Today we hand over the keys to Further. to Nicholas Langley, founder of Brighton’s Third Kind Records. The label celebrated their 10th birthday on 3rd September. Congratulations to Nick and all the artists who have released incredibly diverse electronic music through TK over the past decade – and here’s looking forward to the next ten years.

“Even for the purposes of one of these anniversary type articles it’s impossible for me to chose some key releases from the eighty plus we’ve made over the past ten years. Every single release came about because I loved it for one reason or another and wanted to bring it to the ears of a few more people. Sometimes it was just a handful of people and other times it was quite a fair few – there never seems to be any real rhyme or reason to that. One thing is apparent to me now, that play stats and sales figures are no indicator of the real impact on human listeners out there. So anyway, instead of making an arbitrary selection myself, I asked some regular artists on the label which were their favourites.”

Nicholas Langley, September 3rd, 2023.
Third Kind Records
thirdkind.bandcamp.com

NEAR STOIC:
Fisty Kendal – Mind Control (2015)

“Mind Control is a captivating release from Third Kind’s catalogue. The album is boundary-pushing, emotive, and intelligently crafted. I will never be indifferent to ‘You’d Better Wake Up Girlfriend’s melody and weird straight groove. More than that, Mind Control holds a special place in my heart as it was while listening to it that I decided to send my Notebook demos to the label.”

thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mind-control

FISTY KENDAL:
Pharagonesia – Geocentrics (2021)

“In a personality-defining trip to Canterbury in the early ‘90s I visited my mates in a student house they shared with Nick Langley, now the label boss of Third Kind. One afternoon in the beige-carpeted living room, cushioned in a heady mix of ganja smoke, daytime TV, tea and buttered toast and half-heard conversations about alien abduction, Nick and his friend Dave Dilliway (fellow band member of Pharagonesia) played an impromptu ‘gig’ on a Yamaha SY85, mini-Korg and effects-laden electric guitar. The incredible music, which features on the 2021 release Geocentrics, opened my mind to the idea that music wasn’t just made by people with loads of cash and expensive studio set ups – I could try to make this kind of awesome electronic music in my own bedroom! Particular highlights are ‘Metropolis’, with its rapid distorted bass stabs, and the sublime ‘Geocentrics Theme’, with its perfect bass loops and melodic chimes. During the same visit Nick played me Aphex Twin’s seminal Selected Ambient Works 1985 – 1992 album. I moved to Canterbury soon after and the rest is history.”

thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/geocentrics

NIKMIS:
Rupert Lally – Strange Systems (2020)

“I love this album, but it’s hard to explain why. I love it enough that I named all the tracks of one of my own albums after the track names of this album. I don’t really understand how it was made. It has mystery, which is what I love. It says something in the notes about ‘fractal’ and ‘computer assisted’ but obviously with a human ear for beauty.”

rupertlally.bandcamp.com/album/strange-systems

RUPERT LALLY:
Hattie Cooke – Hattie Cooke (2016)

“I fell in love with this album exactly 17 seconds in, as soon as I heard Hattie sing ‘Seriously…’ over those watery synth chords on the opening track ‘Shut Your Mouth’. Having only become aware of Hattie’s work through The Sleepers I was completely unprepared for the intimate, confessional nature of her songwriting and her fantastic voice which reminded me of Tracey Thorn’s. The stripped-back nature of the production only serves to enhance the feeling of a friend whispering secrets into your ear whilst strumming a guitar or playing a keyboard. Masterpiece, pure and simple.”

hattiecooke.bandcamp.com/album/hattie-cooke-3

HATTIE COOKE:
Ffion – Unfurling (2021)

“I was really drawn to Ffion’s Unfurling because of the artwork. Something about it promised a melancholy and otherworldly experience. And that’s exactly what you get. Arpeggios that rise and fall like waves lapping the shore, this album is a whole seascape of hope and then fear, calm and then intensity, contentedness and then longing. It’s beautiful work.”

thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/unfurling

FFION (THOMAS RAGSDALE):
Andy Fosberry – When Comfort Is Stranger (2020)

