Hidden Shoal News
HC-B CMJ Chart Action
HC-B’s stunning album Soundcheck for a Missing Movie has once again had it’s awesomeness quantified. The album is sitting pretty at number 13 on the KBOO (Portland) CMJ Top 30 chart ahead of albums by The Flaming Lips, Wolfmother, Slits and Nirvana. It’s fair to say that the top ten are looking nervous as the Italian wunderkind prepare the offensive!
Listen to and purchase the album here.
HC-B – Hot Afternoon in the Bulls’ Square HC-B – Hot Afternoon in the Bulls’ Square
My Majestic Star Scoops Top Track on RTRFM
My Majestic Star are getting sweet radio love ahead of the November 27th release and launch of their upcoming album I Haven’t Got It In Me. The album and first single have been getting wonderful Australia wide radio rotation including Perth’s shining light RTRFM. If that wasn’t enough sugar, Shannon Fox pinned the blue ribbon on track ‘Take a Walk’ and named it her top track for this week’s Drivetime show.
The first single taken from the album, ‘Crampling‘, is available now for free download.
My Majestic Star – Crampling My Majestic Star – Crampling
Sankt Otten and Elisa Luu reviewed on Textura
Sankt Otten’s Morgan Wieder Lustig and Elisa Luu’s Chromatic Sigh have just been reviewed on the ever-excellent music site Textura, who named Hidden Shoal as one of their favourite music labels in 2007. Visit Textura to read the reviews, and pop along to the Hidden Shoal Store to stream both albums in full and purchase in CD and mp3 format.
New reviews at Luna Kafe
Glowing reviews of new releases by Elisa Luu, My Majestic Star and Sankt Otten have been published in the last two editions (October and November) of monthly Norwegian e-zine Luna Kafe. (The eagle-eyed will also note that there’s an entry for Wes Willenbring’s stunning single ‘Oh, Most’ in the October edition too, but no review!) All of these wonderful releases are available for streaming and purchase from the Hidden Shoal Store.
City of Satellites Debut Album Pre-Released
Hidden Shoal Recordings have announced the digital pre-release of the debut album by Australian dream-pop duo City of Satellites.
On Machine Is My Animal, City of Satellites deliver on the exceptional promise of their debut EP The Spook – and then some. This pristine album synthesizes ’80s pop aesthetics with ’00s production values to create a truly monumental sound. From the Eastern-influenced synth lines of superb opener ‘BMX’ to the crystalline drift of closer ‘Sky Rider’, Machine Is My Animal carries the listener through a glistening science fiction future, as viewed from a wistful child’s window.
On single ‘Stranger Than Fiction’, swirling synth sounds, Thomas Diakomichalis’ propulsive drumming and Jarrod Manuel’s pure vocal tones glide beautifully. Its aching melodies to the fore, the song taking heartrending turns before dissolving into the ether. ‘Skeletons’ glides and weaves like a hovercar over the course of seven levitating minutes, before the epic title track stomps across a dystopian future like a Transformer with a conscience, its robot heart bleeding as its surveys the devastation it has wrought. This balance between cold synthesized tones and a warm emotional heart creates a delicious balance throughout.
“equipped with hulking ice tipped chorus’ of synth chime serenades that cast out a colourfully vibrant swirling haze that’s both as demurring as it is intoxicating all the time regaling within a disarming shy eyed aspect brought to the fore by Jarrod’s softly caressing feminine like vocals and arrested by the uplifting backdrops of starry eyed dream weaves – one we suspect for admirers of OMD’s ’Souvenir’” – Losing Today on single ‘Stranger Than Fiction’
“You know when you catch a faint smell of something that totally spins you out and reminds you of something you haven’t though about since you were six, completely changing your day? City Of Satellites have synthesised this feeling into music… traces of shoegaze heroes M83 and My Bloody Valentine, with faint, androgynous vocals drifting in and out of clarity over a dreamy soundscape… an emotionally exhausting and incredibly satisfying little trip” – Drum Media EP of the Week (The Spook)
Machine Is My Animal is now available in all digital formats, including lossless, from the Hidden Shoal Store and all good third-party digital music stores (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, LaLa, Bandcamp etc). Fans will now to have to wait it out a little longer for the official CD release which has now been put back to January 21st, 2010.
Read a full press release here and stream the album in full as well as check all digital availability here.
City of Satellites – BMX City of Satellites – BMX
Stray Ghost's "Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise" Released
Hidden Shoal Recordings today announced the release of Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise, the new EP by English ambient drone architect Stray Ghost.
