Hidden Shoal News
Stunning New Single from Kramies’ Forthcoming EP – Free Download
Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce the release of ‘The Wooden Heart’, the title track from the expansive new EP by dream-pop singer-songwriter Kramies (out 17th Oct. 2013). Grab the track for free here or stream the track below.
Produced by Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils), ‘The Wooden Heart’ is a kaleidoscopic introduction to Kramies’ beautiful new release. The song’s windswept grandeur is married to an emotional directness that demands your attention and doesn’t let go. Akin to The Moody Blues’ classic ‘Nights In White Satin’, ‘The Wooden Heart’ renders an immersive, widescreen pop vista that takes your breath away.
In addition to Todd Tobias’s production (on ‘The Beginning’, ‘The Wooden Heart’, ‘Upon The Northern Isles’ and ‘The Ending’), The Wooden Heart EP also features the production and instrumental talents of Jason Lytle of Grandaddy fame (on ‘Sea Otter Cottage’ and ‘Clocks Were All Broken’). Rounded out by the beautiful artwork of French photographer Jérôme Sevrette, The Wooden Heart EP is a lovingly constructed work of art.
Read a full press release here.
Stunning Review for Jumpel's "Bloc4" in Igloo Magazine
Jumpel’s sublime new album Bloc4 has just scooped a glowing review in the excellent Igloo Magazine. Here’s a taste,
“The aesthetic conjunction linking fragility, abstraction and poetical expression is perfectly programmed and transport the listener into melodious-chantlike world of sounds. The expressive and acoustic qualities of Chole March’s very own experiments and personal poetry resonates intimately with Joe Dürbeck’s immersive and powerful electronic fragments to a create a very sensuous experience.” – Igloo Magazine
Read the whole review here and stream and purchase the album (CD + MP3 + FLAC) here.
Jumpel – ‘Blue Ceiling’
[The] Caseworker 'Dependence Day' Single (Download & Stream)
![[The] Caseworker - Dependence Day](http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/store_images/large/DependenceDay_LRG.jpg)
‘Dependence Day’ is the new, freely downloadable single from garage-dreampop trio [The] Caseworker. The track is lifted from their forthcoming album Voices Out There, out through Hidden Shoal Recordings on 24 October 2013.
‘Dependence Day’ marries [The] Caseworker’s trademark restraint with a strident, slowburning melodic sensibility. A vague memoir to vocalist Conor Devlin’s time spent living in San Francisco, raising a toast to the city while also happily turning his back on it, the track’s atmosphere is ominous yet accessible, with its three-dimensional guitar melodies and crisp drums underpinned by sinuous bass and Devlin’s reassuring purr.
“[The] Caseworker extract darkness from inside whispery, ambient pop… completely enraptured and awesomely dazed” – Rolling Stone
The track is lifted from the band’s fourth album, and their second for Hidden Shoal, Voices Out There which sees [The] Caseworker rein in the lo-fi guitar-pop impulses of acclaimed third album Letters From The Coast to explore a more expansive, minimal sound, akin to Conor and Eimer Devlin’s previous band Half Film. The band maintain their enigmatic intimacy and atmosphere, while hinting at haunting vistas just beyond the horizons of these succinct, sad songs.
Three Hidden Shoal Releases Get Top CMJ Adds at KBRP
Tangled Star’s Let’s Adjourn To The Garden, Jumpel’s Bloc4 and the Todd Tobias, Robert Pollard and Circus Devils soundtrack album I Razor have all been top 5 CMJ adds at Arizona’s wonderful independent radio station KBRP! I Razor was recently the top CMJ add to rotation and is now charting in the top 30 and Let’s Adjourn To The Garden was last week’s top CMJ add to rotation.
"I Razor" (feat. Robert Pollard, Todd Tobias, Circus Devils) Charting at CJSW
The epic I Razor soundtrack album featuring Robert Pollard, Todd Tobias and Circus Devils is charting in the CJSW Experimental Top 10! If you haven’t yet lost yourself in the surreal, dark mystery of this amazing album and film then head over to the Hidden Shoal Store and get educated in it’s ways.
