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The Smiles And Frowns

The Smiles And Frowns

Cat No: AA2W/050 Label: Akoustik Anarkhy Genre: INDIE / ALTERNATIVE

The Smiles And Frowns

The Smiles And Frowns

Genre: INDIE / ALTERNATIVE

CD

Boomkat Product Review:

Phoenix, Arizona psych-rockers The Smiles And The Frowns are the latest band to grace the roster of Manchester label, Akoustik Anarkhy. Despite the considerable scope of their diligently retro sound, The Smiles And The Frowns are but a duo, and this release arks an eponymous debut that's brimming with references to vintage acid-pop and childlike melodic departures. 'Cornelius' is a stunning early entry, winding through a delightful, '60s-styled tune, the like of which somehow sounds instantly familiar. You can well imagine Syd Barrett being a major inspiration to the band here, particularly given lyrics such as: "Cornelius plays for spiders and fleas/Butterflies and monkeys/And they can't help but dance to his song". The recordings are always intriguing and match the mood of the songs; fashioned in a home studio full of old-fashioned equipment, the likably DIY stylings bring to mind contemporaries like Sam & The Plants as much as this band's 1960s forebears. 'Mechanical Songs' (apparently about "a marionette trying to escape the puppet world") even comes across as vaguely Ariel Pink like in all its washed-out, eccentric glory. At twenty-four minutes and eight songs, this isn't the most extended of long-players, but each track feels like a standalone entity with plenty of care and attention poured into it (for instance, 'March Of The Phantom Faces' stands alone very nicely, resembling a soundtrack to a haunted circus). Recommended.

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This item is to the best of our knowledge available to us from the supplier and should ship to you within the time-frame indicated. If there are any unforeseen issues with availability we will notify you immediately

Boomkat Product Review:

Phoenix, Arizona psych-rockers The Smiles And The Frowns are the latest band to grace the roster of Manchester label, Akoustik Anarkhy. Despite the considerable scope of their diligently retro sound, The Smiles And The Frowns are but a duo, and this release arks an eponymous debut that's brimming with references to vintage acid-pop and childlike melodic departures. 'Cornelius' is a stunning early entry, winding through a delightful, '60s-styled tune, the like of which somehow sounds instantly familiar. You can well imagine Syd Barrett being a major inspiration to the band here, particularly given lyrics such as: "Cornelius plays for spiders and fleas/Butterflies and monkeys/And they can't help but dance to his song". The recordings are always intriguing and match the mood of the songs; fashioned in a home studio full of old-fashioned equipment, the likably DIY stylings bring to mind contemporaries like Sam & The Plants as much as this band's 1960s forebears. 'Mechanical Songs' (apparently about "a marionette trying to escape the puppet world") even comes across as vaguely Ariel Pink like in all its washed-out, eccentric glory. At twenty-four minutes and eight songs, this isn't the most extended of long-players, but each track feels like a standalone entity with plenty of care and attention poured into it (for instance, 'March Of The Phantom Faces' stands alone very nicely, resembling a soundtrack to a haunted circus). Recommended.

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Shipping FAQs

Free Shipping: We offer free postage on orders over £50.00 to the UK sent via Royal Mail.*

*To qualify for free postage the order must be sent as one package. Therefore, all items must be in stock or you should be happy to wait until all items become available to ship so they can be sent as one package. Downloads and Gift Vouchers do not count towards free shipping. Please note that Pre-Orders do not count towards free shipping as their release dates are liable to fluctuate.

Stock Status

If your order contains items that have different estimated shipping dates (for example, ‘available to pre-order’, ‘in stock’, ‘available to ship in 1-3 days’) you will be given an option either to wait for everything to become available to ship in one package, or to ship each item as soon as it becomes available. Stock arrives at the office throughout the day so the stock status of items on the website can change several times a day.

Important Note: all items that are not currently displaying as In Stock need to be ordered in from our suppliers and the estimated shipping dates are only an indication of when we expect those items to come into stock. If there are any unforeseen issues with availability we will notify you immediately.

Premium Packaging

At checkout you are able to select a premium packaging option for a fee of £1.50. We pack all of our orders using appropriate packaging, however when you pick this option we use a wider cruciform offering additional protection if you have a particularly heavy-handed postman.

UK and International Shipping Options

We offer two services:

1. First Class Royal Mail - for UK and for International orders: The package will be delivered by your national postal service.

Royal Mail sets limits on the weight of packages, so if the order becomes too heavy to ship in one package the order will be split into two or more packages. The packages will be marked accordingly, for example, if an order has to be sent over two packages the packages would be labelled ‘1 of 2’ and ‘2 of 2’.

2. Parcelforce tracked courier service:

This comprises a flat box fee for UK (and some European countries), and a sliding scale based on weight for other countries. Parcelforce is a Monday - Friday service. Packages sent via Parcelforce can be tracked here: http://www.parcelforce.com/track-trace

Parcelforce can only ship to PO boxes in certain countries, details can be found once you have made your country selection at checkout.

Once you have added items to your crate you can select your country and choose either to send everything in one package or to ship as soon as the items become available. At this point the total given is a guide to the cost and more shipping configurations are available once you have logged in and proceeded to checkout. At the checkout you will still be able to add or take away items from the crate and change/compare your shipping options.

Pre-orders are treated as separate packages to items that are either in stock or available to order. If pre-orders share the same release date then they can be ordered and shipped together. However pre-order release dates are liable to change, if you have ordered two pre-orders with the same date to ship together and then one release date gets pushed back, we will ship the available pre-order straight away and the second pre-order as soon as it becomes available with no extra shipping charge.

If you choose to ship your order across more than one package you can select the Royal Mail service for one package and Parcelforce courier for the other.

Exceptions:

* if an individual item weighs more than 2kg and you are outside of the UK the package must be sent via courier as Royal Mail sets a 2kg limit on packages.

* Royal Mail covers postage all countries, however Parcelforce is not available in every country.

Missing Packages

If an order does not arrive, we can issue a replacement package. In the UK we consider a package to be missing after 15 working days. Most international orders are considered missing after 25 working days with the exception of France, South America and Africa - packages to these destinations are considered missing after 60 working days. Before we can issue a replacement, customers must have checked with their local depot/sorting office to see if their package is awaiting pick up. If we think there is an issue with the shipping address, or that packages are being stolen in the post, we reserve the right to refuse future orders to these addresses.

Insurance

We automatically add an insurance supplement to orders over £30. Orders between £30 - £49.99 are charged a 60p insurance supplement. Orders over £50 are charged a £3 insurance supplement.

Returned Packages

If a package is returned to us because of an incomplete address, or because it was not collected from a local depot, we will have to charge you again in order to re-send it. We will get in touch with you before any package is re-sent.

Delivery Times

The delivery times below are estimates. A lot depends on the efficiency of your local post service.

Royal Mail:

UK (inc. Northern Ireland): 1 - 2 working days
Western Europe: 3 - 5 working days
Eastern Europe: 5 - 12 working days
Rest of World: 5 - 10 working days

Courier:

UK (inc. Northern Ireland): 1 working day except for highlands of Scotland and parts of Scotland, please get in touch for further information.

Western Europe: 2-3 working days for most countries but takes longer shipping to Finland, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.

Eastern Europe: 3-6 working days for most countries but can take up to 7 days for other countries, please get in touch for further information.

Rest of World: 2-7 working days for most countries, please get in touch for further information

Please note shipping times can vary within a country depending on the area - for further information please get in touch.

Please note that the estimated shipping times above can be affected by circumstances beyond our control such as bad weather, delays at customs, busy times of year etc.

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If you require further information or assistance then please contact us.

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