special bag

I made this special bag to hold emergency items so I will always have them for tours and other trips. I made it out of an old pair of Franky's jeans. The zip is from her old coat and the toggle is from my old duffel coat and it has a padded lining too. Contents:

• TCP
• cotton wool
• sewing kit
• safety matches
• multi-tool
• paracetamol 
• plasters

All the items are inside plastic zip-lock bags for waterproofing. I'm really pleased I made this. I know it's kind of weird but it makes me feel confident.

party tzar

polite records is proud to present party tzar by tiger & panda & goat.

we recorded these songs on 4-track cassette on saturday the 22nd of february 2014.

There is no long press release to go with this recording. All we really want to say is that we are genuinely delighted with the outcome. The songs are indie-pop songs and we think that they will sound good to you. We are selling them at a good price because we are currently fundraising for some future projects. 

If you enjoy this maxi-ep, It would mean a lot to us if you purchased it as a download or CDR, or maybe tell your friends?

Anyway, here it is, world. 

live at cafe kino

I finished the artwork for this last week. It's been over a year since we made these recordings and we're finally ready to release them. It'll become available on the Polite Records page in the next couple of weeks. 

By the way, Tiger & Panda are playing in London with Goat on Saturday the 14th of December, where we'll be selling this new CD and a load of others. The show is hosted by Burn The Jukebox and will be at the Sebright Arms. This place claims to have an over 18s policy so if you're under 18 and want to go, let us know and we'll figure out how to work it!

for sale

I blanket-stitched this little bag and filled it with zines and old polite records stuff. I only made one and you can buy it here.

sent i november: press release

Polite Records are proud to present Sent I November by Tiger & Panda...

cat no.: pcd014 format: CDR/download
artwork: recycled brown card gatefold with lino-printed/hand tinted cover and A3 pastel green liner notes/poster/thing
price: £5 (CDR) £2 (download)

We wrote these songs at the end of 2012 and recorded them early 2013. Sent i November is the original Swedish title of Tove Jansson's Moomin Valley In November. In Swedish 'sent i November' means 'late in November' but in English it could also be a funny way of saying 'I sent November' like as if you are the seasons or like as the author she has subjected her characters to November to see what will happen to them.

We recorded the songs on thin cassette tape.

The music is about the fuzzy frostiness and out-of-tune blackness of late autumn when life hides beneath the surface until spring. The static on the radio at night blows also through the trees and tinny telephone voices speak orange-yellow comfort among acres of dark wilderness. Acoustic guitar plays sweet 'n' muffled 'n' keeps a rock-steady rhythm while electric guitar slips and slides like tectonic plates, accidentally jazzing the fretboard here and there. Further shadows are cast on the walls by the sizzling of a ride cymbal and the freight-train honking of a distant toot-box player.

Tiger & Panda are Olly Watson & Henry Ireland. The other singer on these songs wished to remain anonymous...

encyclopedia: a kind of press release

So it's finished. I'm pretty happy with it. It's more than a year's work.

I printed the inners at Hanway Print and silk-screen printed and bound the rest at home. The foil blocking on the cover was done at the Wyvern Bindery. I was looking into doing it myself but in the end the cost to set up would have been the same and I definitely wouldn't have done such a good job. I was also keen to give Wyvern Bindery some custom after all the friendly help I've had there in the past. They charge a setting fee of £25 for the first line of text and £5 for each additional line. Then it's about £5 per unit for every copy made after that. I think this is justifiable for an artist book.

Right now, I'm still figuring out how to present it. Doing readings is kind of limiting as this book kind of needs to be handled and leafed through to work as an artwork. My current plan is to hold some kind of event at Cafe Kino some time later this year.

I'm also thinking about offering a bespoke binding service for those who want their own personal copies. This makes more sense than mass producing and I don't want to charge for the content. Just the binding.

Speaking of which, I'm providing .PDF copies of this document free of charge to those who would like to read it (there will be some kind of 'this belongs to hrjireland' watermark on the pages) so if you'd like a copy, contact me somehow...

encyclopedia: book belt

A  non-letterpress version of the blurb/book belt. I will be trying to set a letterpress version in the future but I've spent enough money for one day...

encyclopedia: hard back(ed)

All I have to do now is print up the super fancy cover. Q: Will there be gold foil blocking? And a letter-pressed book belt? A: Yes.

corners: a zine about maths and art

Finally finished the first personal project of the year. It's a zine and print package about a pretend statistical analysis I did to kill some time in 2010. It's taken me a couple of years to get round to collecting all the raw material I collected into this 32 page zine. I limited the run to 20 and I tried to make it as nice as possible. I'm pleased with it. In some ways it's the most complex personal project I've made in the real world...

Oh year, and you can buy it from my folksy shop, and maybe some real shops in the coming months.

dowry's first trip to the usa

On the way to a long-time friend of Polite Records. Good luck little record!

also: don't worry, Nick, I did put your address on the parcel but have cleverly removed if from this photograph to keep you safe from your over-enthusiastic fanbase.

flickin' the 'v's

Spent most of my free time over the last week printing this artwork for the next tiger & panda & ox ep, flickin' the 'v's. I'm pretty pleased with how they look now and I think they will be ready to buy around the 2nd of march when we are playing at Old St Mary's. The nets for this packaging are recycled card and they came from a company called eco-craft ltd. I have Steve Brett to thank for telling me about this company. As well as being excited about the artwork, we listened to a rough mix I had made of the songs the other day and were pleasantly surprised. I'm looking forward to finishing this project!

dowry arrives

The 10" record of Tiger & Panda's Dowry EP arrived today, and it looks beautiful. I am proud as punch. Above, me and Olly share a high five in celebration.

We got the record cut and printed at DMS ltd. in Plymouth who were helpful and nice.

We are hoping to officially release Dowry this Wednesday and I will make a blog post with portfolio/catalogue shots when we do so.

generation snes

Our excellent friends Jo Fernandes and Steve Daoud sent us some wonderful mail art. They have created a band called 'generation snes' and made us this one-of-a-kind EP.

Thanks Steve and Jo. I can't stop listening to it!