Jason Lytle and Kramies Talk About “The Wooden Heart” EP
Jason Lytle and Kramies give us a sneak peek into their working process for the new Kramies EP. The forthcoming EP, The Wooden Heart, by dream pop craftsman Kramies features a collaboration with and co-production from the wonderful Jason Lytle (Grandaddy) along with the magic touch of Todd Tobias (Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard), also taking on co-production duties.
The Wooden Heart sees the light of day on the 17th October with the first single dropping September 5th. In the meanwhile, be sure to check out Kramies fantastic 2011 EP The European.
"I Razor" Top 10 Charting at Asheville FM, Number 1 on Experimental Chart!
Great news for the brilliant soundtrack to I Razor, featuring work by Robert Pollard, Todd Tobias and Circus Devils. The album is currently sitting at number 10 in the Asheville FM Top 30 and number 1 in their Experimental chart!
Tangled Star Feature at Mess and Noise
Head over to Mess and Noise and check out a fantastic track by track expose of Tangled Star‘s latest album Let’s Adjourn To The Garden. Those of you who are familiar with Craig Hallsworth’s work with band’s like Tangled Star, The Slow Beings, Outstation and The Healers will know that his lyrical excursions are both playful and intelligent. His musings on these tracks further verify his place as a thinking mans rocksmith. He makes music that is not only melodically exciting but through his twisting wordplay, also cerebrally so!
If you’ve not yet managed to get your ears around Let’s Adjourn To The Garden you can stream each track within the Mess and Noise feature and then head to the Hidden Shoal Store to buy yourself a copy.
Glowing Review for Jumpel's "Bloc4" at Textura
Following on from the attention received from Textura for Liam Singer’s Arc Iris, another Hidden Shoal artist is also making waves at the site. Jumpel’s stunning release Bloc 4 has just received a glowing review and was chosen as one of their releases of the month,
“On this album, Jumpel’s secret weapon is—aside from his own artful scene painting—vocalist Chloë March (with whom Dürbeck collaborated on “Edinburgh” from the Europa single), whose humanizing presence elevates every song on which she appears. Her sensual vocalizing acts as a dramatic counterpoint to Dürbeck’s instrumental designs, which by comparison epitomize cool control…Sans vocals, Jumpel’s music plays like some distinctive merger of ambient, post-rock, and krautrock, with piano, guitar, bass, percussion, and electronics woven with great care and circumspection into polished miniatures. Melody abounds but it’s deployed subtly and acts more as part of the overall fabric than as a focal point. Stated more generally, Dürbeck emphasizes intimacy and understatement in the album’s fifteen meticulous constructions. On a commercial level, such an approach likely lessens his chances of making a huge splash, but artistically it pays off handsomely.” – Textura
Check out Bloc4 and grab the first two singles from the album for free at the Hidden Shoal Store.
Markus Mehr "Live in Bari" – Free Download & Stream!
Hidden Shoal Recordings is excited to announce the release of the new freely downloadable album Live in Bari by German experimental ambient artist Markus Mehr. Live in Bari is a triumphant rendition of Mehr’s critically acclaimed album Off, performed live with video artist Stefanie Sixt. The 45-minute piece immerses the listener in a dizzyingly beautiful yet often punishing soundworld that’s ever-shifting. Certain passages allude to other sequences and samples from Mehr’s preceding albums, linking them into a kaleidoscopic mobius strip.
“They’re ‘big’ compositions, the sheer scale of the sonic work is rather awe inspiring, but they never sound antagonistic or uncomfortable… it sounds like the ebb and flow of space itself – individual snippets of a grand, repeating, organic process that keeps the universe in balance…” – No Ripcord
Live in Bari was recorded at Timezones festival in Bari, Italy in November 2012. The four-day festival involved collaboration between Markus Mehr, Alessandra Celletti, Andrea Mangia, Massimo Carrieri, Salah addin Roberto Re David, James Brooks and Charles Hayward in the rehearsal and performance of John Cage’s ‘Musicircus’. Off was performed live at the Doppelgaenger Gallery to a rapturous reception.
You can download the album for free in MP3 and FLAC formats from the Hidden Shoal Store and Bandcamp and also stream the album in full over at SoundCloud.
Hidden Shoal MixTape
