From Igor Stravinsky to John Cale, Stan Tracey to Peter Blake, and Edith Sitwell to Dannie Abse, artists, musicians and writers have been inspired by the work of Dylan Thomas to create their own tributes to Swansea's most famous son. The latest artist to join this illustrious group is Swansea indie punk pop legend HELEN LOVE who's penned an affectionate tribute to Dylan, his fellow Swansea poets Vernon Watkins andNigel Jenkins, and to the town of Swansea.

2014 has seen celebrations across Wales and beyond to mark the 100th anniversary of Dylan's birth, and fellow "Kardomah Boy" Vernon Watkins has been honoured with the unveiling of a blue plaque in Swansea. The year has also seen tributes paid to the highly respected poet and writer Nigel Jenkins who sadly died in January 2014. So here's the soundtrack to the Autumn of 2014 when we all went a bit poet mad and partied hard like Richard Burton.

Andrew Dallywww.dylanthomasnews.com

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Here at Elefant Records, we are absolute fans of HELEN LOVE, and it’s no secret. It’s not just because of their addictive, spot-on songs, but because we identify completely with their hedonistic, carefree, youthful philosphy that their lyrics and attitude give off. This new 7” limited-edition, red-vinyl single is new proof of just that. And if there’s any doubt, look at the title track, “Pogo Pogo”, a song composed with Ricardo Autobahn, a British producer specialized in remixes and mash-ups, who plays with the group in live shows. We see ourselves jumping and dancing like crazy in the first row while our beloved girls shout that “The First Punk Boy In Rome… And He Plays Bass Guitar Like Dee Dee Ramone” to the rhythm of crazed techno-pop.   

The rest of the songs are every bit its equal, as you can image. “Make Up, Break Up” is an impetuous song full of humor about the moment of breaking up that has all of the styles that HELEN LOVE usually plays: punk, Bubblegum, disco, indie-pop, and eighties sounds, with those amazing vocoders on the bridge. “Red Light” is one of the best pop-punk songs that we have heard in a long time, full of the anxiety and urgency to see a person you want to be with, that manages to get immediately inside your head and pierce your brain with those speedy guitars and Ramones spirit. Finally, the B-side closes with “Julie’s Got A New 7 Inch Si [ Read more ]

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Pre-orders already available!!! Make your purchase just clicking HERE **Release date on 22nd july of 2013

Limited Numbered Edition of 500 copies in LP format [White Colour Vinyl] / Limited Edition of 1000 copies in CD Digipak format **The vinyl format includes a free digital MP3 download [320 kbps]

That advance single “Atomic” already let us in on the secret: HELEN LOVE’s new album, the sixth in their career and their second on Elefant Records, is new proof of their almost insultingly youthful energy, this time with a special focus on synth-pop. The almost six years we’ve had to wait to be able to enjoy a new full-length have been totally worth it to get to “Day-Glo Dreams”. The album makes their personal, unmistakable style more and more their own, mixing punk attitude (Joey Ramone will always be in their hearts), bubblegum melodies, and disco-dance rhythms.  

And, actually, the album opens with clear intentions – that life philosophy that is reflected in the accelerated techno-pop of “We Are All The Lo-Fi Kids”. But soon the terrain of Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder comes into play: the girls themselves admit that “Together In Electric Dreams” was a huge influence for this album and they show it openly on the album’s title track. The super fun synthesizer lines layered over drum machines in and of themselves pay homage to the ele [ Read more ]

FORMAT: DIGITAL SINGLE  •  REFERENCE: ER-D028  •  RELEASE DATE: 03-07-2013

TRACKLIST: 01. Atomic 02. A Giant Kiss 03. Judy Don't Dance 

Artwork by David Duprez

To talk about HELEN LOVE these days is to talk about inexhaustible energy, about infinite youth, about the most iconoclastic cheekiness we can imagine. After five albums (three compilations and two official albums) and close to twenty singles, we get “Atomic”, the advance single from what is going to be their upcoming album on Elefant Records, “Day-Glo Dreams”. The album will be marked by the move toward eighties-styled synth-pop, accentuating the group’s most techno-pop facet, though without leaving behind that explosive punk spirit that bursts into powerful little pills.

