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Cottonmouth
Rocks.... |
We are super chipper at Drift
HQ to be able to bring you the debut 7” single from
the formidable Cottonmouth Rocks. “Witch
Doctor” is released nationwide on 1st September
and digitally on 4th August... But we figured as we have a
few here, why sit on them for the summer?!
The band welcomed in the single with a hot and hectic launch
last week at Brighton’s Hope. “The
sinister urgency of tonight's gig was characteristic of the
best sort of music-making: lean, insistent and bewitching.”....
Read
full review
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"Smart!" - The Observer
"A near-miraculous glimmer of frail, reflective humanity
in a bullshit-filled world" – The
Word
At the launch the band also screened the beautifully crafted
forthcoming video for the single that we will take great delight
in showing you all in the coming weeks.
The single is available now from a very limited pressing of
just 250 units and ships anywhere in the
world for just £4 from the Drift
Record Shop.
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Thomas
White Out Now!!! |
Thomas White's LP continues to
get great coverage, with NME, Q, PlanB and The
Independent the latest to sing it's merits.
(**** Q Recommends)
"recalls the psychedelic-rock splendour of Spiritualized
at their peak" - Q
"if you crave heady chin-scratchers in psych pastels,
he makes sounds to swim in."
- The Independent
"a gentle sonic swim through seas of reverb, washing
up on shores of song that range from the sci-fi Dandy Warhols
shuffle of 'The Runaround' to the Jim Noir-ish 'This Is Just
A Little Interlude…" - NME
"This is some black magic" - PlanB
You can read all the reviews (and more) in full on
Thomas’ site;
www.electricsoftparade.org.uk
- It is available RIGHT
NOW at the Drift Record Shop and ships anywhere
in the world for £10.
www.driftrecordshop.com
“Overall proceedings are versatile, essentially
original and engaging. Moreover ’I Dream Of Black’
is a somewhat unusual album, in that it is as much of itself
while simultaneous sounding like some distant album soundtracking
a lost, forgotten 60’s film” - Subba-Culture
“ it’s delightful and you can’t but
marvel” - Clash
“In a word, brilliant. a striking slab of old-school
lo-fi indie, if you like early Domino or Drag City stuff then
you’ll lap this up. It’s out on Drift Records
who are fast becoming one of the best UK indie’s ever.”
- Is This Music
** Anagram Winners **
We were delighted with all of the entries we received for
the Thomas White anagram competition.
We have decided to go with Min's
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“there dark looms with dramatic finesse”
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One signed copy winging it’s way to you.
We'll do another competition next month. |
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Mary
Hampton LP on Navigator Records |
We are very pleased to be able
to announce that Mary Hampton’s debut LP ‘My Mothers
Children’ will be released on 4th August by our very
good friends Navigator
Records.
Mary’s ten-track debut is a truly exceptional record
and we are delighted to be working with Navigator
to bring it to you all. Navigator are a very fine
imprint run by a very fine man who is responsible for not
only the exceptional Reveal Record shop (r.i.p) but
also releases by Joan as a Police Woman, Madam, BBC folk
winners Lau, Benji Kirkpatrick and Jon Redfurn.
Mary will be celebrating it’s release (a couple
of weeks late!) with the rest of Team Drift at Greenman
so book now to avoid disappointment... there’s a band
called pentangle playing as well... Around in the
sixties of something?!
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| "Finish Your
Chips" |
The news today is that Matt
Eaton's album "Finish
your Chips" was released over the bank holiday.
It has started to fitler into the press slowly;
"Insinuatingly addictive" - Uncut
"This album provides a tide of serenity with humble,
grumbled folk songs that feel like they have a history, the
resultant sense of peace is gorgeous." - PlanB
"There’s something truly beautiful here, like
a sort of bucolic British Tom Waits without the gravel in
the throat" - Subba-Culture
“Each of the tracks here offer interest, from the
sparser ones … through to the fuller ones” –
Record Collector
“Songs swoon as much as they soar... It sets itself
up, plays itself through with minimal fuss and leaves you
wanting an encore”. - Artrocker
"This is a languorous album, one which demands the
listener relax, and forget about the humdrum concerns of the
day-to-day" - Epoch Times
Should you feel the need to own a copy, which of course you
do. you can buy it right here
or via iTunes here,
or indeed demand it from your local independent record shop
(you could also get it from your HMV/Zavvi/Amazon/Play
type places but apparently they fund murderers with the money
they make off the Ting Tings and Beth Rowley. Yes you heard
it here first ... the Ting
Tings fund terror)
We digress. Matt's album is as pretty as pop music can and
should be. It is a record that makes us and hopefully you
happier for hearing it.
