Futility Rites by Fell

Over the past eight months, we’ve been quietly drip-feeding new tracks from Fell — the musical project of Nicolas Burrows — via PostMap Club. There wasn’t a big release plan to begin with; Nic was simply in a creative flow, and keen to get music out into the world. PostMap became the perfect channel for all that.

Towards the end of last year, I was approached by my friend Matt Brennan — musician with Zoey Van Goey, and Professor of Popular Music at the University of Glasgow. Matt’s research focuses on the environmental impact of the music industry — not just live performance, but also the carbon footprint of physical and digital formats. One of his studies showed that streaming an album can sometimes be less eco-friendly than buying a CD. More recently, he’s been looking at vinyl — especially the demand for it among superfans, and the environmental toll of producing it from PVC, a notoriously harmful plastic.

As part of this, Matt surveyed over 1,000 Taylor Swift fans — “Swifties” — about their buying habits. A surprising number said they’d still buy a vinyl sleeve, complete with artwork and download code, even if it didn’t include an actual record inside. That gave Matt an idea: would Lost Map be up for releasing an album exclusively in that format? Fell immediately sprang to mind. Nic’s not just a brilliant songwriter, but a phenomenal visual artist too, and I knew he’d create something beautiful and thoughtful.

The result is Futility Rites — a new Fell album, built from those recent singles and a batch of brand new material, housed in a vinyl-style sleeve packed with eco-conscious art: riso prints, recyclable stickers, postcards, and a full art book. No vinyl. No plastic. Just music and visuals that speak for themselves. It’s out on Friday 4th July.

Sonically, it’s a gorgeous evolution of Fell’s 2022 album Mallow’s Marsh — still kaleidoscopic and dreamlike, but with a grittier, more lo-fi texture. Distorted drum machines and lo-fi synths fizz under the surface, especially on the hypnotic new single ‘M.O.S.S.’ — a drifting daydream of a track that meditates on nature, artifice, and our place in between.

DIY label, run by Pictish Trail, from his caravan on the Isle of Eigg, Scotland.