Hidden Shoal News
New Todd Tobias Single – Free Download & Stream
Good times people! Ahead of the release of Todd Tobias‘s latest slice of experimental rock wonder Impossible Cities we have the first single for your delectation. ‘Kur’ is at once playful, brooding and psychedelic – everything we’ve come to expect from Tobias’s solo work and more. Grab it now via Bandcamp or stream it at SoundCloud.
Impossible Cities is the latest visionary chapter in Todd Tobias’s ongoing exploration of rock’s darkest and most hypnotic realms. Inspired by the Ital Calvino book Invisible Cities, each track is named after an imaginary city, from the glistening exoticism of ‘Lamura’ via the seething murk of ‘Gorgum Reeth’ and ‘Smazbaal’ to the eerie, shimmering grandeur of ‘Akrova’, Tobias’s latest musical universe is vividly rendered, scary, beautiful and utterly immersive. The album comes with the companion mini-album Impossible Cities 2, which comprises 10 haunting vignettes.
Impossible Cities drops on the 28th of October and will see worldwide digital and CD release in USA and Canada through Hidden Shoal and Todd Tobias. Tiny Room Records will release the CD in Europe and all other territories.
Involved’s “Revolving Maze” Out Now!
We’re super excited to announce the release of Revolving Maze, the debut album by electronic duo Involved. We’ve been spinning this album non-stop since we first got sent the demos so it’s wonderful to finally be able to share it. The album also joins the Hidden Shoal licensing catalogue, available for film, tv, web and games productions.
The album fuses the psychedelic sounds of ’70s kosmische with ’80s electronic and more modern ambient styles, creating evocative, cinematic music. However, rather than being revisionist, Involved curate fresh sounds from a musical palette that spans 40 years. Lush synth tones are deployed with an innate sense of melody, leading the listener through widescreen narratives of enviable scope. With Revolving Maze, the title says it all: this is complex, engrossing music that transforms with each spin.
“Through solid musicianship, on both the parts of Dorsey and Enoignor, Involved has breached new ground. Their skilled playing and production paired with an immensely imaginative vision translated into fifty minutes of music that seems designed to find that beautiful put into each of us.” – Lady Obscure
Head to Involved’s Bandcamp to scoop yourself a copy of this stunning album right now. The album will also be available via iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and the other usual outlets in a few weeks.
Kryshe and DrAlienSmith Reviews
Two equally lovely reviews have just flown in for Kryshe and DrAlienSmith. Kryshe‘s track ‘Africa’ from his forthcoming EP In Between (25th Sept) has scooped an amazing write up at The Sunday Experience and DrAlienSmith‘s EP Under Songs kicked a written and numerical goal with a 4.5/5 review at The Music. Here’s a taste,
“This heavy, atmospheric piece of instrumental work takes the best elements from doom, shoegaze, sludge and post-rock and morphs it all together with thick guitar riffs, distorted bass and haunting synths. Opener, Underslung builds towards a plateau of triumphant sounds in classic post-rock fashion, while closer, Endo Turn is thick with imagery – the incessant drone and synth making for an incredibly eerie vibe. There’s a real density in the ambience of these four tracks, similar in some ways to the likes of Tim Hecker’s Ravedeath, 1972, and as such, certainly deserves to be heard.” – The Music
“Is this not something else. New via the ever adored Hidden Shoal imprint – purveyors of sublime sonics – this is taken from a new EP entitled ‘in between’ by Kryshe… ‘Africa’ is as near to heavenly perfection you’re going to get this missive out. Pressed with the poise and steeled with the atmospheric tenderness of Antonymes and softly coaxed by the delicately yearn of Vini Reilly this gem provides one of those rare occasional moments which once veered into earshot has jaws dropped agape and clocks literally frozen still.” – The Sunday Experience
For more streams, downloads and more info check out Kryshe’s profile here and DrAlienSmith’s here.
Brother Earth “Positive Haywires” Out Now!
Hidden Shoal is proud to announce the release of Positive Haywires by American duo Brother Earth. To coincide with the release we also have another treat for you in the form of a new music video for the fantastic album track ‘Planet Wednesday‘. Positive Haywires is also now part of the Hidden Shoal licensing catalogue and is available for all film, tv, web and games projects.
Brother Earth brings together the formidable talents of multi-instrumentalist Todd Tobias (Circus Devils) and vocalist Steve Five (The Library is on Fire). On this their debut album for Hidden Shoal Brother Earth’s shadowy, kaleidoscopic music vacillates between brooding textural pieces and exuberant rock-and-roll at the drop of a hat, chasing the ghosts of pop music past into a hall of cracked mirrors. The album’s wonderfully elastic aesthetics shift from dark and broken to sunny and playful in a matter of songs, while maintaining their own warped and beautiful logic. The album features the previously released singles ‘Out Like a Lion‘ and ‘City of Gold‘.
“It’s surprising and experimental, and quite beautiful.” – Backseat Mafia on ‘Out Like a Lion’
The album is available now on CD, limited edition cassette and digital formats via Brother Earth’s Bandcamp page.
Kramies Interview Launches New Features Section
Two good bits of news in one. Firstly we finally get to launch our new Features section on the site. We’ll be presenting interviews with Hidden Shoal artists and other folk we call our friends, waxing lyrical about our favourite tracks, throwing artist and label curated mixtapes at you and a host of other things we haven’t even dreamed up yet. We’ll be posting new material regularly so be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed or check back regularly.
