Makee

makeeMakee’s bright-eyed, beat-driven tracks, as danceable as they are atmospheric, build to create a thoroughly rewarding sonic whole. His debut self-titled EP, self-described as “looped samples of atmospheric nostalgia”, spreads itself across beatific disco, ecstatic electronica, and shoegazing kosmische. The EP follows on from Makee’s first foray through Hidden Shoal, the wonderful remix of [The] Caseworker’s ‘Hold On To The Road’.
SoundCloud iTunes

Discography

Makee


November 2014

Makee’s bright-eyed, beat-driven tracks, as danceable as they are atmospheric, build to create a thoroughly rewarding sonic whole. His debut self-titled EP, self-described as “looped samples of atmospheric nostalgia”, stretches luxuriously across seemingly disparate genres. The fog-laden disco of ‘Bail’ is shot through with a beatific vibe; ‘Stez’ surges relentlessly on motorik rhythms; ‘Tone’ burns with ecstatic, sun-blind intensity; ‘Wake’ is infused with Caribou-esque psychedelia; and finale ‘Bord’ takes a leap into the void with the fervour of prime kosmische that’s been mollified by shoegaze.

[The] Caseworker – ‘Hold On To The Road (Makee Remix)’


November 2012

Makee (Perth artist Daniel Cavalli) has taken the hesitant shuffle of [The] Caseworker‘s ‘Hold On To The Road’ and re-imagined it as an infectious driving groove. The wonderful sense of space evident in [The] Caseworker’s music is still present, but it’s beautifully aligned with Makee’s propulsive beatwork.

Biography

Makee is Perth-based musician Daniel Cavalli, whose musical life began playing drums and guitar. As drummers were rarer than guitarists, and because he was a shy team player rather than a guitar hero, Cavalli most often hit the skins when jamming with friends. It wasn’t long before Cavalli figured that the best way to mesh his love of stringed things with drums and other instruments was to try his hand at production. Thus began a rather long and protracted musical journey littered with four tracks, samplers, sequencers and reel-to-reel tape, culminating in the purchase of a computer and some dodgy sequencing software. Even though he was immersed in a sea of ’90s atmospheric drum ’n’ bass at the time, he slowly but surely began to navigate back to his roots in guitar-based music, started playing bass, and even plucked up the courage to sing now and again.

 

Then disaster struck: hard drive failure and no back-up. With all but a few of his scratched demo CDs lost, he began to rebuild his compositions. This was timely, as Hidden Shoal’s Cam Merton showed interested in doing something more, following on from Cavalli’s remix of [The] Caseworker’s ‘Hold On To The Road’. Makee then re-acquainted himself with an old mate called Hooch and got to work finishing his debut self-titled EP.

News

Reviews

  • “Eat Your Friends” Compilation Reviewed at DOA

    “Over almost a decade, Hidden Shoal records developed a reputation as a consistently innovative and experimental music label, giving to us music of remarkable qualities whether it was the instrumental excursions of Gilded, the blissed-out indie of My Majestic Star, the electronica of Marcus Mehr, the alt.folk stylings of Kramies – the HSR list of significant talents was a lengthy one. I say was, as in 2014 or thereabouts, the Hidden Shoal label underwent a reorganisation of sorts, and it began to seem that one of the more influential Australian record labels of the recent past was itself going into hiding. Perhaps so, although only to return refreshed, renewed, invigorated and with its varying artistic visions intact – the Eat Your Friends compilation proves that the Hidden Shoal label is properly with us again.

    One thing I’ve found when reviewing compilations is that not infrequently, when I put them into my music players, the tracks separate instead of remaining in their album folder, and that has happened with my copy of Eat Your Friends, encouraging me to view each of the tracks as a single release rather than view the album itself as a cohesive whole. Then there’s the fact that only some of its contributors are already known to me and so, ditching some of my preconceptions about what it’s going to sound like, I began listening to the 11 tracks in a random sequence, and prepared for the unexpected.