Christmas hasn't come early but that doesn't mean you shouldn't
treat yourself...
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| "Word Folk
Family Tree" |
There is a very nice little piece
in this months Word magazine about the ever mutating
and overlapping folk community, and most appropriately it
took the form of a family tree; branching from Fairport
Convention, Richard Thompson and the incredible string
band, through Alt country heroes Bonnie ‘Prince’
Billy and Bill Callahan to the British contingency
of King Kreosote and James Yorkston.

The family tree takes in not only our roster, but also the
Fence collective and the piece is hung around the
collective forming of The Accidental, who's debut
album is out now.
The 'Sussex/Devon folk Symposium' that
is Drift took up a good corner of the page, spidering out
to include The R.G.Morrison, Thirty Pounds of Bone, Birdengine
and the music polar opposites Mary Hampton and
Cottonmouth Rocks.
You can browse the links between us and the Beta Band
here,
as well as spotting a good few of our friends in the tree’s
entirety.
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| "Greenman" |
We are very proud to announce
that this years Greenman
festival, will mark the live debut of "The
Drift Collective".
The Collective band is comprised exclusively from artists
signed to the label, and will rework songs taken from Drift
releases.
It's going to be "a 40 minute mix tape with everyone
on the wrong instruments."
We'll be slowly confirming what's going on between now and
the festival, so join the newsletter
and read the blog
to hear first. |
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| "More press
coverage for label album" |

The Drift Collective album keeps cropping up in the
monthly magazines (excellent work PR team!) Here
our some further kind words.
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Record Collector Magazine
West country folk underground movement
Fitting well with our laudable aims of supporting the small
traders, the Drift label has already gained attention for
it’s artists and releases. Appearing to have attracted
a group of like-minded musicians who have emerged blinky-eyed
from the Devon hedgerows, they now all support each other
recording a variety of modern folk that proudly follows its
own directions and inclinations without caring a fig what
the mainstream might suggest.
Each of the tracks here offer interest, from the sparser ones
such as The RG Morrison with In Meadows and Tandy
Hard’s Hurricane, through to the fuller ones
such as Matt Eaton’s jog-along Too Scared to Fly,
Mary Hampton’s delicate Eros, and the Green
Park’s (ed. Great Park) Paper Birds, which
appears to have pretty well everyone pitching in. Also included
is In Search of Oil under label co-founder Johny
Lamb’s nom du disque Thirty Pounds of Bone whose album
last year was such a treat.
Inventive, imaginative and different; long may they collect
together. - Kingsley Abbott
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The Word Magazine
A trip to the country with the southern countries collective
This album opens with birdsong. It leads into Birdengine's
shivering lovely, acoustic I, Dancing Bear and sets
the tone perfectly for 11 very intimate and pastoral songs
by the Sussex-Devon musician’s collective. The whole
album verily reeks of autumn leaf-mould, open fires in stone-built
pubs and magic mushrooms in beech woodlands, making for a
very British kind of country music. Although American country
music ghosts occasionally hover too, specifically Gram Parsons
and Johnny Cash in songs by The Great Park and Monk Jack Deer
(ed. Muntjac Dear), these small-scale, gently sketched-out
songs are more country-minded in the way that they create
a place worlds away from the hysteria of the urban rat race.