“I’d definitely have to pick Andy Fosberry’s When Comfort Is Stranger album because of its incredibly wide palette of sound ranging from tender strings and piano to clicky drum tracks. I’ve loved Andy’s stuff for years, but for me this one opened a bigger door into his world and musical vision. It’s got a great uniform sound to it and clearly comes from the same sessions, but nothing ever outstays its welcome.”

thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/when-comfort-is-stranger

ANDY FOSBERRY:
Sussex Telecom – Creator Warehouse (2022)

“Sussex Telecom is a used future of organic machine music from Skynet’s time displacement portal. Layers of drum machines, late stage first wave analog synthesisers, misbehaving 16-bit samples and often non-linear arrangements weave paths that your ears just have to follow. A beautiful, essential postcard from the present past of textural electronica. Favourite track: ‘Night’.”

thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/creator-warehouse

MUDD CORP:
Sunflower – Plain Sight (2022)

“A perfect record to reminisce about those Sunday afternoons of your childhood. Both playful and nostalgic.”

thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/plain-sight

PORTLAND VOWS (BOB PLANT):
Bary Center – Guide Me Through The Hills Of Your Home (2020)

“I’ll be honest: the first thing that drew me to Bary Center’s 2020 Guide Me Through The Hills Of Your Home was the wonderful cover art, but it was the music that kept me there. These pieces have an almost tangible weight, something dark and warm you can almost hold. ‘Aforementioned Weaknesses’ and ‘Roots Of The System’ are especially evocative for me, especially now that Autumn is approaching. But all of these tracks offer something special.”

barycenter.bandcamp.com/album/guide-me-through-the-hills-of-your-home

BARY CENTER (MARK WILLIAMS):
Nicholas Langley – Final Wave (2019)

“For me, Nicholas Langley’s Final Wave encapsulates the entire Third Kind vibe in one record. Probably because Nick is the founder and curator of Third Kind, haha. Everything from giddy chiptune to dark ambient synth to intricate IDM, all born of artistic independence and sonic exploration. Like the entire Third Kind catalogue, Final Wave is playful, moody, weird, and warrants a lifetime of listening.”

thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/final-wave

GRAHAM DUNNING:
H.L. Collins – Creating Friction (2015)

“Henry Collins’ Creating Friction is one of my favourite objects – I have the lovely big yellow box displayed on my bookshelves, and have had since I acquired a copy. Henry’s work has long been an inspiration and the tapes of the Creating Friction installations especially so. Chaotic scraping, drones and an otherworldly reverberation from various large junk metal sculptures.”

thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/creating-friction

HASSNI MALIK:
Hz – Sci-Fi Rains & Heartaches (2013)

“Without meaning to sound sycophantic, Hz’s Sci-Fi Rains & Heartaches is an all-time favourite. It has that Blade Runner thing about it that’s hard to resist. And the minimal cassette sleeve has a personal feel, like receiving a handwritten letter in the post.”

thirdkindrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sci-fi-rains-heartaches

TRIUM CIRCULORUM:
Erm & Nickname – Erm & Nickname (2017)

“I got in touch with Third Kind Records for the first time a good few years ago. Nick did a giveaway for TK’s 333rd Twitter follower which was me. I received a massive pack of tapes soon after. The sound and physical media aesthetics resonated with me in a very deep way. From then on I bought a tape or two whenever I liked a release. The one I still love most is the Erm & Nickname album, an appealing set of cassette and CD with blissful psy-folk. The entire album has a sort of mushroom mood with songs coming over as detail rich collages. I love this release because it’s completely different from what I create.”

PETER HOGGARTH:
Erm & Nickname – Erm & Nickname (2017)

“Dark psychedelic clouds gather at the fringes of a sepia tinged 70s English summer that never existed. Fave tracks ‘Wash Away’ and ‘If You Listen Very Carefully’. This record crops up on my iPod in shuffle mode quite often. I can’t quite place it, but it sounds familiar and is always a welcome pastoral delight.”

hznicklangley.bandcamp.com/album/erm-nickname

(c) 2023 Further.