Hidden Shoal News
New Elisa Luu Album Reviewed on Ondarock and Music Won't Save You
Elisa Luu’s stunning new album Un Giorno Sospeso has just received a glowing review on Ondarock and the Music Won’t Save You blog. Unless you speak Italian you’ll need to pop along to Elisa’s reviews section to read a translated excerpt.
Un Giorno Sospeso is available in CD and mp3 formats from the Hidden Shoal Store.
Markus Mehr's "On" CD Pre-Order and Digital Availability
Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce CD pre-orders and digital availability of the new album On by German experimental ambient artist Markus Mehr. The album forms the second part of a triptych that also includes recent release In and the forthcoming Off.
On is a continuation of the experimental direction of Markus Mehr’s previous releases, with eight diverse tracks employing samples, field recordings and slathers of Mehr’s trademark distorted drones. This approach is apparent right from opener ‘Gonna Make You Mine’, as scything slashes of sound leap from the speakers. Single ‘Flaming Youth’ counterbalances fragments of static against a gorgeous sleepy-eyed loop of mangled lounge-jazz. A track as expansive and moving as ‘Duck Became Swan’ is followed by brief rhythmic piece ‘Olympia’. This tightrope walk between dizzying samples and exacting digital manipulation is walked with aplomb throughout On’s adventurous and thrilling 45-minute runtime.
“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 on Lava
“one of the best releases so far this year and one which will absolutely be appreciated by fans of abstract ambient music and soundscapes” – Petal on In
On is available now digitally and for CD pre-order. The CD version of the release comes as a limited edition (pressing of 200) numbered, 4 panel wallet CD designed by Stuart Medley with an immediate album download. The album sees its official release on the 17th of July. Head to the Hidden Shoal Store for all orders and release details.
Elisa Luu Reviewed on Fluid Radio, The Dadada and Luna Kafe
Elisa Luu’s new album Un Giorno Sospeso, now available as a digital download and to pre-order on CD from the Hidden Shoal Store, has just received a glowing review over at the excellent Fluid Radio. The album’s lead single, ‘Se Fosse Per Me’, which is available for free download, has also just been reviewed over at the equally excellent Luna Kafe and The Dadada.
New Elisa Luu Album – Digital Availability and CD Pre-Orders!
Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce the pre-release of Un Giorno Sospeso, the new amazing new album by ambient electronica artist Elisa Luu. The album is now available for immediate digital download and CD pre-order.
As evidenced on recently released single ‘Se Fosse Per Me’, Un Giorno Sospeso is dense with chiming tones, buoyant beats, skittering horns and immersive drones. From the shimmering, levitating tones of ‘Flussigirl’ to the rattling, dark drone-beat of ‘Il Tempo Di Capire’, Elisa Luu’s brilliant marriage of texture and composition is on virtuoso display.
Elisa Luu’s alchemical touch is in full bloom on this, her long-awaited second album for Hidden Shoal. Her uniquely crafted compositions carry a warmth and vulnerability that belies their digitally manipulated textures. The album takes the glorious blueprint of debut Chromatic Sigh and accentuates the highlights and shadows, making for a deliciously disorientating trip.
Un Giorno Sospeso is available now for immediate digital download and CD pre-order from the Hidden Shoal Store. The CD comes as a limited edition, 4 panel wallet with stunning illustration and design by Stuart Medley. CD pre-orders come with an immediate download of the album. Un Giorno Sospeso will be officially released on the 6th July, 2012.
Triangulating Nature on Der Digitale Flaneur
Triangulating Nature, volume 7 in our free sampler album series, released to coincide with our sixth birthday celebrations, has just received a lovely review on the German music blog Der Digitale Flaneur. It’s in German, obviously, so to save you the hassle of feeding it through a translator, a pick of the phrases used in the review would be “addiction guaranteed” and “an enchanting kaleidoscope of sounds and styles”. What are you waiting for?!
Todd Tobias "Medicine Show" Out Now!
Hidden Shoal is excited to announce the official CD release of Medicine Show, the debut solo album by musical experimentalist, Guided By Voices producer and long-time Robert Pollard collaborator Todd Tobias. All CD orders come with an immediate download of the album as well as an exclusive bonus download of the previously un-released Night Above Ground EP.
After years of producing Guided By Voices, playing in Circus Devils with Robert Pollard, and helping to create the music for Pollard’s solo albums, Todd Tobias is striking out on his own with his debut solo album. Defiantly unique and vividly realised, Medicine Show is a multi-faceted instrumental opus, evoking a shadowy steampunk dystopia. By turns nightmarish and hauntingly beautiful, the three-dimensional musical universe that Tobias conjures across 40 minutes is totally addictive. From the dark GBV-esque groove of ‘Night of the Club Foot’, through the gaseous synths of ‘Pre-Dawn Visitation’, evoking a hallucinogen-fuelled walk among a misty moon-lit forest, to the visceral lurch of single ‘Manatoc Enters The City / The Long Fall’, Medicine Show plays out like the soundtrack to a Terry Gilliam movie starring Tom Waits, each song a totally immersive scene, leading inexorably into the next.
