UK orders over £50 ship free!
...according to our Mike on Fri 27 Jan, 2012.
Darren Hayman is nothing if not prolific. After a good 17 or 18 releases in 2011, he's barrelling into 2012 with this 2CD collection which contains a song he penned and recorded on each day of last January. The result is a collection of casual and often intimate lo-fi indie pop, sometimes downbeat and confessional, sometimes whimsical and lighthearted, and the quality is surprisingly consistent given the nature of the project. In fact I'm sure at least two of these songs have already been pressed on 7”s prior to this collection's release! Roughly half the songs have guest appearances from a surprisingly high profile cast including The Wave Pictures, Rotifer, Pete Astor, Terry Edwards and Elizabeth Morris, and despite their lo-fi nature the songs are sensitively recorded and all sound like finished pieces. Workmanlike and charming stuff once again from Mr Hayman. And as if writing 31 songs in a month wasn't enough, he's also hand-drawn every one of the 1,500 front covers, so your copy will have a unique piece of art by the man himself on the cover. Certainly can't fault his commitment to the project, hey?
Limited to 1500. Every single sleeve hand drawn. During January 2011 Darren Hayman, ex wrote a song for every day of the month. It was an incredibly frantic period of work. Each day not only included the writing of a song, but also it’s recording and the making of a video, and an online diary. “Even in this age of downloads I can still get frustrated about how long it takes to release records,” says Hayman. “I wanted to make something instantly and, without anytime for editing or revision, release it and make it permanent.” The project became eclectic through necessity. The songs range from glam disco stomps, through folky laments and accapella hymns to jazz backed spoken words. “I knew some sort of theme would reveal itself gradually through the work,” continues Darren, “and that theme became one of release and escape. Lots of the songs are about imginary or longed for havens.” To aid him in his task Darren received help from many collaborators; some known, some unknown and some met for the first time during the month. Co-writes and collaborations include Allo Darlin, The Wave Pictures, Terry Edwards, Ballboy and many more. The physical relase of this project comes in a beautiful gatefold sleeve with printed inner bags. Every single sleeve has been hand drawn by Darren and we don’t mean just a squiggle or an abstraction, he has drawn an individual, different sleeve on every copy. We’re not sure if this has been done before. Every page of Darren’s journal as well as 31 song videos and 31 video diaries can be seen at http://januarysongs.tumblr.com/
Be the first to review this record. Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!
Norman Records,
Unit 20, Croydon House,
Croydon Street,
Leeds,
LS11 9RT, UK.
Tel/fax: (+44) 0113 245 4399
Email: phil@normanrecords.com
Follow us on Facebook
We want to be the best online record store in the UK, so please send us your ideas and feedback.
(We don't spam and we won't give your email address to anyone else. One email a week is all you'll ever get. Read our privacy policy.)
For payment and account functions on this site, all traffic is encrypted with SSL. Our SSL certificate is provided by Thawte: view our certificate.
This site is regularly audited for security problems by Netcraft. For more information please take a look at our Netcraft Security Seal.
We don't handle credit card details on this site. When it comes to taking your card payment we hand you straight over to eWAY - a secure, PCI DSS compliant payment gateway.