Even when the musicians turn electronic, as in Nada’s
deeply peculiar Residents-playing-Tetris More Custard,
or Cottonmouth Rocks stripped-bare PJ Harvey-meets-St Etienne
Racetrack, The Drift Family provide a near-miraculous
glimmer of frail, reflective humanity in a bullshit-filled
world. - Joe Muggs
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Rock ‘N’ Reel Magazine
Drift is an independent Devon-based label with nine
acts signed, represented by this eleven-track sampler. No,
I couldn’t figure that out either. It opens with the
sounds of scratchy vinyl and birdsong of Birdengine’s
‘I, Dancing Bear’, which may not be a
totally original idea. It’s not quite ‘Grantchester
Meadows’ but it’s there in spirit. Birdengine
may be a band or a pseudonym for Lawry Jospeh Tilbury, for
this is a real collective with everyone working with one another
in various combinations, so a band’s name my be determined
by who is singing lead. There’s little background information
on the sleeve so the music is rightly allowed to stand on
it’s own merits.
There’s the influence of early Floyd and Nick Drake
on a few tracks and some nearly conventional acoustic rock
like Thirty Pounds of Bone’s ‘In Search of
Oil’ and Matt Eaton’s ‘Too Scared
to Fly’. I would include Monk Jack Deer’s
(ed. Muntjac Dear) 'Handsome Friends’ except
the lead instrument is a ukulele. Mary Hampton’s ‘Eros’
is a long lush piece with the feel of a traditional ballad
that seems to take me back to... Somewhen. I want
to hear more from these people. - Dai Jeffries |
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| "The Drift
Collective" press coverage |
The Drift Collective album has
been getting some glowing coverage since it's release which
is always nice.
- -
Mojo
Genial Sampler from Devon cottage industry label.
The Drift Collective is well named - a significant rump of
artists distributed across its 11 tracks reappearing elsewhere
in supporting roles, lending proceedings a communal, campfire
air. The odd detour into nebulous, sub-Tunng folktronica aside,
there's much to commend here, not least the awkwardly named
The R.G. Morrison, whose In Meadows marries Satie-like piano
figures with wistful graveside meditations, while stately
balladeers Tandy Hards's spindly Scott Walker/Nick Drake composite
Hurricane recalls the work of cult 80's troubadours Palace
Of Light. Elsewhere, Nada essay wordless folktronica minus
the folk bit, proffering woozy synths, clattering syndrums
and spectral keyboard flights, while Monk Jack Deer is a West
Country Jonathan Richman with a ukulele and a gnomic turn
of phrase ("he lay with you but he flew to me")
which - like much of this gently eccentric album - is difficult
to dislike. - David Sheppard
- -
Is this Music?
The Drift Collective is a compilation that presents such a
consistent tone and quality that it appears to be the work
of a single artist. From Mary Hampton’s vocal extravaganza
‘Eros’ to RG Morrison’s spooky parlour piano
on ‘In Meadows’, this album evinces a fascination
with subdued spaces between folk, electronica and old-fashioned
popular song.
Hampton and Morrison provide the stand-out tracks, comfortably
adapting acoustic instruments and discreet accompaniment to
a direct and emotional song-craft that evokes the early twentieth
century. Matt Eaton and Monk Jack Deer provide cheerier fare,
rambling along with banjos to a jaunty beat, but the faded,
sepia-tinted tone fixes the melancholy in the opening track
, ‘I, Dancing Bear’ by Birdengine. Aside from
the occasional lapse into the twee, The Drift Collective has
the disturbing resonance of an undiscovered British folk tradition.
Despite the label’s acceptance of the fictional folktronica
tag- electronic folk music will be more than a few glitches
and cracks atop an acoustic guitar- Drift Records have assembled
a strong roster that manages to embrace the past while retaining
an ironic distance, forging new paths out of the acoustic
tradition. - Gareth Vile
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The Observer
Down at the roots of British folk, strange things continue
to stir. Devon's Drift label has a small but intriguing roster
of young talents from whom this 11-track sampler is drawn.
The self-penned material shares a laconic humour but musically
it's diverse. Birdengine offer an oddball line in crepuscular
English pastoral while Mary Hampton's skylark of a voice floats
on an arrangement of harmonium and strings. There's bleepy
folktronica, stalwart strumming and droll country influences,
while on 'Racetrack', from Cottonmouth Rocks, a female version
of the Streets raps over a honking Human League synth: 'Shine
your shiny car lights on me, boy!' Smart. - Neil
Spencer
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| "Matt Eaton
Village Bear EP" |
We are very exited to announce
the first release in our all new digital only EP series. Expect
releases, rareties and all number of collective outings in
the next 12 months. We are calling these DFTIY and they will
also be available from us as CDRs. It all starts with a roaring
EP from Matt Eaton - "The Village Bear".
