My second album Gilded Cage is out now.

Listen at Amazon, AWA, Bandcamp, Deezer, Google Play, iTunes/Apple Music and Spotify, among many other digital stores. Alternatively, you can get hold of the CD version from Bandcamp.

Written and performed by Roberta Fidora, except In Your Neighbourhood, written by Roberta Fidora and Andrew E. Wright.

Additional performances by Mike James, Grace James and P.J.E. Davy. Recorded, produced and mixed by Deluxe Flamingos and Roberta Fidora. Mastered at Stardelta Mastering, with thanks to the Mike Howley Trust on the Isle of Wight. Art direction and photography by Rob Luckins. 

Deluxe Flamingos:  deluxeflamingos.bandcamp.com
P.J.E. Davy:  www.pjedavy.com
Rob Luckins:  www.welcometothedarkslide.co.uk 

A huge thank you to all of the above for their help and encouragement and we hope you enjoy listening to it.

P. S. I’m already working on the next EP, so every stream and purchase helps. Thank you!

No floppy discs here! Thanks to SpinGrey for adding 'In Your Neighbourhood' to their Workaholic playlist. ⏲️

Hear 'In Your Neighbourhood' on this independent Spotify playlist featuring a lot of my favourite musicians, such as Grandaddy, Jane Weaver & other musical gems! 

In good company with Sébastien Tellier and St. Vincent on this excellent, independently-curated Daily Fresh Finds 2017 Spotify playlist. 

Seeing as yesterday was Friday the 13th and there is a puppet king for that, I thought I’d share some thoughts on one of the more obscure inspirations for ‘In Your Neighbourhood’. If you watch the video and listen to the glockenspiel melody, they might summon to mind elements of the US children’s television show, Mr. Rogers’ Neighbourhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001. It wouldn’t be a completely wild connection to make.

Mr. Rogers’ Neighbourhood wasn’t a show I ever watched as a child (although I did avidly watch fellow PBS network show Sesame Street which of course has its own neighbourhood-based song) but something I stumbled on by accident when reading a seemingly endless feed of grim news. It was the “look for the helpers” quote which caught my eye and led me to clips of the series on YouTube. I’d sat there ready to roll my eyes at a bunch of naff characters making flutes out of vegetables or laugh at some stuffy presenter, but to watch it is to feel like you have momentarily stepped inside an entirely different world, with its charmingly bizarre puppets and unparalleled, deliberately slow delivery, which gently encourages its young audience to be present, tolerant, engaged and visible, without being patronising. In one episode, Mr. Rogers talks about managing feelings, acknowledging and dealing with them constructively, as opposed to the advice erring on the side of suppressing them (which although relevant now, is a whole other conversation). His speech at an awards ceremony where he times the audience in near silence whilst asking them to think of someone who has “loved them into being”, is capable of disarming even the most militant of misery guts. Even if you can’t get behind any of that, he successfully sued the KKK for targeting children with racist messages, rallied for VCR taping of programmes, gave George Romero his first filming job and introduced musicians such as Wynton Marsalis and experimental pioneers Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson to an audience of kids who may not have experienced jazz or electronic music otherwise.

Where the song ‘In Your Neighbourhood’ differs though, is in the erosion of belonging and highlighting the creeping influence of pure nostalgia, which brings so much into conflict, often without any good rationale behind it. A few months before I moved from my hometown to a more remote hillside, I felt like many people in the UK, weirdly unsettled and like I didn’t really understand people’s motivations for things anymore. I couldn’t find the helpers. My sense of place felt warped, because of a negativity I couldn’t quite comprehend. If only the ‘good old days’ we’d alluded to were the good old days of ‘the neighborhood’, where, seemingly, everyone and anyone was welcome.

Thrilled that ‘In Your Neighbourhood’ has been added to the Fresh Finds: Hiptronix playlist on Spotify, alongside lots of other excellent electronic music! 

Give it a follow and a listen now.

The digital pre-order for ‘Gilded Cage’ is now up on Amazon, Bandcamp, Google Play and iTunes. Alternatively, you can join me in my corner of Spotify and be notified when the album is released.

For the turntablers amongst you, there will also be a very limited edition vinyl version available to pre-order soon (with free download). More updates on that here as I get them.

Written and performed by Roberta Fidora, except In Your Neighbourhood, written by Roberta Fidora and Andrew E. Wright.

Additional performances by Mike James, Grace James and P.J.E. Davy. Recorded, produced and mixed by Deluxe Flamingos and Roberta Fidora. Mastered at Stardelta Mastering, with thanks to the Mike Howley Trust on the Isle of Wight. Art direction and photography by Rob Luckins.

Deluxe Flamingos:  deluxeflamingos.bandcamp.com
P.J.E. Davy:  www.pjedavy.com
Rob Luckins:  www.welcometothedarkslide.co.uk 

‘In Your Neighbourhood’ is released today and is the first single from second album ‘Gilded Cage’, co-produced with Deluxe Flamingos.

Available to download or stream now on Amazon, Apple Music/iTunes, Bandcamp, Google Play, Spotify and YouTube.

Obsolete technology, a puppet band and a familiar figure.

'In Your Neighbourhood' (6.10.2017) is the first single taken from forthcoming album 'Gilded Cage' (released digitally 20.10.2017).

Directed by Rob Luckins.

Never sit too close to the screen. ‘Gilded Cage’ is set for digital release on October 20th 2017 via Apple Music, Bandcamp, Spotify and all good digital stores (special limited edition vinyl release date TBC). 

If you’re looking mournfully across a hillside, waiting for ‘Gilded Cage’ to arrive, then I have a short but hopefully exciting update for you. Hold on to those binoculars.

Firstly, I’ve decided to move the digital release date ever-so-slightly (to the 20th October 2017), but there is a very good reason for this. I’m thrilled to say that I have received some much welcome funding from The Mike Howley Trust on the Isle of Wight, which means that the album will be getting a vinyl release! With that in mind, I’ll be setting up a pre-order page very soon on Bandcamp (subscribers get 20% off the record price). However, if you are well versed in clouds and streams, you can join me on Spotify or Apple Music and that’s alright too.

Also, some advice whilst you’re out in the wilds. Be alert for bears and don’t venture out near the log cabins or chalets.
 

All of the remixes from ‘Verxes’ in one place plus three previously unreleased early 2000s demos, now up for your listening pleasure on Bandcamp.

Head over to Bandcamp to watch the sinister video for ‘Uniseum’ (by my good friend Rob Luckins) and read about forthcoming album ‘Gilded Cage’, released 20.10.17.

Somewhere between my time as an ugly duckling and black swan theory, I enjoyed my time as a beautiful flamingo, contributing to the new Deluxe Flamingos EP. 

It’s out now at all good Bandcamps. Don’t pay what you want, pay what you need.