Welcome to Oatcake Records!
Oatcake Records is a new independent record label based in the West Highlands of Scotland. We plan to enable music and spoken word to be made available on CD, vinyl and mp3 formats.
APB new CD
There is a new APB recording called 'Jaguar' out NOW. Order the CD below.
Watch the video for the lead song:
They supported James Brown as well as The Clash and The Jam. They inspired The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The New York Tri-State Area adopted them as their own.
APB were one of the early post-punk funk acts to make headway in the UK and USA – where their early 45s were often played at such legendary pre-House boom clubs as The Danceteria and The Mudd Club. For the uninitiated they sounded like a more mainstream contemporary to Gang Of Four. There were plenty of plays on Radio 1 with John Peel being a huge advocate and fan, as well as the group having a number of appearances on the burgeoning youth shows on TV. APB visited America 12 times and gained fans as converse as Joey Ramone and Arthur Baker.
After a lengthy break, the post-punk/funk pioneers are back with a new seven-track mini-LP on Oatcake Records. Remerging in 2006 the original three-piece, which formed in the small rural town of Ellon, near Aberdeen, in 1979, have looked back to the source material that so inspired them as teenagers. George Cheyne, drums; Glenn Roberts, guitar and Iain Slater, bass and vocals (with The Jasmine Minks’ Jim Shepherd singing lead vocals on ‘Jaguar’ and capturing the essence of the gold lame suit clad white man soul of Bowie) sound as exciting as ever in 2011. Iain Slater’s vocals have the edgy phrasing of APB’s earliest outings circa ‘Chain Reaction’ or ‘Shoot You Down’, the time when the punk of The Buzzcocks and Clash was colliding with the steely experiments of Eno and The Talking Heads. What goes around comes around, you could say, as ‘You Give Me Pain’s’ socially critical lyrics, the cutting guitar, punchy bass and offbeat drumming could quite easily be from the pen of Alex Turner.
Considering acts like APB, Wire and Gang Of Four’s stylistic is so hugely influential it’s a real pleasure to hear one of the founding bands return with a clutch of new material that makes it seem as if very little has really changed in 21 years. Check out the APB website http://apbtheband.com/
Sleepyard on 7" vinyl
The 7" vinyl and mp3 of Sleepyard's 'Down Tangerine Road' - OUT NOW Buy below using paypal.
Fantastic review by Alex Green in Caught in the Carousel 'Keats said there were four seasons in the mind of man and Paul Weller once likened the passing of time to the crashing of waves—either way, leaves fall, tides recede and the future arrives and ages right before our very eyes... "Down Tangerine Road" is aware of all this—it resists and embraces time and although like the work of the great poets it evokes, it can't offer a solution, it's the most life affirming blast of indie rock gospel you'll ever hear. Perfection.'(read the complete review here)
UNCUT say: "Given all this love for the mid 80s Creation Records sound, its a good time for former Jasmine Minks singer Jim Shepherd to make a reappearance. His collaboration with Norwegian group Sleepyard is not what you'd expect - Down Tangerine Road... (Oatcake Records) is a throaty blues number featuring Bowie collaborator Mike Garson on jelly-roll piano. The space ballad b-side Pebble Girl is totally different, but equally good."
Collapse Board give it 'Song of the Day' 'I’m listening to this, and I keep forgetting what it is I’m listening to. I keep thinking it’s some great old Pentecostal blues from Ray Charles, or someone. You can totally imagine him down on his knees in front of the congregation.' (http://www.collapseboard.com/everett-true/song-of-the-day/song-of-the-day-219-sleepyard/)
Watch the video for Sleepyard's 'Down Tangerine Road'
Jasmine Minks 'Poppy White' CD
Available using paypal below.
Sid Ozalid
Oatcake Records would like to lend support to the work of fellow Scot, Sid Ozalid, alias Douglas Cairns, who is celebrating the success of his auto-biographical account of more than three decades on the UK comedy circuit which has made the Top 10 list on Amazon. Mr. Elastic Brain – The Life and Poems of Sid Ozalid outlines many bizarre and outlandish scenarios which Ozalid experienced throughout his career, starting from 1978 when he made his TV debut as a one-legged tap dancing poet. The book covers Ozalid’s early years where he developed a unique and original style where he would dance with his pet monkey, thrash himself with a daisy and beat his head with a tin tray. Among others, Sid supported Simple Minds, The Clash, The Specials, OMD. All proceeds from the sale of the book are going to mental health charity MIND. Buy Mr. Elastic Brain here
The Beat Hotel
Beat Hotel single 'The Fire' available on mp3 NOW from all good on-line stores and on vinyl 7" soon!!! (listen here)
Releases coming up on Oatcake! New music from electronica genius Soiled, poetry from Mike Pitt and lots more.
If you order more than one release in a single order, you only pay for ONE postage. Order your Oatcake records below:
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APBOatcake Records of Scotland's brand new release is a 7-track CD by Aberdeen's very own APB. It's their first release for three years and they will be touring Scotland and the USA to promote the release. (ORDER BELOW Limited stock!!!)“A marriage made in heaven. If David Bowie got together with Cameo in an Aberdeen loft this might be on the agenda.” (Kevin Pearce) If you live in the UK (5GBP plus p+p)
If you live outside the UK (5GBP plus p+p) |
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Jasmine Minks
'The only good thing about lost music is when it's found... Boasting a muscular jangle and a snarling hook-filled chorus, "Poppy White" is particularly winning. But then again, so is every track here, so picking favorites is futile. "Distraction" (with longtime 'Mink Jim Shepherd on vocals) sounds young and tough and thoroughly melodic, while "Dead And Gone" is masterfully played with the perfect balance of sinewy nerve and imploring vulnerability. Ending these proceedings is the Fooksy-helmed "Rain" which is a shimmering blast of soulful indie rock that punches mightily away with all the harmonic timelessness of a true classic.'
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Watch the video for Jasmine Minks: Rain (track 4 on Poppy White ep)