Unspun Heroes®

@unspunheroes

An independent not-for-profit record label in the UK. Music deserving of wider attention. Reissued for the first time on vinyl in small batches. With love. Posts by Simon.

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Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· 29d

These but instead make them all @glenndonaldson.bsky.social releases

12 sliding puzzles, each one had an album cover on it, including Oasis, Jimi Hendrix, Sex Pistols, Prince, and Phil Collins.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· 29d

I'm in Mixcloud jail.

A screenshot of the address bar in a browser that shows the word 'jailed' after the main domain address for Mixcloud. This is because the website assumes I am a bot.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jul 11

#hydrationbreak

A woman who looks posh is holding a can of Heineken. This is a still from a UK TV advert where a posh woman couldn’t say “The water in Majorca don’t taste like what it outghta” until she sips from a can of Heineken beer, which ‘refreshes the parts other beer cannot reach”.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jul 10

Clouds looking good

A scene across a chalk meadow. There is long grass with white flowers dotted through it. A line of trees runs through the middle. And in a beautiful blue sky are clouds that looks as if they’ve been painted with a broad brush in quick strokes, leaving feathery white paint streaks behind.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jul 9

Terrible photo but this is on my wall and therefore I beg to differ 😂

A cartoon that shows thousands of books on shelves that curve horizontally. A ladder reaches up several storeys. The caption reads: There’s no such thing as too many books. The print is numbered 101/500. The artist is Ralph Lazer.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jun 28

Have had a power cut at Unspun HQ since midday. Likely to be another four hours, apparently. So I’ll be enjoying this zine from @logofiasco.bsky.social in which I have two pieces… one a chat with @dannythechamp.bsky.social and the other a chat with @ianfromballoon.bsky.social

A zine with a black and white cover featuring a linocut design by Ruth Joyce. The title, ‘Pond Life’ features prominently in the centre of the cover. The subtitle, A Carshalton Fanzine is written a long the bottom of the page.

A photo of a page within the Pond Life zone. It reads:

Big Skies & The Mad Mile
Simon White talks to Danny George Wilson

Perhaps unbeknown to many, Carshalton has been on the global music stage for over three decades. Hiding in the local area in plain sight, Danny George Wilson has been writing about his local "stomping ground", and it's a subject that's sustained his career across a few bands and his solo work. When we meet in his newly opened record shop in Carshalton, Danny explains how Sutton, as a borough, has had an impact on his songwriting.

A page from the zine, Pond Life. It reads:

WATCH OUT FOR THE QUIET ONES
Simon White talks to lan Bickerton

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jun 17

The books.

Atop a cast iron radiator sits a stack of six paperback books. From top to bottom they are:

- On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia
- Bullfight by Yasushi Inoue
- Days of Light by Megan Hunter
- Parade by Rachel Cusk
- Benbecula by Graeme McCrae Burnet
- Grief Is A Thing With Feathers by Max Porter

These will be added to the huge pile of books I’ve got to read.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jun 17

Nothing like celebrating Miles Davis and his legacy than by changing the theme colour of your Slack environment.

A screenshot of a theme selection from the app, Slack, which purports to help you 'Celebrate the music of Miles Davis' through six possible colour schemes: Kind of Blue, Funky Fresh, Jazz Club, Electric Fusion, Brassy, and Sunglasses Inside.

Kind of Blue is, well, kind of blue, whereas Funky Fresh is a purple to green gradient thing; Jazz Club is a gradient of dark red shifting to darker maroon, while Electric Fusion is a light green; Brassy is sort of yellow/gold in colour with a nod to Bet Lynch's leopard skin tops, and Sunglasses Inside is a deep, dark purple, the colour of an eye that has been bruised by tripping over in a dark club because you're wearing sunglasses inside.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jun 17

Postman’s been.

Cover art for The Lightswitch by Jo Mango. It features a sculpture made by Deniz Uster of a chair on its side and a small house and rocks atop it. The house has a light on. A pink obi strip with Jo’s name and the album title are shown on the left of the sleeve.

The hand holding it also has a postcard under the thumb which reads: “Dear Simon, Thanks so much for listening and for supporting artists by buying direct. I really hope you enjoy The Lightswitch, Love Jo xxx”

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jun 12

Playing some of my own releases tonight. First up I’m cracking open my super limited edition version of James Varda’s Chance And Time. I was so lucky to be able to do this. I think he would have loved how it turned out. A very special album indeed.

A yellow hand-cut and handmade card sleeve with the name James Varda in black foil on the left. On the right hand flap that closes the outer sleeve is the black foil of the album’s name, Chance & Time.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jun 7

After a morning moving the child out of uni halls and back home, I’m sat on a bench in the park with this idiot.

A black pug looks into the distance. Behind it is a big tree. The sky is mostly blue with some clouds. The grass is a lush green colour.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jun 6

I suspect this ain’t a well loved album but it holds a special place in my heart due to its release year and subject matter.