Get it!
The Village Bear EP is;
"an indicator of the Brighton scene before all the London
commuters moved in and brought their Faithless CDs with them."
(3 Bar Fire) and "Quite ruddy sublime
if you want my honest opinion." (Losing
Today)
- to use other peoples words.
The digital only medium with no packaging or sleeve notes
always seemed like a fairly grim avenue to us, but we're slowly
being won over and it does offer us the opportunity to release
more regulalry... plus rare bits and live treats!
Buy The Village Bear from:
itunes
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| "Newsletter" |
| We've made it even easier than
ever to join our mailing list.
You can also view the Newsletter online,
and keep up to date with our wonderful new RSS
feed. |
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| Welcome to Drift... |
We are a small artist run collective
of musicians based around the south of England. We run a label
and also a record shop in Devon. Drift began
a couple of years back when R G Morrison and Thirty
Pounds of Bone frontman Johny Lamb began work
on the first of Morrison's albums. They drunkenly discussed
the idea of a self released CDR but as the album developed it
didn’t seem like the best fit. Slowly, it dawned on them
that they could release records independently of labels, pluggers,
press agents and managers! Foolish perhaps, but having recruited
as many of their favourite songwriters and bands as possible,
and with the help of some genuinely good people, Drift
has remained as independent, in house and collaborative as possible
whilst still managing to release records and keep evolving.
Collective members frequently use each other as band members
on record and at live performances, which we see as a very healthy
thing, especially as the collective keeps growing.
Since we started we have released full length albums by: The
R G Morrison, Birdengine, Thirty Pounds of Bone and Matt
Eaton. We have also released "The Drift Collective"
a compilation featuring eleven collective members in various
guises. all of these have received a great deal of critical
praise.
Next there will be releases from the very talented Thomas
White, Cottonmouth Rocks, Tandy Hard, The Tenderfoot and
Nada as well as second albums from Morrison
and TPoB. We are also very proud to be involved in
the release of Mary Hampton’s debut album.
We are a very small operation, but we work hard and we are proud
of what we do. We hope that you like what you find here and
we hope you buy
some records!
Love The Drift Collective
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| Links for listening |
| Click the links
below to visit the various websites for all of the Drift family
and friends. |
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| www.driftrecordshop.com |
We run a small online
shop for all of our wares. They are also available
as digital downloads from all good download sites, and in all
good record shops through Proper
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Thomas White
I Dream Of Black
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Debut solo album, illustrious decade
of music, awesome results... it's a helluva record.
“ it’s delightful and you can’t
but marvel” - Clash
“In a word, brilliant. a striking
slab of old-school lo-fi indie, if you like early Domino
or Drag City stuff then you’ll lap this up. It’s
out on Drift Records who are fast becoming one of the
best UK indie’s ever.” - Is
This Music
The Album is in deluxe gatefold digipack packaging,
and ships free of charge.
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Matt Eaton
Finish your chips
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Matt does not make fashionable music.
He makes classic music. His ambition is to make albums
of the scope and caliber of Richard Harris “ A
tramp shining” and Dion and Phil Spector’s
“Born to be with you”. He has truly done
so with “Finnish your chips”, sitting awkwardly
somewhere between Scottish folk, sunshine country and
orchestral pop.
The man is all heart; as this album.
"Insinuatingly addictive" - Uncut
"This album provides a tide of serenity with humble,
grumbled folk songs that feel like they have a history,
the resultant sense of peace is gorgeous."
- PlanB
“Each of the tracks here offer interest, from
the sparser ones … through to the fuller ones”
– Record Collector
The Album is in deluxe gatefold digipack packaging,
and ships free of charge.
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Matt Eaton
The Village Bear
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Digital Only EP
superb Low-Fi Digital only EP from MAtt Eaton.
