June 23, 2016 • No Comments

Plankton Record’s newest artist, singer/songwriter MATT JR HURLEY has announced a special launch gig/event to mark the release of his brand new EP “Raising Questions” on Plankton Records.

The event will take place at 7.30pm on Wednesday June 29th 2016 at All Saints Church, 5 Radcliffe Road, Swanage, BH19 1LZ. Entry is free and Matt, complete with backing band, with perform the new EP in its entirity and many more songs too.

“It’s going to be a great event” shared Matt “and it will mark the end to the long journey in writing the songs and then getting them recorded and released. I just can’t wait for people to hear them and I’m busy sorting out various gigs and appearances on the back of the release – not that I’ve not been busy performing in the meantime!”

The digital version of the EP is released Worldwide tomorrow (Friday 24th) and it’s available on every major music download and streaming site Worldwide, including iTunes and Amazon.

The CD version is released the following Friday (1st July) and is available to PRE-ORDER now from this very website (CLICK HERE).

“We will have copies of the CD available for the first time at the launch event” confirmed Matt. “Please come along on the 29th, enjoy the music and say hello – I’d love to meet you”

For more details about Matt and his music take a look at his artist page (CLICK HERE)

June 15, 2016 • No Comments

The CDR pictured may not look much, but it is the result of a lot of work for Plankton band ECHO.

Bassist and band leader Greg Nash posted it on Facebook along with this comment: “Looks innocuous but this CD is the culmination of an enormous amount of work over the past months with the enormous help of our producer, the amazing Richard Cottle.
This is a CD of 15 pre-production tracks for the next ECHO album. Some of the final keyboard and bass tracks are already recorded on it, now to replace the electronic sounds with proper drums, guitar, bass, strings, brass, percussion etc and then … the girls!
We could not be more excited.”

We are very excited too and are looking forward to releasing the band’s follow up to their fantastic debut album “Bought Not Souled” which is available on all major music download and streaming sites Worldwide, including iTunes and Amazon and on CD from this very website (CLICK HERE) and also from Amazon (UK only) and CrossRhythms. Watch the website for more details as work on the album progresses

You can read more about ECHO (CLICK HERE)

Visit ECHO’s Facebook page (CLICK HERE)

June 8, 2016 • No Comments

As you can see from the photo, THE DARN FUNK ORCHESTRA are jumping for joy about a new extensive article that has been posted by top UK CCM website CrossRhythms.

It’s a great in depth interview with band founder and leader, James “Jimmy” Darn, who is also celebrating the recent birth of his new baby daughter!

To read the full article, (CLICK HERE)

May 16, 2016 • No Comments

Vivienne Neville’s Plankton Records album VEILED IN MYSTERY has been award May 2016 Christian/Folk album of the month by Akademia Music Awards, who are based in Los Angeles, California.

Plankton’s Keith Dixon responded “We are all totally surprised by the news as Vivienne’s album is not a new album. But it is a beautiful album and both Vivienne and the album fully deserve any and all praise and recognition that they get. We are all very very happy and thrilled for Vivienne too”.

To see the album of the month page on Akademia’s website (CLICK HERE)

VEILED IN MYSTERY is available on CD from this very website (CLICK HERE) and on every major digital music download and streaming site Worldwide, including iTunes and Amazon.

As well as reading about Vivienne on this website in the news and artist section, you can also follow her on her artist Facebook page that we run for her (CLICK HERE)

April 29, 2016 • No Comments

The new single by Plankton’s latest artist MATT JR HURLEY is released today and is now available on all major digital music download and streaming sites Worldwide, including iTunes and Amazon.

“Even after being involved in the running of Plankton Records for 25 years I still find it exciting when we release something new and it’s also a bonus when it is by a new artist too!” commented Keith Dixon of Plankton.

Matt’s single has been garnering a good level of interest even prior to release day. Amongst the activity, last weekend Matt was interviewed on London’s Premier Radio and this week top UK CCM website Louder Than The Music posted a news article about the single (to read the full article CLICK HERE).

Here are the direct links to the single on the iTunes and Amazon UK and USA sites.

For iTunes UK (CLICK HERE) USA (CLICK HERE)

For Amazon UK (CLICK HERE) USA (CLICK HERE)

April 28, 2016 • No Comments

THE DARN FUNK ORCHESTRA’s album ‘Soul Food’ has earned another great review, this time from top UK CCM site CrossRhythms

“Points of reference are the obvious influences of funk, soul, jazz and ska, but they owe more to early Dexy’s Midnight Runners than, say, The Fatback Band. This all-white five piece have a full-on brass section attack, balanced by poise, precision and patience. Darn’s vocal delivery clearly evokes London-Essex rather than Chicago or Detroit and reminds me of various acid jazz acts of the early 90’s” notes the reviewer in the middle of his review in which he awarded the album a great 8/10 

A big thank you to reviewer John Cheek and the editorial team at Cross Rhythms. To read the full review CLICK HERE

‘Soul Food’ is available as a digital release on all major music download and streaming sites Worldwide, including iTunes and Amazon and on CD from this very website (CLICK HERE) for UK and Worldwide readers or alternatively from Amazon (CLICK HERE) for UK readers only (where its already received 2 5 star customer reviews!) and also from CrossRhythms Direct, CrossRhythm’s own on-line store (CLICK HERE)

To read more about THE DARN FUNK ORCHESTRA visit their artist page on this site which also includes direct links to iTunes and Amazon UK and USA sites (CLICK HERE)

April 25, 2016 • No Comments

Plankton’s newest artist MATT JR HURLEY was the featured artist on Lorretta Andrews show on London’s Premier Radio on Saturday.

