Ex-Xmas Lights: now there’s a mouthful. Umair Chaudhry, of the late, great Xmas Lights, yesterday launched a new online label which aims at ‘the promotion and discovery of good music regardless of exposure and commerciality’, which can’t be a bad thing.

Blindsight Records, as it is known, will be making all of its releases available either for free or for a minimum donation. They’ve got a neat ‘Name your price’ thing going, whereby one can choose how much one would like to donate in return for some music along with each release’s artwork. The label’s ideals are furthered by the request that support is also shown in the form of attending Blindsight artists’ shows, and to that end they’ve got an event calendar which will point you in the direction of such things.

So far, the label’s output consists of releases from Action And Action, Abandon, Full On Empty, Xmas Lights, A Broken Frame, Absence, Ekca Liena and Monday Morning Sun. More will follow, and interested artists are invited to get in touch should they wish to collaborate with Blindsight.

That website again: Blindsight Records.