On his latest EP, Anthony Saggers works his magic in reverse. Rather than begin at the bottom, exploring the depths of melancholy, Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise is dominated by waves of rich, major-key chords, which seem to be simultaneously advancing and receding, suspending the listener. It is perhaps one of the most light-filled and hopeful of the Stray Ghost releases thus far. However, Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise is still frayed at the edges and cut through with vulnerability. Although reinforced by glowing, enveloping drones, there’s ever the sense that everything is about to fall apart – albeit beautifully.
Ten-minute opener ‘La Belle Semaine’ blossoms into life with wavering Mellotrons and blankets of rich synths. Halfway through, the music begins to disappear, before shimmering back into life with a tremolo pulse. Shorter centrepiece ‘Au Revoir à la Belle Semaine’ reprises the wavering Mellotron, but fractured by metallic tones and distant ringing. Finally, ‘Réminiscences Et Rêves De Beauté’ takes all the elements of the preceding tracks, aerates them, then sends the tape loop disintegrating into nothingness across another ten spellbinding minutes.
“Of all the daring new punks giving old ambient stalwarts a run for their money, Saggers is at the top of the heap, a prime example of the refreshing and beautiful ambient renaissance of the past few years” – Jack Britton, The Silent Ballet
Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise is the first in a special new series of digital-only releases by Hidden Shoal Recordings. The EP is available now in all digital formats, including lossless. For all availability information, visit the Hidden Shoal Store. The release of Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise is a precursor to the epic full-length reply to Stray Ghost’s 2008 masterpiece Losthilde, to be released by Hidden Shoal on January 27th, 2010.
Read a full press release here.
Stray Ghost – Au Revoir à la Belle Semaine Stray Ghost – Au Revoir à la Belle Semaine
Sleeping Me Review at Foxy Digitalis
Be sure to head over to Foxy Digitalis to read a glowing review of Sleeping Me’s stunning debut album Cradlesongs and then head straight to the HSR Store and grab yourself a copy. Easy!
City of Satellites at Losing Today
We almost missed this one even though we’re a big fan of the Losing Today zine. Head over to Losing Today to read a lovely review of the incredibly addictive new City of Satellites single ‘Stranger Than Fiction’. Then when you’re done head to the HSR Store where you can download the single for free ahead of the debut City of Satellite album set for digital release next week.
Can you feel the love in the air?
Hidden Shoal Recordings Release "A Million Square Miles" Compilation Album
Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce the US and digital release of compilation album A Million Square Miles: A sample of Western Australian music.
After more than three years of sharing excellent independent music far and wide, A Million Square Miles represents a key facet of the Hidden Shoal Recordings story, and is a beacon for the future of Western Australian music. Bringing together a pair of stunning tracks from each of eight WA-based artists on the Hidden Shoal roster, this sampler album is an essential listen whichever way you slice it.
There’s the serpentine indie-rock of Mukaizake and the crystalline instrumental pop of Apricot Rail; the raw intensity of Fall Electric and the shimmering dreampop of Glassacre; the hook-laden squall of Toby Richardson and the lush and subtle songcraft of My Majestic Star; the skewed melodicism of The Slow Beings and the wistful alt-country complexities of Tangled Star. A Million Square Miles isn’t just great Western Australian music – it’s great music, period. The album also includes the first tastes of upcoming releases by Mukaizake, My Majestic Star and Toby Richardson.
“Hidden Shoal Recordings is on a mission. The Australian label is busy enhancing minds, widening musical consciousness, opening ears, and taking us beyond the sometimes all too comfortably familiar” – Blogcritics
“Finding Hidden Shoal Recordings could rightly claim to be in the top 10 best things that ever happened to me, such is the quality and diversity of their roster” – Boring Machine Disturbs Sleep
A Million Square Miles is now available digitally through the Hidden Shoal Store and all good third-party digital music stores (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, LaLa etc). The album is also available on CD in the US through n5Mailorder (retail and distribution). The album will see it’s Australian release on December 15th, 2009.
Hidden Shoal has also made the album available as a free, embeddable streaming radio widget and Facebook Application. For more info check out the album’s project page.
Read a full press release here.
Mukaizake – My Friend Flicker Mukaizake – My Friend Flicker
Apricot Rail remix reviewed on Losing Today
The Tin Man Spilt Milk remix of Apricot Rail‘s “Pouring Milk Out The Window” has been reviewed on LosingToday.com. Read the glowing review here, or check the artists’ Reviews Section for an excerpt. You can buy this beautiful single from the Hidden Shoal Store.
Apriot Rail – Pouring Milk Out The Window (Tin Man Spilt Milk Remix) Apricot Rail – Pouring Milk Out The Window (Tin Man Spilt Milk Remix)
Hidden Shoal MixTape