    Firstly, there’s singer/songwriter Erik Nilsson’s “Moksha Can Wait”, a song which electronic composer Marcus Mehr has taken and adapted to his subtly developed production sound, a track that begins almost inaudibly and builds to a staggering crescendo of soaring, roaring electronic sound and with Nilsson’s guitar and piano providing a counterpoint to Mehr’s swirling atmospherics. The ambient chill of City Of Satellites is given an added gloss by Tim Manzano, although I’m not so sure what he’s actually done with the track – it does sound a lot like the City Of Satellites I know from their Machine Is My Animal album, although as the track progresses and the rhythm and bass begin to disintegrate into a dubby conclusion it seems more apparent where Manzano has left his mark. Arc Lab’s “Through The Burning Glass” is remixed by Glanko, beginning with a club-level bassline before levelling into a noir tinged synth epic. And just when you thought the tracks on Eat Your Friends were entirely instrumentals, Rew perform a cover version of Umpire’s “Green Light District” and they do it with a vocal, alongside the strings and crashing cymbals and haltingly uncertain rhythms, a highlight of an album each of whose tracks is in one or another way remarkable.”

    – DOA

    Related Items:

    Continue reading →

  • Makee “Makee” EP Reviewed at Luna Kafe

    “Makee is a Perth-based one-man-band. Daniel Cavalli, being a creative musician described as ‘a shy team player..’, started up playing drums and guitar. He has formerly also been doing some remixing work, f.i. Hidden Shoal’s [The] Caseworker’s “Hold On To The Road” (originally from Letters From The Coast), rather splendidly ‘re-imagined’ by Cavalli. This debut, self-titled EP shows proof (with his music) of what the label tags as being ‘bright-eyed, beat-driven tracks, as danceable as they are atmospheric’. Self-described, Makee’s EP is ‘..looped samples of atmospheric nostalgia..’. In some strange way Makee’s music make me think of a more shy, dance-beat version of, say…Joy Division and The National. Add some Caribou, as well as much/many more.

    Hidden Shoal further go on (on his musical background) that he was: ‘..immersed in a sea of 1990s atmospheric drum’n’bass at the time, he slowly but surely began to navigate back to his roots in guitar-based music, started playing bass, and even plucked up the courage to sing now and again..’. This EP for sure is delicate and elegant, made with tenderness and affection, as the tracks beam out: “bail”, “stez”, “tone”, “wake”, and “bord”. Shy music, makes shy titles, but the musical confidence is way strong. The record label proudly announced ‘sonic and visual delights’ when the debut single, “bail”, was launched a couple of weeks ago, with its accompanying music video. It’s a beauty. Cavalli (armed with a computer, samplers, sequencers and a reel-to-reel tape, plus more) creates shimmering moments of highly electric pop. Hidden Shoal also describe Makee’s music to spread across ‘beatific disco, ecstatic electronica, and shoegazing kosmische’. This is a to-the-point description. Makee EP is a hidden teasure, and my guess is that it will stay a treasure. As well as, I am afraid, it will stay hidden. I dare you to dig its gold.

    Hidden Shoal: ‘Grab the single (and the EP) at Bandcamp, stream it at Soundcloud and check out the video at YouTube and Vimeo.’ That is some good advice. This is technicolor dream pop.”

    – Luna Kafe

    Related Items:

    Continue reading →

  • Makee “Makee” EP Reviewed at Music Won’t Save You

    [Poorly translated from the Italian via Google Translate. Read the original here.]

    In that broad limbo between reminiscences wave and soundscapes driven by the rhythm ranks the Australian Daniel Cavalli, to debut under the alias Makee with a self-titled EP released by compatriot Hidden Shoal.

    I spent the drummer of Horses make full justification of its interest applied to a language eminently electronic, not averse to temptations dancefloor but in hindsight animated by a spirit more akin to that of feverish “Madchester” wildest of the early nineties that brain idm current practices.

    If fact, the opening words “Bail”, with its deep electronic beats, could herald a job in key purely wave-gaze not averse to an expressive dimension of physical nature, the density of the plot between keyboards and guitars of “Stez” and “Wake”, complete with vocals low and dark, turns towards horizons more turbid restlessness, which recall how extraordinary the British alternative scene of the nineties was also populated by bands such as Happy Mondays and Stone Roses certain. In this sense, the first evidence of record Makee is both the representation of a cross-section expressive dating, usually not very considered, and its actualization in a lively electronic dimension.