The title-track of this digital single, “Atomic”, is proof of what we were saying before: it has an unforgettable chorus, marked by bubbling synthesizer lines in a story of teenage love that will make fans of THE HUMAN LEAGUE and SILICON TEENS swoon. The remaining two songs on the digital single are both previously unreleased tracks. The first song, “Giant Kiss”, goes in exactly the opposite direction, following along the lines of the girl-groups from the sixties, somewhere between THE SUPREMES and THE SHANGRI-LA’s. It’s irresistible and super catchy, with those “oh oh ohs” that were born to be hummed. It’s a rare bir [ Read more ]

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Song: Los Chicos Hoy Saltarán A La Pista (LA CASA AZUL)

It took many months of work but we can finally announce, with much joy and satisfaction, the release of “L-FUN 45 (Summer of love)”, the first independent musical videogame for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, a fun application that will get all of the label’s fans excited. The videogame is full of the Elefant universe and our groups. It was created and developed by Dolores Entertainment, a young and promising company that develops mobile phone applications and videogames, and that shares Elefant’s spirit of independent work and passion for music. Dolores Entertainment, who recently celebrated their first anniversary as a company, started their voyage with more classic-styled games with a more direct dynamic, like “Vectron” or “Spanish Chiringuito”. Now, they are official providers for TV3 and they are working on some different, very interesting projects that we’ll be hearing about soon, but L-FUN 45 is their most ambitious project so far.

L-FUN 45 is an interactive musical, a game where the music isn’t just an excuse to smash buttons, but instead it tells us a love story. The love story begins with a break-up, and includes friendship and summertime adventures. The game, which we are launching today, is the first part of a four-part series, since there were so many ideas at the beginning of the project, plus all of the [ Read more ]

[Double CD [44 songs] Advance of the upcoming albums: LA CASA AZUL, HELEN LOVE, MODULAR, MILKYWAY… and exclusives tracks for this compilation: THE SCHOOL, FITNESS FOREVER, HELEN LOVE, GIORGO TUMA… ]

**Already available on our online store

Click here to listen to the album on SPOTIFY

Click here to listen to the album on DEEZER

iTunes

Welcome, everyone, to the first journey on the recently inaugurated Elefant Space Airlines! We invite all of you to enjoy some of the most incredible journeys currently available, on board our amazing new space-yacht, “Lula 1”, with everything necessary to make your experience unforgettable: a pool, a disco, a chill-out area, a high-end restaurant… The newest technology allows you to experience the most unbelievable things through the most distant planets in our Solar System, on which you can make friends while enjoying a fresh, robotic coconut (and if you don’t want that, we’ll clone whatever you do want), relax gravity-free in our invisible-light with narcotic effects, enjoy the thousands of digitalized pleasures we have to offer (in this case, audio, but in other journeys you will also be able to enjoy the video format) or enjoy our superstratopheric music – calmly, in the lounge, dancing non-stop on the dance floor, or intensely at a concert. Follow us on any of your devices; we assure you that the coming meetings will be of great interest.

This trip, the first of many that will take you to all [ Read more ]

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!

This video shows some of our best moments in 2010. We hope you like it!

Click HERE to watch the video-clip of Elefant Moments 2010  [ Read more ]

We’re in luck – HELEN LOVE are back! Our favorite Bubblegum-disco-punk group is better than ever and they have a splendid collection of new songs that half the planet is going to go crazy over. “Calm Down Dad” is the first advance single from the flaming new album, “Stick It”, that will soon be released on Elefant Records. While we’re waiting for that moment to arrive, and to ease the long wait, we have this appetizer with three great songs. “Calm Down Dad” is pure energy, catchy indie-punk-pop that talks about the differences between a father and his daughter. She wants to have fun, go out at night, sleep with a boy, dress up like a vampire without being looked at strangely at home, travel the world, try new things and even sing like Kate Nash, but with a more working class accent. Like a mix between Jilted John and THE WAITRESSES, on this limited edition, orange colored vinyl single HELEN LOVE jump from punk to pop to indie, with realist, sarcastic and fun lyrics. The melodies are as sweet as candy, but an orange flavored candy that’s as bittersweet as real life.

