Hidden Shoal News
Stripped Back My Majestic Star at the Beaufort St Festival, Pert
For those of you in the area, and those who aren’t, get down to the Beaufort Street Festival (Perth, Western Australia for you international types) this Saturday (27th of Nov) and catch Chris Mason and Miriam Braun of My Majestic Star playing some acoustic tunes on the Mary Street stage from 11:30AM. Should be a fantastic day all round with lots happening. Check out all the info at www.beaufortstreetfestival.com.au.
My Majestic Star – City Sleeps My Majestic Star – City Sleeps
New Album by German Ambient Electronica Maestro Jumpel
Hidden Shoal Recordings is excited to announce the release of the third album Europa by German minimal electronica maestro Jumpel. Inspired by Jo Dürbeck’s travels around Europe, Europa transforms Dürbeck’s personal memories of 11 different European locations into a gorgeous suite of minimal ambient electronica. The album acts as a kind of abstracted sonic diary, painting the intangibilities and romanticism of memory and travel using sparse yet resonant sound. A simple idea – and one that has produced Jumpel’s most restrained and unified effort to date.
The album includes the stunning freely downloadable single ‘Edinburgh‘ featuring the exquisite guest vocals of Chloë March married to Jumpel’s inimitable melancholic ambient pop. ‘Edinburgh’ is an exercise in elegance and restraint, filling out the shadows and backstreets with ennui.
“ambient-dub set-pieces of understated yet still resplendent colour… an album of many moods, with dub, dub-techno, ambient, electro-pop, and funk all making appearances… A spirit of languor and ease pervades the album as a whole, rendering it a scenic yet still relaxing travelogue.” – Textura on sophomore album Deuxieme Bureau
“A beautiful, minimal electronic record for the heads… enthusiasts of minimal electronic music will find much to enjoy with Jumpel’s new album and its wide sound palate” – Sonic Frontiers on debut album Samuel Jason Lies On The Beach
Europa is available now on CD and in digital formats through Hidden Shoal Recordings, distributed via n5Mailorder. Head to the Hidden Shoal Store for all availability details and read a full press release here. Also download the albums first single ‘Edinburgh‘ and watch its accompanying music video at Youtube or Vimeo.
Jumpel – Rom Jumpel – Rom
New Toby Richardson EP Available for CD Pre-Order and Download
Ahead of its release next week (2nd Dec), Toby Richardson’s awesome new EP The Stones And The Rabbits is now available for pre-order from our beautiful friends at n5mailorder. Even better, if you pre-order the CD you get an immediate mp3 download of the album.
Head to n5mailorder and soak in the wonderfully skewed and wildly addictive indie rock that is The Stones And The Rabbits.
Toby Richardson – The Stones And The Rabbits Toby Richardson – The Stones And The Rabbits
Jumpel's Europa Available for Pre-Release CD Order and Download
Exciting news! Ahead of next weeks release of the eagerly awaited new full length from German miminal electronica maestro Jumpel, our wonderful distributor n5mailorder now have the CD available for pre-order (get in before the first run sells out!). Even better, if you pre-order the CD you get an immediate mp3 download of the album. Now you can gloat to friends that you’ve heard the new Jumpel album prior to release date like some sort of high priest of the music press scene. Or….just enjoy what is Jumpel’s finest work to date.
Head to n5mailorder now to order your copy and check out Jumpel’s previous releases (including free downloads) at the Hidden Shoal Store.
Jumpel – Wien Jumpel – Wien
Slow Dancing Society Reviews and Features
Drew Sullivan aka Slow Dancing Society has been receiving some heavy and deserved love for his latest full length Under the Sodium Lights. Check out the two recent features at Secret Music and Hypnagogue. More reviews to post up so watch this space!
Slow Dancing Society – and to the dust we shall return Slow Dancing Society – and to the dust we shall return
The Caribbean + Scott Solter – New Music Video
The Solter brothers ride again! Hidden Shoal is excited to share this stunning new music video by Mark Solter for Scott Solter‘s remix of The Caribbean‘s ‘Populations’.
