Hidden Shoal News
Jumpel's "Bloc4" Featured on 2ser
Jumpel’s gorgeous new album Bloc4 is currently being featured over at wonderful Sydney radio station 2ser. Here’s their write up on the album,
“Jumpel is a Berlin-based producer with his heart firmly placed in the electronic scene that emerged in the 90s and got quickly coined as IDM – Intelligent Dance Music. The sound’s making a comeback of sorts and the man is freshly poised with a new album of beautiful and delicate creations, ticking over on whirring and purring beats set against coolly drifting guitars and absorbing textural atmospheres. The new twist this time around is British vocalist and pianist Chloe March, making a human touch within sound oh-so alien.” – 2ser
Grab yourself a copy of the album in limited edition CD format and digital (FLAC + MP3) over at the Hidden Shoal Store. You can also grab the first two singles from the album for free download while you’re there. Nice or what!
Tangled Star's "Let's Adjourn To The Garden" Out Now!
We’re extremely excited to announce the release of Tangled Star’s fantastic new album Let’s Adjourn To The Garden. The album is available in limited edition CD and digital formats (FLAC + MP3) with all CD orders through Hidden Shoal coming with an immediate download of the album (FLAC or MP3). You can stream and purchase the album now at the Hidden Shoal Store and also download the brilliant first single ‘Head In The Sand’.
“They make me think of some of Flying Nun’s kiwi poppers, and briefly a fuzzed and rockier The Go-Betweens. This is indie pop at its best. Sugar-coated, yet a bit raw. Rich-sounding and many-flavoured. A true pop gem.” – Luna Kafe on ‘Head In The Sand’ Single
“blessed with an acute ability to have you all at once marvelling aglow in subdued awe at the spectacle of their delicately calibrated caress like airy drift pop while simultaneously drawing you low amid the affecting undertow of bruised hurt… that self same cosy toed bitter sweet melancholia of wallowing crestfallen country tweaked tides that at one time a few years ago appeared to be the sole trademark sound of both Pavement and Garlic. Tasty stuff.” – Losing Today on That Time EP
Let’s Adjourn To The Garden sees Craig Hallsworth’s Tangled Star project shift gears while continuing to distill the inimitable songcraft Hallsworth is so well known for. Tracks such as ‘Head In The Sand’ and ‘Hasn’t Made For Freedom’ streamline Tangled Star’s brilliant hooks and melodic turns into immediately addictive and electric slices of slow burn power-pop. ‘Attic Space Conversion’ exemplifies Tangled Star’s compositional and stylistic shifts even more, stitching rousing ramshackle rock with almost Doors’esque cosmic guitar pop. And there amidst the fuzz and driving drums lay some quiet gems in the beautifully stripped back, drumless guitar pop of ‘99% Ok’ and ‘Someone’s Walking’. Just when you think you have the album pegged, the final track ‘Theme’ takes a left turn employing sweeping synths and electronic percussion in some sort of beatific yet melancholic final postcard to the world.
RTRFM Feature Album for Tangled Star's "Let's Adjourn To The Garden"
Coinciding with this week’s release of Tangled Star’s brilliant new album Let’s Adjourn To The Garden, awesome Perth radio station RTRFM have made it this week’s Local Feature Album. Let’s Adjourn To The Garden will be played across RTRFM shows each day this week and the station will also be giving away a copy of the limited edition CD every day for a bunch of lucky listeners. Craig Hallsworth from Tangled Star will also be interviewed on Thursday’s Out To Lunch show by the wonderful Dave Cutbush.
Let’s Adjourn To The Garden will be officially released on the 18th June in digital and limited edition CD formats. Check out the Hidden Shoal Store from the 18th for all details and also to nab the free single from the album ‘Head In The Sand’.
Tangled Star – ‘In Bed With The Averys’
Jumpel's "Bloc4" Out Now (CD & Digital)!
Hidden Shoal Recordings is excited to announce the release of Bloc4, the new album by German minimal ambient-electronica maestro Jumpel. Bloc4 is available now in limited edition CD and digital formats from the Hidden Shoal Store. Singles ‘Blue Ceiling’ and ‘Flight’ are also available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store.
Bloc4 centres around the elevated yet lonely world of a tower block, each track poetically investigating its multi-faceted elements and spaces. The songs were written throughout 2012, with ideas collated, reviewed, developed and remixed. Following the wonderful results of his collaboration with Chloë March on Europa single ‘Edinburgh’, Joe Dürbeck presented the ideas for Bloc4 to March and invited her to select tracks and develop vocal ideas. The March-fronted tracks, including first single ‘Blue Ceiling’ and new single ‘Flight’, are especially stunning – and offer a perfect counterbalance to the more melancholic, spacious instrumental pieces. Bloc4 is the fourth Jumpel album to be released through Hidden Shoal.
“the concept driving this new release is an inspired one that affords a marvelous opportunity for dramatic sound exploration.. plays less like the experience of a first-time sightseer excited by the prospect of seeing the usual tourist sights and more like a long-time visitor who regards the journey as a time for reflection and melancholic rumination.” – Textura on Europa
“Hugely ambient, gentle and suggestive in part, with quiet aspects that lament around each city stop, Europa is a portrait of minimalistic excellence and a passion for discovery, which flourishes with every experimental step across the continent.” – Igloo on Europa
Upcoming Kramies EP Featuring Jason Lytle of Grandaddy
We are very excited to announce the upcoming EP The Wooden Heart by dream pop craftsman Kramies. The Wooden Heart 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. We’ve heard the pre-masters and we can safely say that this EP is going to be an absolute gem. The Wooden Heart sees the light of day on the 17th October with the first single dropping early September. In the meanwhile, be sure to check out Kramies fantastic 2011 EP The European.