"an indicator of the Brighton scene before
all the London commuters moved in and brought their
Faithless CDs with them." (3 Bar Fire)
"Quite ruddy sublime if you want my honest
opinion." (Losing Today)
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Tandy Hard
Tandy Hard
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long with generous proportions and a
frankly uncomfortable lyrical intimacy, the Tandy Hard
code of practice asserts that if you have something
to say, just f@$king say it. Nowhere is this
more evident than in the forthcoming eponymous debut
LP, where stately ballads such as the Hawley-does-Will
Oldham “A Price On Your Head” gently canters
alongside the hurtling gallop of “Hurricane”.
Tandy Hard himself claims that the recent comparison
to “Palace of Light” are much more accurate,
despite never having heard of them.
“Stately balladeers Tandy Hard’s spindly
Scott Walker/Nick Drake composite Hurricane recalls
the work of cult 80’s troubadours Palace Of Light.”
– Mojo
The Album is in deluxe gatefold digipack packaging,
and ships free of charge.
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Drift Records
The Drift Collective
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** NOW ONLY £7.00 INCLUDING
P&P **
"Inventive, imaginative and different; long may
they collect together." - Record Collector
"The Drift Family provide a near-miraculous glimmer
of frail, reflective humanity in a bullshit-filled world"
- The Word
"gently eccentric" - Mojo
“as gorgeous as it is quirky” - Observer
Music Monthly
“fantastic” - Time Out
“Smart” - The Observer
Eleven exclusive tracks from the Drift records roster,
including tracks from; Nada, Mary Hampton, Birdengine,
Thirty Pounds of Bone, The Great Park, Muntjac deer,
Tandy Hard, The R.G.Morrison, Gale Fingers, Cottonmouth
Rocks and Matt Eaton.
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Mary Hampton
Book One
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Digital Only EP
Exclusive digital debut for Mary Hamptons Book
One - "Six Songs Of Refusal"
"a stately clarity"
- The Times
"bewildering" -
Time Out London
** Book One & Two can be bought on hand
packed CD's direct from Mary's Myspace **
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Mary Hampton
Book Two
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Digital Only EP
Exclusive digital debut for Mary Hamptons Book
Two- "Six Songs Of Hunger"
"a woman who appears to have spent
much of her life attempting to imitate the shimmer of
wind-chimes. The effect is mesmerizing"
- The Guardian
"spine-thrilling attic folk"
- Time Out London
** Book One & Two can be bought on hand
packed CD's direct from Mary's Myspace **
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Birdengine
I Fed Thee Rabit Water
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There’s not likely to be a more arresting opening
couplet to an album this year – Independent
A strange and compelling beauty. – Maverick
It’s a very beautiful record. – The
Word This album is it is a from
a limited run and is delivered in a hand wax-sealed envelope.
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Thirty Pounds
The Homesick Children..
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This is dark of the blackest
of physics. – PlanB
Proudly different, it has the side-ranging ambition and
talent to appeal far more than only folk fans alone. –
Record Collector
There is much to savour on this accomplished collection
of plaintive laments, of which the mournful title track
and drone like Uyeasound are exceptional. Q Magazine
There’s a big hearted muscularity to these songs
that makes you return to them like good drinking buddies.
– The Word This album
is it is a from a limited run and is delivered in a hand
wax-sealed envelope.
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The R.G.Morrison
Learning About Loathing
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Raw and vital, but for from easygoing. –
WIRE
It’s the overall sincerity and confidence that make
it a worthy listen – FutureMusic
It has the bewildering charm of Nick Drake and the lovely
gathering darkness of Bonny Prince Billy – SubbaCulture
This album is it is a from a limited run and
is delivered in a hand wax-sealed envelope.
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| "Drift on
Last.fm" |
We have had a good number of emails
over the last few months about the last.fm site, streaming our
artists, ID-something tags and scrobbing (which I must admit
we still don't understand).
We had a good investigate and we have decided to start making
our back catalogue available online.
LP's from Thirty Pounds of Bone, The R.G.Morrison and
Birdengine are available now, as is the below mentioned
Drift Collective album to listen to in their entirety.
Have a listen, adore, buy
the albums. |
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