“Call an album Medicine Show and some music buffs might expect something very different to this 15 track exercise in edgy atmospherics and controlled noise, but it’s tribute to Todd Tobias’s skill as a producer and arranger that the pace never slackens and that he’s quite effectively produced the audio equivalent of a graphic novel, one that will keep you listening right up until its cataclysmic final moments.” – DOA
Head to the Hidden Shoal Store to purchase the album on CD or in digital format. The CD comes as a limited numbered edition of 200 in a beautiful Stuart Medley designed, 4 panel gatefold with insert. All CD orders come with an immediate download of the album as well as an exclusive bonus download of the previously un-released Night Above Ground EP. Pre-orders have been extremely popular so remaining stock is limited.
New Track From Markus Mehr's Forthcoming Album "On"
Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce the release of ‘Flaming Youth’, the new single by German experimental ambient artist Markus Mehr, taken from his forthcoming album On.
‘Flaming Youth’ tentatively fizzes into life as though fragments of static are being received from the heavens. As the static begins to clear, a gorgeous sleepy-eyed loop surfaces, bleeding through like a blissful, mesmerising surge of mangled lounge-jazz. ‘Flaming Youth’ continues Mehr’s ongoing exploration of texture versus melody, taken from his new album On, the second album in an ambitious triptych that began with the acclaimed In and will be completed by the forthcoming Off. On’s eight diverse tracks employ samples, field recordings and slathers of Mehr’s trademark distorted drones.
“one of the best releases so far this year and one which will absolutely be appreciated by fans of abstract ambient music and soundscapes” – Petal on In
“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 on Lava
On is preceded by In, the first part of the triptych, comprising two monumental tracks, ‘Komo’ and ‘Ostinato’, each of which clocks in at around 25 minutes, circling around and building upon hypnotic instrumental motifs. Off, released on 24 January 2013, includes the most epic piece yet, ‘Transit’, which clocks in at 49 minutes and will be performed live in collaboration with video artist Stefanie Sixt, who created the video to Mehr’s single ‘Cousteau’.
‘Flaming Youth’ is available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store. It is taken from the forthcoming album On, available from 21 June 2012.
Todd Tobias Review on Delusions of Adequacy
Todd Tobias’s debut solo album Medicine Show has just received a cracking review over at Delusions of Adequacy. Pop along to DoA to read the review, or visit Todd’s review section in his artist profile on the Hidden Shoal site. While you’re at it, you can stream the album in full at the Hidden Shoal Store. Get to it.
Beautiful New Music Video for Kramies 'Inventors'
‘Inventors’, the centrepiece of Kramies‘ acclaimed EP The European, now has a gorgeous video clip in which to bathe your visual cortex while your ears are busy blissing out. ‘Inventors’ is the dark, shadowy heart of The European, a ballad of subtle intensity. The track is counterbalanced by the snow drenched, dreamlike visuals of the music video, shot by Kevin Ott and Kramies’ wife Renee Gardner and edited and post produced by Hidden Shoal’s very own Cam Merton.
“Kramies Windt is on to something here. The songwriter’s debut five-track EP for Hidden Shoal marries wafting synth textures and an acoustic guitar bedrock to well-honed direct songcraft, making every cut a keeper… the chilly expanse of “Coal Miners Executive Club” and its comforting refrain of “We can pace ourselves” swirl inside the head, and “Antiquarian Days” evokes John Lennon at his most reflective… Mr. Windt’s grand sweeping gestures are never empty, and his hooks are never cheap. It’s no wonder that with each subsequent listen, I find myself enjoying The European more and more.” – PopMatters
The European, produced by Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard), is available now through Hidden Shoal Recordings in digital format as well as a numbered, limited edition of 100 CD postcards.
Video Trailer for Markus Mehr's New Album "On"
Markus Mehr‘s new album On is coming next month – and it’s a blinder. To whet your appetite, video artist Stefanie Sixt has created a sublime trailer featuring excerpts of several of On‘s tracks, including upcoming single ‘Flaming Youth’.
On is the second album in a triptych that began with the acclaimed recent release In, and ends with next January’s Off. On is released on 21 June, preceded by ‘Flaming Youth’ on 18 May, 2012. Check out all Markus Mehr releases, including free downloads, at the Hidden Shoal Store.