In 2009 American folk-pop deconstructionists The Caribbean teamed up with engineer, producer, mixologist (Superchunk, Spoon, Okkervil River, The Mountain Goats) and one half of Boxharp Scott Solter to bring you Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean, released through Hidden Shoal. The EP comprises five tracks from The Caribbean’s 2007 Hometapes record Populations, which were sent to Solter to deconstruct, warp, and otherwise obliterate. The result is a set of dizzying curve balls that split the difference between glistening songcraft and complete re-construction. Scott Solter’s ‘Populations’ remix rounds out this unique EP in suitably woozy shimmer, like sunlight cutting through a hangover, dissolving the song’s remnants in a pool on the sidewalk. Mark Solter‘s visual accompaniment is a richly smeared, unresolvable abstract landscape. It is at once inviting and at the same time completely unknowable – a perfect marriage to its sonic partner.
“…and as Solter overhauls their music, he makes us go back and re-hear what was already there in the original versions. Where did these sounds come from? Not from nowhere, they were there…just hidden, or living different lives. Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean may be surprising for fans of the band, but it also should be exciting for everyone.” – Erasing Clouds
The Caribbean are set to release their sublime new album Discontinued Perfume on the ever excellent Hometapes label next year along with an exciting new project for Hidden Shoal (more info in 2011!).
View the video at Vimeo and YouTube. The Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean EP and the single ‘Do You Believe in Dinosaurs? (Scott Solter Remix)’ are both available now through Hidden Shoal. The EP can be streamed in full at the Hidden Shoal Store. Also be sure to check out Scott Solter’s work with Boxharp while you’re there.
Boxharp at Number 12 on the Echoes Top 25
Following on from their wonderful interview on Echoes, Boxharp’s The Green has just been placed at 12 on the Echoes Top 25 chart for October. Also for those who missed out on catching the interview we’ll be putting up for you to re-stream courtesy of the lovely John Diliberto and Echoes. Link coming soon!
Check out Boxharp’s Loam Arcane EP and The Green at the Hidden Shoal Store (full albums streams).
Boxharp – The Postcard Boxharp – The Postcard
Tarcutta Drummer Playing With Damo Suzuki!
Pete Barrett, drummer with Hidden Shoal’s awesome instrumental trio Tarcutta, will be playing in Melbourne next Wednesday night with none other than legendary CAN vocalist Damo Suzuki! If you haven’t already heard of CAN, Suzuki and/or his seemingly endless quest to play random improvised shows around the world with people who have never played together before, rectify this immediately! It shall be an interesting night’s entertainment, to say the least. Plus, Pete’s a damn good drummer – but then we’re biased… All you need to know is that it’s at Fad Gallery, Corrs Lane in the city at about 10pm. Doors open 7pm and it’s $10 entry. The last time Suzuki played in Melbourne there were queues around the block, so get there early.
New Single and Video From Markus Mehr
Hidden Shoal is proud to announce the new single from Germany’s post-ambient master Markus Mehr. Much like Mehr’s first single ‘Hubble’ evoked the ink-black expanses of outer space, second single ‘Cousteau’ (also taken from debut Lava) casts its searchlight beneath the ocean. The track’s slow, majestic burn is a thing to behold, and further proof of Mehr’s mastery of dynamic drone. Bubbles of fizzy static gradually fade into view before a haunting backwards melody is introduced and then subsumed by liquiform particles and aching synths. The track builds in pressure until the elements fall away, leaving the backwards melody to sing anew before the process begins again, with a renewed feeling of heartbreaking intensity. The track’s black-hole magnetism grows as it pulls in all around it, with the resultant build erupting into giant, arcing, electric tendrils.
“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
Mehr’s oft collaborator, visual artist Stefanie Sixt (Sixt Sense), has created an incredibly rich and layered widescreen visual accompaniment to ‘Cousteau’. Sixt’s work traverses film, performance and animation, and has won her several key visual arts awards in Germany.
‘Cousteau’ is taken from Markus Mehr’s debut album Lava out now through Hidden Shoal. The track is available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store. Watch the ‘Cousteau’ music video on YouTube or Vimeo. Read a full press release here.
Markus Mehr – Cousteau Markus Mehr – Cousteau
Jumpel Press!
It’s not been long since we last heard from our eclectic electronic composer Jo Dürbeck better known to all as Jumpel. His latest single, Edinburgh, has been getting some well deserved attention across the web with a lovely little review from Sentimental List which you can read here. Not to mention features on The POP! Stereo, Ground Control and Faronheit. Words pale in the shadow of great music so how about downloading the track for yourself – available from our very own store (here) for free!
Jumpel – Edinburgh Jumpel – Edinburgh
Hidden Shoal MixTape