Kramies – ‘Coal Miners Executive Club’
Beautiful New Music Video for Jumpel's 'Flight'
Check out this beautiful music video for the new Jumpel track ‘Flight‘, the second single taken from Bloc4, the new album from German minimal ambient-electronica maestro Jumpel. The video was hand crafted by the man himself, Joe Durbeck (aka Jumpel), and can be streamed at Youtube or Vimeo. The track can also be downloaded for free from the Hidden Shoal Store ahead of the release of Bloc4 on 11th June.
In contrast to the dreamy ambient-pop elegance of first single ‘Blue Ceiling’, ‘Flight’ literally takes off from the outset with its head-nodding beats and eerie synth pads. Chloe March’s stunning vocal turn evokes the incandescent yet sinister brilliance of Curve’s Toni Halliday on the Leftfield classic ‘Original’. It’s hard to know whether to dance or hide under the covers; either way, this beautiful track will richochet around your skull from the first spin.
Tangled Star 'Head in the Sand' Single Reviews
Two lovely new reviews for the just released Tangled Star single ‘Head in the Sand’. The excellent Australian music blog Sonic Masala and the lovely folks at the Norwegian blog Luna Kafe recently published reviews of the single. Here’s a taste,
” It’s dusty, dreamlike and rustic, loud in the shadows, hushed and sated in the light. Hallsworth’s vocals provides that rich timbre that those excellent 90s bands all possessed also, leaving us with a song that sounds pleasantly nostalgic and unabashedly modern also. ..” – Sonic Masala
“This one’s a little gem, yet again presenting Craig Hallsworth’s skills creating melodic pop-hooks and mild and affectionate power-pop. This is indie pop at its best. Sugar-coated, yet a bit raw. Rich-sounding and many-flavoured, with a surprising piano outtro. A true pop gem…” – Luna Kafe
‘Head in the Sand’ is available for free download here and comes from the forthcoming Tangled Star album Let’s Adjourn to the Garden (18 June 2013).
New Single 'Flight' from Jumpel (w/ Chloe March) – Free Download!
‘Flight’ by German minimal ambient-electronica maestro Jumpel, is the second single to be taken from his forthcoming fourth album Bloc4 (June 11 2013). In contrast to the dreamy ambient-pop elegance of first single ‘Blue Ceiling’, ‘Flight’ literally takes off from the outset with its head-nodding beats and eerie synth pads. Chloe March’s stunning vocal turn evokes the incandescent yet sinister brilliance of Curve’s Toni Halliday on the Leftfield classic ‘Original’. It’s hard to know whether to dance or hide under the covers; either way, this beautiful track will richochet around your skull from the first spin.
Jumpel’s forthcoming album Bloc4 (June 11 2013) centres around the elevated yet lonely world of a tower block, each track poetically investigating its multi-faceted elements and spaces. The songs were written throughout 2012, with ideas collated, reviewed, developed and remixed. Following the wonderful results of his collaboration with Chloë March on Europa single ‘Edinburgh’, Joe Dürbeck presented the ideas for Bloc4 to March and invited her to select tracks and develop vocal ideas. The results are stunning – and offer a perfect counterbalance to the more melancholic, spacious instrumental pieces.
Download ‘Flight’ for free from the Hidden Shoal Store or stream it on SoundCloud. Bloc4 sees release on the 11th of June 2013.
Hidden Shoal Artists Featuring in "30 Days in May" Showtime Doco
Besides releasing beautiful music, the little elves behind the scenes here at Hidden Shoal are busily working to get label tracks placed in film and tv. Our latest coup sees 9 tracks from the Hidden Shoal catalogue appear on the soundtrack to the US doco 30 Days in May. The film chronicles the days surrounding world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather’s 2012 incarceration with tracks from Hidden Shoal artists Antonymes, Gilded, Slow Dancing Society and Wes Willenbring featuring throughout. The film has been picked up by Showtime in the US and a number of European networks as well.
Check out a clip from 30 Days in May featuring the Wes Willenbring track ‘Lost Illusions’.
"I Razor" Official Release and Digital Availability!
Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce the official release and digital availability of I Razor, the soundtrack to the no-budget experimental feature film of the same name directed by Todd Tobias. The album comprises challenging, playful, twisted, murky and downright beautiful pieces of music by Todd Tobias and Circus Devils, featuring vocals from Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices) as well as instrumental versions of some of the Devil’s existing songs. The album is a cinematic feast within itself, uncompromising, redemptive and always engaging. It weaves lo-fi keyboards through shimmering guitar textures, scatters unsettling rhythms across ethereal synthscapes, and unveils kaleidoscopic new treasures among its 30+ tracks with each listen.
“Wistful, pretty, and melancholy, Pollard lets loose a truly affecting melody with a wonderfully natural delivery. It’s been said over and over again that he makes it look easy — and even after years and years of songwriting, tracks like ‘You First’ indicate that he’s far from reaching a brick wall.” – Pitchfork on Circus Devils Ringworm Interiors
The album is available now in digital formats (Mp3 and FLAC) and on CD through Hidden Shoal. The CD version of the album comes as a limited edition custom package and includes an immediate digital download of the album in FLAC or MP3 format. The I Razor film is also available for order on DVD (including a DVD+CD deal). Head to the Hidden Shoal Store for all the details.
Check out the album and film trailer below to get a taste of the wondrous and challenging sonic and visual feast that is I Razor.
I Razor – Album & Movie Teaser from Hidden Shoal Recordings on Vimeo.
Hidden Shoal MixTape