In a great in-depth interview Matt talked about his life, his music, the new single PEBBLES (released on all leading music download and streaming sites Worldwide on Friday April 29) and his up-coming EP, which will also be released via Plankton Records – watch this space for more details soon.

The PEBBLES single is now available to PRE-ORDER on iTunes and Amazon Worldwide, before going live everywhere from Friday

It was a fantastic interview and Matt spoke very well. Check out the full interview, which includes a play of the new single, from 33 minutes on this link (CLICK HERE)

March 31, 2016 • No Comments

We are pleased to announce that our next release will be Worldwide digital single by our latest artist Matt JR Hurley. Matt is a Singer/Songwriter who writes music with the aim of allowing and helping people to address some of the big questions of life and Faith when facing the hard times and challenges on their journey through life. Influenced by his strong Christian faith he hopes that the music he writes will ‘bring hope and blessings’ to all who hear it.

“This single is a taster for an EP/mini-album that we are releasing later in the summer” explained Matt, “I’m actually in the middle of recording at the moment and we are hoping to have it ready and released in time for a week’s residency as Worship leader at a Christian holiday on mainland Europe that I’m involved with”

Plankton’s Keith Dixon added, “I liked Matt’s approach to us and his approach to writing and performing too. He was happy to work with us in a way that suits both him and us. We look forward to hearing the other material Matt is recording now”.

Matt’s debut single PEBBLES looks at the very real topic of losses that we face in life whether of a person, possession or place. It is released Worldwide on Friday APRIL 29 and will be available on all major music download and streaming sites. Here are the links to iTunes and Amazon in both the UK and USA where the single is available to pre-order now:

iTunes UK: Click here

Amazon UK: Click here

iTunes USA: Click here

Amazon USA: Click here

You can find more about Matt on his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/MattJRHurley

and follow him at on twitter:

https://twitter.com/MattJRHurley

February 26, 2016 • No Comments

Top UK CCM website Louder Than The Music have posted a great review of our latest album release ‘Soul Food’ by THE DARN FUNK ORCHESTRA

Awarding the album 4 stars (out of 5), the reviewer summed up the album by saying “It has a real happy, feel good factor, combining brilliant music with well delivered vocals in thoroughly enjoyable songs”. We think that’s about the best way to sum up the band’s sound which is a brilliant mix of soul, funk, jazz, rock and pop!

A big thank you to the Louder Than The Music team for their support. To read the full review CLICK HERE

‘Soul Food is available as a digital release on all major music download and streaming sites Worldwide, including iTunes and Amazon and on CD from this very website (CLICK HERE) for UK and Worldwide readers or alternatively from Amazon (CLICK HERE) for UK readers only (where its already received 2 5 star customer reviews!)

To read more about THE DARN FUNK ORCHESTRA visit their artist page on this site which also includes direct links to iTunes and Amazon UK and USA sites (CLICK HERE)

February 18, 2016 • No Comments

Cliff Bergdahl (here pictured on the left following a recent meeting near the BBC in London with Plankton partner Keith Dixon on a rather dodgy selfie!) is a man that has had a long long association with Plankton Records. Simon Law, the founder and still partner in Plankton played with Cliff in his Really Free Band in the 1970s touring churches, schools and prisons across the UK.

In 1985, long after Simon had left Really Free and set up his own band Sea Stone and then launched Plankton Records, Cliff and the Really Free Band released their first Plankton title – a cassette called ‘Reverence’. Since then, Cliff (as both the leader of Really Free Band and also as a solo artist) has released several titles through Plankton, the last being ‘The Cry of Urgency” in 1996 (CD available from this website’s on-line store and also a digital release on all major music download and streaming sites Worldwide)

Forward 20 years to now and Cliff is back with at least 2 projects to be released with Plankton Records in the next year. “The first release”, stated Cliff,  “is a real family affair as it includes three generations of our family. It’s a four song EP that features myself and Char my wife, our kids – who are all great singers and musicians, and my grand children who provide some great vocals too!”

“The second release is going to be a re-release of a Really Free project. I’ve had it remastered and it sounds great! I’m also working on a third project too at the moment but it’s too early to say how and when that will appear. I need to talk that through further with Keith at Plankton”.

So, 2016 (possibly into early 2017) will see an EP and an album released through Plankton involving different areas, and eras, of Cliff’s long musical journey and career. Watch this website for more details.