Now for some icing on this cake – our first feature slot goes to an interview with the inimitable Kramies where he talks about Neil Diamond, Ghost Hunters and Jason Lytle (amongst other things). Head to the Features section and check it out now.
Markus Mehr ‘Gymnasium/Swarms’ – New Video from Forthcoming Album
Ahead of the release of Markus Mehr‘s incredible new album Binary Rooms on 15th October, we have something very special to share with you. Experimental filmmaker and Markus Mehr collaborator Stefanie Sixt has created a stunning new video work for the album track ‘Gymnasium/Swarms’. View the full video at Vimeo, stream the track at SoundCloudand download it at Bandcamp.
Binary Rooms is Mehr’s fifth studio album and his most challenging and engaging to date. Mehr’s music has always possessed a keen sense of and negotiation with scale, and on Binary Rooms he challenges notions of personal space, juxtaposing the human against the industrial, the gentle and intimate against the jolting and harsh. Mehr acts as a fragment hunter, meshing machine-like tones with the discarded elements of humanity; narrative with anti-narrative. On Binary Rooms he manages to create a spatial remix – a striking re-design of aural reality filled with a living, digital biology.
“Off is unquestionably the most satisfying part of the trilogy… opens in a manner characteristic of the genre but subsequently distinguishes itself as something far more than a standard ambient work… a wholly immersive experience that you will likely want to re-experience many times over” – Textura
“In this blissful wanderlust Mehr succeeds in spades creating a completely engrossing, engaging and all together reliable album full of the most powerful ambient-drone tracks this year” – Tome to the Weather Machine
Check out Markus Mehr’s discography and read more about the artist here.
First Taste of Forthcoming Todd Tobias Album
In advance of the release of Todd Tobias‘s new album Impossible Cities, the eagerly awaited follow-up to Medicine Show, we’re excited to present a video for the track ‘Saz’. With its fire-scorched visuals, the new video evokes the fuzzy, tribal lurch of the track itself, carving a voodoo groove that’s deeply satisfying.
Impossible Cities drops on the 28th of October and will include the bonus EP Impossible Cities 2. The album is being released on CD in Europe by the wonderful Tiny Room Records and by Todd Tobias & Hidden Shoal everywhere else. Keep your ears out for the first official single which lands on the 22nd of September.
Chloë March Signs to Hidden Shoal
We are incredibly excited to announce the signing of Chloë March to the Hidden Shoal roster. We’ve been fans of Chloë’s engaging, intelligent songwriting and sublime voice for a long time. Her wonderful collaborations with Hidden Shoal’s Jumpel sowed the seeds for a closer relationship that has now come to fruition. Oft compared to singular artists such as Nina Simone, Beth Gibbons and Elizabeth Fraser, March follows her own independent path, writing, engineering and producing from her home studio in south-east England. Inhabiting musical territory somewhere between art song and folk, dream-pop and electronica, the ambient and the cinematic, March embraces all these influences to create poetic, emotionally charged and intensely atmospheric songs and soundworlds.
“a luminous voice, a smoky alto that unfurls like a plume of cigarette smoke, its velvety tone a sensual narcotic… it’s hard not to think of the mythological sirens who used their hypnotic voices to lure sailors ashore” – textura
Not only does her stunning discography join our publishing catalogue, but Hidden Shoal will also re-release March’s latest album Nights Bright Days, along with a companion EP of previously unreleased tracks, on 4th November. Listen to and read more about Chloe March here.
Chloë March – ‘Soft Rain’ (from the 2008 album Divining)
Hidden Shoal Signs Antonymes Back Catalogue
We are extremely excited to announce the signing of Antonymes‘ back catalogue to the Hidden Shoal Publishing catalogue. Antonymes’ full range of stunning works will now be available for licensing through Hidden Shoal.
Antonymes is designer, photographer and musician Ian M. Hazeldine, based in the wilds of North Wales. The music of Antonymes emerges from the adjustments and erasures of neo-classical, ambient and minimalism, and is by its very nature cinematic, engaging, and deeply emotive. His work has been released on such labels as Hibernate, Time Released Sound, Cathedral Transmissions, Soundcolours and, of course, Hidden Shoal, and has recently featured on the Floyd Mayweather documentary 30 Days In May (Showtime), as well as numerous BBC productions.
Stream and purchase Antonymes’ releases and read more about the artist here.
Stunning New French Review for Kramies “The Wooden Heart”
Nearly a year on from its original release the magic of Kramies The Wooden Heart EP is still resonating with fans and press alike. The stunning 6 track release which features collaborations with Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy) has received glowing reviews since it release and it seems the tide has not stopped. The latest review and track by track exposition at the lovely French blog Pop Culture & Co. is a wonderful example of just how much of an impact this music has had on its fans. The original review is in French which you can read here and we have a full English translation here. Here is a little taster to get you going,
“… “The Wooden Heart” is one of those discs that deserve a real, physical and mental presence, attention, heart, a meeting with his whole being. This is not the soundtrack of banal routine activities or the soundtrack of a single emotion: it is a return to self. These six songs are magical, they have the real power to slow time that has continued to accelerate for decades. Against the backdrop of pop / folk and dreamy airy, air and padded, songs written and arranged beautifully with which Kramies invites us to let go, to regain the carefree spirit of childhood, the imperturbable romance of our youth. He urges us not to close the door of our dreams. A disc to listen, to feel, which is assessed as a strong deep meditation and intimate and dreamlike. A gift, a gift.” – Pop Culture and Co.
Head to Kramies artist profile to check out The Wooden Heart along with his two other wonderful EP’s The Folkolore Sessions and The European.
Hidden Shoal MixTape