    – Music Won’t Save You

    Related Items:

    Continue reading →

  • Makee EP Reviewed at SpaceRockMountain

    “Makee is the moniker of a musician from Perth, Western Australia otherwise known as David Cavalli. I gather from the promo info that this dude lost most of his music in a hard drive crash and so what we’re getting to enjoy is his attempt to rebuild his compositions. Regardless of all the preambles, the actual songs are fucking chill. They’re smooth electronic tunes that he’s tagged as “dreamtronica,” a term I am sure is of pretty fresh coinage. The songs have an airy ephemeral tone while retaining a solid rhythm. I really found myself liking the track called “tone” with the layering of elements and that very cool bass and psychedelic guitar licks. It’s been released through the very awesome Australian label, Hidden Shoal, which if you’re not familiar with you should look into.”

    – SpaceRockMountain

    Related Items:

    Continue reading →

  • Makee EP Reviewed at Totoromoon

    [Translated from the French via Google Translate. Read the original here.]
    “The Hidden Shoal label, which has already released the excellent Kramies record , has unveiled a few days ago a new project from Australia: Makee. Behind Makee and his first self-titled EP is hiding the composer and musician Daniel Cavalli.

    Makee creates danceable and atmospheric electronica. Beaches both soft and rhythmic throughout with a flush of nostalgia.The five titles on the disc are in the image of its beautifully painted cover: they point to an evanescent horizon, makes great outdoors, pastel shades and bright sounds.

    Here, guitars, keyboards synthetic cloths, faraway voice samples and some scattered beyond deci blend harmoniously. The opening track is disco travel as soft and radiant vibrations, on Bord, the final instrumental pop tinged with soothing rhythm guitars, the compositions of the Australian happening happiness in simplicity and apparent lightness that one relishes from beginning to end.”

    – Totoromoon

    Related Items:

    Continue reading →

  • Makee “Makee” Reviewed at BluesBunny

    “I like a bit of mystery. It adds something to the process of musical discovery. Why, for example, are all the songs on Makee’s self-titled EP four letters long? For that matter, is Australia really upside down?

    Pondering that kind of thing will make all the blood rush to your head but all that blood rushing to your head does have its advantages. For one thing, the detached retro unleashed from the looped up mind of Makee will hypnotise you in double quick time with the post Eurodisco sensibilities of “Bail” easily rendering your ears spellbound even if you’ve never been to Frankfurt. Looping things – for that is Makee’s musical weapon of choice – together with rather greater vehemence seems the plan for “Stez” as if to provide that vicious counterpoint to the dance floor while “Tone” takes irony to limit in the name of seventies space funk.

    “Wake”, for all its rhythmic predictability, is in clear and present danger of assaulting all that is ambient with the kind of short sharp shock guitar that once made the world safe for Goodbye Mr McKenzie. The longest song, and the most casual in its musical intentions is “Bord” and even that click tracks diligently in search of answers that aren’t actually there.

    The kind of manic insistence that drives Makee’s music would make these songs ideal for the soundtrack to any cheesy seventies exploitation movie starring Maria de Aragon. The mark of approval is duly given. – 4/5”

    – BluesBunny

    Related Items:

    Continue reading →

  • Makee “Makee” Reviewed at Life is Noise

    “Makee is the name given to the hazy beat creations of Dan Cavalli – who in the past was seen drumming in some bygone electronic acts out of Perth like The Transients and Druid Lee Roth. But this is an entirely new transformation.

    For the past 10 years or so, Cavalli has been quietly dabbling in music production in his bedroom on “four tracks, samplers, sequencers and reel-to-reel tape… and some dodgy sequencing software” to create a five-track collection of sun-drenched, guitar-driven beats that’ll amiably have you drifting off to a place much more idyllic.

    Perhaps hinting at Cavalli’s vast range of influences, this transgresses a whole span of genres, from disco to shoegaze, dreamy pop psychedelia and kosmische musik, all lovingly submerged in some atypical Balearic beats — which thankfully manages to surpass that genre’s cheesy associations.”

    – Life is Noise

    Related Items:

    Continue reading →

Press Releases

Makee EP Press Release

Artist Photos

 

Music Videos

Licensing

Makee’s music is  available for licensing (master & sync cleared) through Hidden Shoal. Please contact us with some basic details about your project and the track(s) you wish to use and we’ll be sure to get back to you straight away.

Music Software Bundles from Pluginboutique.com

The Hidden Shoal label and licensing agency is a product of Hidden Shoal Publishing.

© 2023 Hidden Shoal Publishing. All rights reserved.