A hand holds a vinyl album featuring a black and white cover image of a boy surfing in the ocean, with a second surfer visible in the background. The band’s name, "The Rapture", is prominently shown as white text on a black hype sticker, along with the title of the album, "In the Grace of Your Love". Released in 2011, it’s damn hard to find on vinyl in the UK and the album deals with themes of grief and loss. The music is danceable guitar band with electronica leanings. Most people hated it when it came out, if I recall correctly. They preferred the old version of the band from 2005 with a different singer and a much brighter sound. I like both.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jun 3

#nowplaying the vinyl release of @tinnedmeats.bsky.social album, Kilter. If I made best of the year lists this would be on it, very close to the top. (It might even be number one but it’s only June so, who knows. Not that it matters as I don’t make those lists, so it’s entirely speculative.)

Abstract artwork featuring bold strokes of red, black, and white on a textured yellow background. A hand is visible holding the art vinyl record sleeve of Tinned Meat’s second album, Kilter.

A yellow and red marbled vinyl record with a red centre label that reads "TINNED MEATS" Kilter. The label lists tracks such as "SQUARE/ONE" and "GROUND." A hand is holding the record against a white background.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· Jun 3

Was on a work call earlier and this book fell off the shelf above my computer and landed in my lap. It’s a first edition of the first book I chose myself, from a school book club thing when I was five (that copy I still have!) You can read it free here: archive.org/details/icep...

A hand holds a light blue book titled "The Ice Palace" by Robert Swindells. The cover features a blue illustration of a wizened figure in white and several wolves in an orange wash, along with the publisher's name, Antelope Books, at the bottom.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· May 23

Went into London today to catch up with Miguel from The Felt Tips. Was ace. Had to walk from London Bridge to Clerkenwell, though. I noted that the City of London appears to be TikTok influencer central at the weekends. Here’s some phone boxes in Smithfield Market.

Four red phone boxes against the Victorian railings of Smithfield Market.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· May 23

Hawt! (T-shirt model’s own but you can grab yours from unspunheroes.bandcamp.com/merch/unspun...)

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· May 20

For their 24:1900 music festival they're raising funds to make sure everyone gets paid, and they can get word out to a wider audience. It's an audacious goal but big leaps are needed. Can you help out, even with £3? Scan QR or visit 24-1900.live

A QR code that has an amorphos circle-like blob with white, red, pink, blue and purple swirling within it. Beneath this are the words 24:1900 MUSIC FESTIVAL, which translates to the time of day the music festival takes place and the time period over which it runs - 24 hours schedule with bands playing at 7pm in their time zone. Scanning the QR code links you to the Crowdfunder set up by the team behind it.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· May 19

It deffo doesn't let you automatically make the mistake but it does allow you to buy again. Or gift.

A screenshot of a portion of a Bandcamp page showing a red heart emoji and the text that says "You own this" next to it. To the right of this is more text which says "Buy again" in case you want to pay money for something already own. Below the red heart emoji is more text that says "Send as Gift" so you can buy it for someone else. That's nice thing to do.

What I want to know is who decided to use a weird mix of sentence and title case for these labels? My brain hurts looking at it. Answers to this question on a postcard to: Unspun HQ... I'm kidding, you can email me if you really want to and have the answer.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· May 15

Waiting.

A photo from the left-hand side of Union Chapel church in Islington. You can see a stage that has violins and guitars and a speaker stack all facing forward. People are seated with one solitary woman sat in front of me. In the background are the arches of the church and some other aspects of the interior. The photo is in back and white as I had some setting on my phone and didn’t notice until the shot had been taken.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· May 11

Anyone remember Rabbit?

Metal shutters outside shopfronts. Above these is positioned a sign for Rabbit, an early location-specific telecoms network in the UK. The light blue coloured letter R is inverted to make it look like a rabbit. A red dot makes an eye.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· May 9

Someone’s excited for the Indie Label Market.

A smiley black pug pokes out her tongue in excitement. Being on a train is fun!

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· May 9

Arrived today!

A hand holds three paperback books by Robert Rankin, which comprise the first three books of the Brentford Trilogy. They are, in order, The Antipope, The Brentford Triangle, and East of Ealing.

The cover of The Antipope proclaims that it is the first book in the now legendary BRENTFORD TRILOGY, while the cover of The Brentford Triangle states it’s the second book in the now legendary BRENTFORD TRILOGY. You can probably sense a theme here.

The books are secondhand, because that’s the joy of books. Can’t do that with a shitty Kindle made by a billionaire twat who also builds rockets that look like a penis and writes editorials for his newspaper, The Washington Post, that make him sound like a thin-skinned crybaby.

Unspun Heroes®@unspunheroes· May 8

Arrived home to find this propped up outside my front door. Each track is based on one of @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social’s short stories from the book of the same name. I’m wondering if/when someone will do an Everything Will Swallow You concept album? Anyway, folk horror acidfolk vibes. ❤️ it.