Hidden Shoal News
The Caseworker News and Reviews
Good things happening for The Caseworker as their new album “Letters From The Coast” scoops BAGel Radio’s number 1 CMJ rotation add this week and KVMR’s number 2 CMJ rotation add! The album has just gone out to US college radio so there will be more radio news as it comes to hand.
The band have also scooped some nice early press and mentions at Noise, Twiceremoved, Listen Dammit, and Geeks Love To Maths Debate. A bunch more reviews on their way as well. Stay tuned and of course if you haven’t already – grab the album!
The Caseworker – ‘National Runner’
Antonymes meets Slow Dancing Society Pre-Orders and Release
Hidden Shoal is excited to officially announce the upcoming release of We Don’t Look Back For Very Long, the new EP by neo-classical/minimal ambient artist Antonymes.
We Don’t Look Back For Very Long sees Antonymes reworking a track from each of fellow Hidden Shoal artist Slow Dancing Society’s four albums, casting radiant new light on the stunning originals. Across almost 30 minutes, Antonymes marries SDS’s glistening atmospheres to his own trademark ambient neo-classical minimalism, creating a completely mesmerising hybrid.
We Don’t Look Back For Very Long is released on 20 October in limited edition CD and digital format. The CD release comes as a limited hand-numbered letterpress edition of 100 on beautiful 700gsm GF Smith board, custom made by Ian M. Hazeldine (AKA Antonymes) and expertly mastered by Wil Bolton. CD pre-orders are available on 5 October from the Hidden Shoal Store.
Stream the first track from the album, ‘The Grey Sea And The Long Black Land’, below.
Hotels Interview at Scene Point Blank
Head over to Scene Point Blank to read a fantastic interview with Blake Madden of Hotels. While you’re there be sure to enter the Hotels competition to be in line to win lots of Hotels goodies!
The Caseworker – Letters From The Coast
Hidden Shoal Recordings is excited to announce the availability of Letters From The Coast by garage-dreampop trio The Caseworker.
On their third album Letters From The Coast The Caseworker exude the feel of a shoegazing Velvet Underground reared by the Flying Nun label – the perfect balance of drone and chime. The band creates an enigmatic intimacy and atmosphere, which they wrap around immaculately crafted pop songs like smoke. Perfectly intoxicating.
With opening track and lead single ‘National Runner’, The Caseworker have an instant pop classic on their hands. The song’s consummate mix of hypnotic guitars and driving rhythm section are perfectly balanced with Conor Devlin’s starry-eyed vocal. Elsewhere, bassist Eimer Devlin assumes lead vocal duties for ‘The Slow Track’ and ‘Sea Years’, both reminiscent of prime Yo La Tengo, while standout ‘Boats’ carries the listener away on its buoyant yet melancholic waves of arpeggios and feedback. The album exudes a wonderful sense of timelessness and romanticism – these are songs to attach to memories.
“The Caseworker extract darkness from inside whispery, ambient pop… completely enraptured and awesomely dazed” – Rolling Stone
Letters From The Coast is out now through Hidden Shoal Recordings and is available in CD and digital formats featuring stunning illustrated artwork by Stuart Medley. Check out the full press release here. The single ‘National Runner’ is available now as a free download.
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Win Umpire Goodies at Scene Point Blank!
The wonderful crew at Scene Point Blank in conjunction with Hidden Shoal have another super cool competition running. This time there’s some awesome Umpire goodies up for for grabs including a bunch of Umpire CD’s, Umpire t-shirts and Mukaizake CD’s (featuring 3 members of Umpire). That’s a win-win-win! So head to Scene Point Blank, enter and wait by the mailbox.
Also don’t forget to enter the Hotels comp also running over at Scene Point Blank. Check it out here.
The Caseworker "Letters From The Coast" Pre-Order & Review
The Caseworker’s gorgeous forthcoming full length Letters From The Coast is now available for CD pre-order through n5Mailorder. The CD comes in a 4 panel wallet with stunning illustration by that graphic wonder Stuart Medley. All pre-orders include an immediate mp3 download of the album so head to n5 and be one of the first to soak in what The Underground of Happiness referred to as,
“a beguiling album of sunburst guitar melodies, sitting on a foundation of drone, with a thin gauze of hazy suspense draped over it.”
Read the full album review by Conor O’Toole over at The Underground of Happiness.
Apricot Rail 'Surry Hills' Review at The Silent Ballet
Apricot Rail’s stunning new single ‘Surry Hills’ has just scooped a glowing review over at The Silent Ballet. Check out the review here and download the track for free here.
Hotels on MTV’s Awkward
Apologies as this is slightly old news but good news nonetheless! Hotel’s awesome track ‘Hydra’, taken off 2009’s Where Hearts Go Broke, recently featured in the MTV Network comedy Awkward. The track aired on Episode 2 to be exact which can be viewed in full here by US residents. The track is also a featured stream and download at MTV so if don’t already own this slice of pop genius then head there to grab it.
Salli Lunn "A Frame Of Reference" Remix Album Out Now!
Hidden Shoal Recordings is excited to anounce the release of album A Frame of Reference by Danish spectral noise-rock quartet Salli Lunn, which comprises remixes of songs from their stunning debut album Heresy and Rite, plus all-new songs. The album kicks off in fine style with Scott Solter’s remix of ‘Mirror Girl’, on which the in-demand producer, musician and remixer pares back the original’s spidery postpunk guitars to bring a lurching industrial rhythm section to the fore. Markus Mehr’s dizzying take on single ‘Parachutes Forever’ brings sizzling amp hum into juxtaposition against a double-speed guitar loop, snatches of the main groove, and Lasse Skjold Bertelsen’s vocal, while City Of Satellites transform ‘Fast Cars, Clean Bodies’ into a dreamy electro-rock night cruise.
Heresy and Rite producer Jonas Munk (Manual) takes on ‘The Invention of Steel’, rendering the song a brilliant, cascading and hypnotic krautrock jam. Previously unreleased track ‘50 Kisses’ is reworked by TV Baby as a driving, lo-fi chase scene, while ‘White Sight’, also previously unreleased, rounds out the album in fine style, with its main riff simultaneously drunken and laser-guided in intensity.
“… Salli Lunn persistently avoid any repetition or similar themes – and take every opportunity to push their music into new territories and expand on their own musicianship… on Heresy & Rite, this act of innovation and unpredictability delivers with extreme accuracy.” – No Ripcord
A Frame of Reference is available as an exclusive digital release through the Hidden Shoal Store and all good third party online stores. Album Heresy and Rite is also available worldwide in CD and digital formats and for the first time is now available through Hidden Shoal on vinyl. Be sure to check out the awesome music video for Scott Solter’s remix of ‘Mirror Girl’.
Salli Lunn – ‘The Invention of Steel (Manual Remix)’
[The] Caseworker 'National Runner' – Music Video
Hot on the heels of the release of their awesome new single ‘National Runner‘, The Caseworker now have a wonderful music video to accompany the track thanks to film maker Joe Macken. True to the theme of the track, the video features footage of the amazing Ethiopian long distance runner Miruts Yifter doing his magic. And if you think long distance running is a yawn fest then you have not seen Yifter’s final lap turbo blast – it gives me goosebumps, it honestly does! Check out the video below or in HD at Youtube and be sure to download the single for free from the Hidden Shoal Store.
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