The single is finished off with two fast-beat, punk-pop songs. “John Peel Roadshow” talks about how to work up enough courage to give your demo to a radio show host. HELEN LOVE, loved and supported throughout the years by John Peel, recorded a “Peel session” in 1997, which was, for them, one of the high points of the group’s h [ Read more ]

Great news as we won the Rebel Playlist on Steve Lamacq's 6 Music show this week! That means a play from each of the daytime shows this week beginning with Steve's own show tonight!

Thanks so much!

SPEEDMARKET AVENUE: vote [6 Music's Rebel Playlist! BBC RADIO]picture: Vota a Speedmarket Avenue para que entre en la lista oficial de 6 music Playlist! [BBC RADIO / Steve Lamacq]16/01/2009  [ Read more ]

Hi there!‘Calm Down Dad’ is up for Steve Lamacq’s Rebel Playlist on 6 Music this week.

VOTE HERE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/steve_lamacq/Just scroll to the bottom of the page to find the voting. If you could put this up on your myspace and send it out to all of your friends so they can get involved that would really help!

Track 2 Listen Helen Love – Calm Down Dad 

picture: BBC Radio

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In a perfect world, the songs of HELEN LOVE should be widely played on the radio and television and form part of the daily soundtrack of our lives. Like in a dream, strolling through the streets of Shibuya shopping with the background music of our favourite heroines full blast; in cafes, clothing stores, supermarkets… and of course in all of the coolest and most elegant places on Earth. A serious world, like their songs, fresher and even more fun, full of color, youth, love and pop sensations… eternal bliss…Millions of people in the United States are feeling this sensation with the new advertisement for the shoe brand Payless. It’s a critical mass and “Does Your Heart Go Boom” is responsible for all of the commotion. This hyper-vitamin song was the advanced single of their last album, “Love and Glitter, Hot Days and Music,” published by the prestigious label Ché Records en 2000. HELEN LOVE is not absolutely hip for this mega-ad-campaign in the U.S. but because of the recent release of the long awaited album, “It’s My Club and I’ll Play What I Want to” is captivating punk-pop lovers across the globe, people who have anxiously awaited the new release of one of the most exciting and important groups of international indie-pop.

HERE

Helen Love [Payless Publicity]picture: Archivo Elefant

Helen Love [Payless Publicity] picture: Archivo Elefant

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HELEN LOVEIt’s my club and I’ll play what I want toER-1129 CD Digipak / LP

Tracklist: 1. It’s my club 2. Debbie loves Joey 3. Dance on [Solid gold] 4. You better learn karate 5. The 1910 fruitgum company 6 . Transistor radio [Radio] 7. Jet 8. First boyfriend 09. Rodneys English disco 10. Honolulu superstar 11. Garageband 12. Queen of the discobeat 13. Staying in 14. A new squad attacking formation 15. Junkshop discotheque 16. Saturday … nite!!!!!

TEXT BY GUILLE MILKYWAY [LA CASA AZUL] “I will never forget the interstellar high I got when I first bought and played “Punk boy” by HELEN LOVE, their third single, on my record player. The first time the needle made contact with the single, it became my single of preference of all time. Although this was more than 10 years ago, it’s still my favourite. I finally discovered what it was like to not be alone in the world knowing that there were other people out there who understood punk, who “got”  the RAMONES, who appreciated bubblegum the same way that I did and would never want it to cease to exist. Better yet, for the time being, it continues to exist. Twenty singles and four LPs later, each and every HELEN LOVE album gives me another chance to experience this instant euphoria over and over because their albums still tend to be the best albums of the year.   HELEN LOVE, the undergroup group par excellence, a band which has fascinated people all over the [ Read more ]