Vol 1:

  1. Kemper Norton – Unrequited 47
  2. Grey Frequency – Dissolve
  3. K – Failure of Presence
  4. Solo1 – Azzuri Ilta Sorella
  5. Basic Design – Dream Archipelago
  6. Yumah – Escape
  7. Carya Amara – Dining With Phineus
  8. Secret Nuclear – Surrey Administration Facility
  9. ANZAK – Aluminic Bromide
  10. CukoO – Simian
  11. Boobs of Doom – Scumbellina (Me Gam Ega, Quisling)
  12. Yellow6 – Work1
  13. Ekoplekz – Rejected Replekz
  14. Selfish Limbs – Missing Voices
  15. Thomas Ragsdale – The Light Between
  16. Traw – Congratulations To The Young Men of Bucharest
  17. Elizabeth Joan Kelly – Waking Up With A Cat On My Face
  18. Hybernation – Fragile Times
  19. Darrg – Bats & Clocks
  20. TVO – A Wave As The Coast Disappears From View

Artists contributing to the series include Time Attendant, Howlround, Dolly Dolly, Cahn Ingold Prelog, Alison Cotton, Farmer Glitch, Rupert Lally, Sone Institute, The Declining Winter, TVO, Ekoplekz, Kemper Norton, Boobs of Doom, Grey Frequency, Elizabeth Joan Kelly, Thomas Ragsdale and many many more.

Some you will know and some maybe you won’t.

Volumes 2, 3, 4 and 5 of ISOLATION AND REJECTION will follow shortly.

If you haven’t yet – GRAB VOLUME 1 HERE

p.s. We are still officially in hibernation x

See you around…

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Dear friends,

An unnecessarily self-indulgent update…

After the Ekoplekz album in November 2019, F&F headed into hibernation.

Running a record label is an absolute joy and a huge privilege, but it is also bloody hard. Not genuinely hard like actual real life problems, and not actually difficult like a real job, but it’s still tough.

We have successfully put out some of the best records of the past 10 years. Fact.

Along the way we’ve had some incredible coverage and love from some of the most wonderful people, many of whom we’ve admired for years from afar, whilst successfully avoiding any real audience or commercial success (despite the odd surprise).

Admittedly, we have ourselves to blame – we’ve purposely never really stuck to one thing for long enough, musically or aesthetically (though all our vinyl was black, sorry). That always seemed a bit boring, and other labels do it much better than we ever could.

We’ve got a lot going on outside of the label, and sometimes it is difficult to justify more time hiding away from the world, especially right now.

So F&F is taking a break.

Gated Canal Community will continue and may even do some more random fun stuff aside from the radio show.

F&F will be back in some shape or form at some point I hope.

Until then – you can still buy all our records directly from us and through most places in the real world and online.

See you around,

Justin & Helen x

OUT NOW: Ekoplekz – In Search of the Third Mantra

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We are ending the year in the best possible way – by releasing an album by one of our favourite artists, and someone we’ve been trying to work with since he appeared on the Outer Church compilation over five years ago.

TAPE IS SOLD OUT BUY GRAB THE DIGITAL HERE

Drawing parallels between present day Britain and that of the turn of the 80s, Ekoplekz looks back to that era’s industrial and post-punk soundtrack for inspiration.

In a land increasingly brutalized by austerity and divided by nationalism, the tensions that informed some of the post-punk era’s most important works (Red Mecca, Unknown Pleasures, Metal Box) haunt this collection of bleak postcards from the present.

Recorded quickly on cassette tape recorders, combining live instrumentation (guitar, bass, keyboards) with programmed drum machine and sequencer, the album has a raw, spontaneous edge, drawing on elements of dub, funk and primitive electronics for musical direction.

The album is dedicated to the late Mark Fisher, who’s brilliantly insightful writing is sorely missed while trying to make sense of these insane times.

OUT NOW! Michael Donnelly – Why so Mute, Fond Lover?

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We are delighted to present the new album from Michael Donnelly, as the second release in a new series celebrating the present and past of some of our favourite artists.

BUY THE TAPE OR CD HERE

Influenced by everything from Khan Jamal to Egisto Macchi via Basic House and Konrad Kraft, Why So Mute, Fond Lover? builds new worlds of beats and rhythm, sound collage, ambience and noise using random borrowed equipment, broken gear and household appliances. The album was recorded in Mile End, London and Hamburg (with collaborator Ben Page of Rocketnumbernine and Elite Barbarian), and mastered by fellow Rothko member Mark Beazley.
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OUT NOW: THE BLOW VOL 6 by Polypores & Field Lines Cartographer

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The Blow is back – we’ve sold out but you can grab a tape from Norman Records, Boomkat and lots of other places.

Front & Follow present the sixth in our series of split releases bringing together two of our favourite artists.  Volume 6 features Polypores and Field Lines Cartographer.

The artists have reported that the inspiration for this album initially drew from long conversations about alternate realities and altered states of consciousness.

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