Hidden Shoal News
Boxharp's The Green Reviewed on Igloo and Luna Kafe
Boxharp Number 1 on the CJSW Experimental Chart
Well I’ve spent most of my payload in the title but as it would suggest Boxharp’s sublime new album The Green hit the number one spot on Canada’s CJSW Experimental Chart last week.
Listen to the album in full here and hear why its getting so much deserved love.
New Slow Dancing Society Single and Video Released
Hidden Shoal Recordings today announced the release of the first track and accompanying music video taken from the eagerly awaited fourth album by US ambient artist Slow Dancing Society. Both single and video are now available for free download.
Following on from the ebullient warmth of the critically acclaimed Priest Lake Circa ’88, ‘…and to the dust we shall return’ is the perfect introduction to Drew Sullivan’s latest ambient epic, Under The Sodium Lights. Accompanied by a stunning video by Latvian filmmaker Ieva Balode, this glorious seven-minute song sees the gradual accretion of reverberant guitar tones, emerging from the silence as sparse reflections across the stereo field. Slow searching melodies overlap and accumulate before a descending bass figure carries the song home to its elegiac conclusion. The song, like all Slow Dancing Society releases, resonates with a rich emotional core – and the choking realisation of our own transience.
“a complexity of sound that allows it to stand out from traditionally ambient music… It is easy to get dissolved in this album, to let yourself fall into meditation as the music plays… Textures and timbre are executed with great precision… Even the simplest of songs allow complimentary textures to be layered upon each other to create a robust yet spacious sound… an aural delight for the listener.” – The Silent Ballet on Priest Lake Circa ’88
Iretsu on the Radio
Iretsu’s latest opus Fang has been added as a featured rotation on Sydney’s 2ser and Melbourne’s RRR. Perth listeners can enjoy some similar Iretsu loving very soon – stay tuned for more details!
Iretsu – Hey You Iretsu – Hey You
Boxharp In The Charts
Boxharp’s stunning new album The Green is starting to make dents in the US college charts. The album debuted at 26 on the WBNY chart, 24 on the KZSC Chart, is sitting at 14 on the KBOO chart and is in the top ten of the Experimental chart at CJSW. More charting news to come!
Preview and buy the album here.
Boxharp – Leatherwing Bat Boxharp – Leatherwing Bat
Markus Mehr "Lava" Digital Release
Hidden Shoal Recordings today announced the digital release of the album Lava by German experimental ambient artist Markus Mehr.
Lava holds true to its title – it is a dense surge of glue-think sound, making new paths as it pushes through the landscape. But, after any destructive force there is new growth. Green shoots of melody arc out of the surface and populate the terrain as new possibilities emerge. A new master of heartbreaking ambient drone has arrived. These tracks evoke time spent transfixed, gazing through a giant looking glass, waiting wide-eyed as new discoveries are revealed in the album’s textured contours.
On epic opener ‘Agenda’, layers of gorgeous synth gradually accumulate into a gloriously massive chord. On single ‘Hubble’, a bedrock of fuzzed drone is decorated with glistening counter-melodies, tracing shards of light across the coal-black skies. ‘Softwar’ builds and then falls away, only to return with a spine-tingling theme that crumbles under its own majesty.
Lava’s ability to both suspend the listener in its abstracted liquid vapours and at the same time imprint its affecting narrative is a special thing. It is one of those albums whose emotional impact stays with you long after you feel its last touch.
Lava is now available in all digital formats through Hidden Shoal Recordings and all good digital stores. The album will see its physical release on 22 July. Buy the album here and read a full press release here.
Markus Mehr – Softwar Markus Mehr – Softwar
Iretsu Reviews
Ahead of tonight’s unmissable album launch at The Woods in Portland, Iretsu have received a batch of glowing write-ups on Fang, with coverage in The Portland Mercury and Oregon Music News, and an album review in Local Cut. Go Iretsu, GO!
Iretsu Launch Fang This Friday Night!
Iretsu’s stunning new album Fang is being launched this Friday, 11th June, at The Woods in Iretsu’s hometown of Portland, Oregon. Doors open at 9.30pm, Adam Arcuragi is on at 10, Iretsu hit the stage at 11, followed by DJ Lincolnup at midnight. It promises to be a storming night, so if you’re in the vicinity of Portland, be sure to head down.
If you’re new to Iretsu, you can stream Fang in full here.
Boxharp's "The Green" Officially Released
Hidden Shoal Recordings has announced the official release of the album The Green by American ambient experimental pop duo Boxharp.
The Green is a startlingly beautiful space that sees the intermingling of the ancient and modern, the handcrafted and the technologically enhanced. Lunar half-light, crackling fires and legends weave amid aching synths, dizzying digital edits and startling atmospheres – all clothed in the inimitable tones of vocalist Wendy Allen. Akin to classic dreampop, stripped of the guitars and rebuilt with the parts of old gramophones, twine and birdsong.
The title track exudes a kind of earthbound celestialism that makes it at once intimate and expansive. ‘Hick’s Farewell’ and ‘Leatherwing Bat’ have the feel of eerie Celtic folksongs re-imagined as affecting synthpop. Lovable pop nugget ‘Konnarock VA’ nestles alongside airy tapestries like ‘The Moon’s The North Wind’s Cookie’ and ‘Rootfires’. The intangible is rendered tactile; the prosaic mystical.
The Green also features backing vocals by Will Johnson (Centro-Matic), who recently toured with Monsters of Folk, and piano and organ from recent Hidden Shoal signing Liam Singer.
“It is this dualism, between the waste emotions and the logic, the ancient and the future, the technology and the organic sounds, that makes Boxharp, and The Green such an interesting listen. This, and the undisputed fact that Boxharp make adoringly delightful pop music.” – Luna Kafe on The Green
“shows that experimental pop needn’t sacrifice the pop element to be interesting and original” – Music Musings and Miscellany on the Loam Arcane EP
Boxharp recently featured in a January 2010 article in British newspaper The Guardian as one of David Bowie’s current favourite artists, and promptly received a full-page feature on Bowie’s official website.
The Green is now available worldwide in CD and digital formats through Hidden Shoal Recordings and all good third party stores. Purchase the album here and read a full press release here.
Boxharp – Cloy Boxharp – Cloy
Tarcutta Live This Saturday Night!
Melbourne-based Hammond-guitar-drums trio Tarcutta, who released their stunning debut album through Hidden Shoal last year, are playing at Loop bar in Melbourne tomorrow night, Saturday 29 May. It’s part of an evening of audio and visual enterntainment called Lamp Lights, with Tarcutta headlining the first batch of acts at Loop bar in the city, along with Zac Keiller, Daquqi and The Boy Who Spoke Clouds. The music kicks off at 5pm sharp, with Tarcutta taking to the stage about 7.30pm.
Hidden Shoal MixTape
