Hidden Shoal News
Hidden Shoal Interview with Cam Merton at Twiceremoved
Head over to the wonderful Perth based blog Twicreremoved and check out the recent interview with Hidden Shoal’s Cam Merton.
New Hidden Shoal Compilation Album Available for Free Download!
To coincide with the label’s 5th birthday celebrations, Hidden Shoal is proud to announce the release of the latest installment in its free downloadable sampler album series. Hydrozoa compiles 18 singles released over the last 18 months and lovingly sequences them into an epic journey. The album is divided into two sides, each a distinct listening experience in its own right – or, if you choose to digest the album in its entirety, it’s a graduated ride from the ambient and minimal all the way through to the widescreen and guitar-fuelled. Whichever way you slice it, Hydrozoa is a compelling creature.
Featuring Antonymes, Boxharp, City of Satellites, Elisa Luu, Hotels, Iretsu, Jumpel, Liam Singer, Markus Mehr, Mukaizake, My Majestic Star, Rich Bennett, Salli Lunn, Slow Dancing Society, Stray Ghost, Toby Richardson, Umpire and Wes Willenbring, Hydrozoa touches all the bases that make the Hidden Shoal roster unique, and massages them into a broad-ranging and utterly engaging whole. The release accompanied by a pdf booklet containing stunning artwork by Hidden Shoal’s Stuart Medley.
Download the sampler here.
Antonymes 'Lost In Waves Of Light' – Free Download
Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce the release of the new track ‘Lost In Waves Of Light’ by neo-classical/minimal ambient artist Antonymes, accompanied by a stunning 12 page photographic pdf booklet.
Created from elements lifted off Antonyme’s critically acclaimed album The Licence To Interpret Dreams, ‘Lost In Waves Of Light’ is a deftly crafted sonic and melodic patchwork. The track sits as a wonderful companion piece to the album, as recognised melodies unfurl, cloaked in new guises. As a work unto itself it once again places Antonymes at the height of his game, producing some of the most emotionally and sonically engaging work being released today.
Antonymes new album The Licence To Interpret Dreams has been met with universal acclaim since its release in April. It is an album of resonant beauty, as expansive as the wilds of North Wales from which it came, yet as delicate and intimate as a loved one’s breath upon your skin. Each song deploys a modest array of instruments and textures, giving them ample space to breathe and glow.
“This album is probably the most heartbreaking set of songs I’ve heard since Bon Iver’s For Emma Forever Ago, or I Am A Bird Now by Antony And The Johnsons. It’s Brian Eno meets a dagger to the heart….a record that deserves album of the year, even four months into 2011.” – Delusions of Adequacy
“There is so much to experience and so much the music will conjure for the listener. The music on The License to Interpret Dreams can influence how one views the world, their inherent sensibilities, of knowing, and, finally, of returning.” – Fluid Radio
‘Lost In Waves Of Light’ is now available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store. You can also read a full press release here. The album The Licence To Interpret Dreams is available now physically and digitally through Hidden Shoal Recordings, distributed via n5Mailorder.
Antonymes and Hotels in US Charts
Antonymes and Hotels latest respective masterpieces are both receiving love in the US college charts. This week sees Antonymes The Licence To Interpret Dreams sitting at number 8 on the KZSU charts and Hotels On The Casino Floor holding number 25 at WRSU!
Slow Dancing Society Reissues – Pre-order Available Now!
Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce that pre-orders are now available for the CD re-issues of Slow Dancing Society’s first three albums ahead of their official release on 19th May, 2011.
Drew Sullivan’s first three releases as Slow Dancing Society comprise a peerless ambient trilogy. Debut album The Sound of Lights When Dim is a sumptuous unfolding ride towards a fading horizon. As with Brian Eno’s finest moments and David Sylvian’s ambient explorations, the album manages to dissolve its temporal markers and speak about moments removed from time. It talks to the delicious flaws of memory and feeling, never sullying itself with literality or simple documentation.
From the outset, sophomore album The Slow and Steady Winter sets itself up to be an epic. Clocking in at over an hour, the album paints its majestic landscapes with both measure and purpose, moving from immersive ambient evocations to beatific bliss rock. A gorgeously choreographed chronicle of a Spokane winter, the album serves as a wonderful progression from Slow Dancing Society’s previous work both in sound and mood.
Following on from the ice-sculpted cinematics of The Slow and Steady Winter, third album Priest Lake Circa ’88 exudes restraint and repose, yet is richly melodic and full. Tracks such as the single ‘A Warm Glow’ typify the album and find Sullivan issuing forth waves of radiant synth drones and glistening guitars that ripple effortlessly across the sonic vista. Priest Lake Circa ’88 speaks of both departure and eventual return, and perhaps in its broadest sense the notion of “home”. Above all, this is music to bathe in: warm, steamy and all-encompassing.
“Music is all about moments like this. Moments when you are, unexpectedly, knocked over and stunned into submission by an album that has, quite literally, came from nowhere… deeply affecting, consistently excellent… demands repeated listening” – Boring Machines Disturb Sleep on The Sound of Lights When Dim
Availability
All three reissues are now available for pre-order via n5mailorder before their official release on the 19th of May. The three releases are also available as specially priced bundle. The albums are also available now digitally in compressed and lossless formats.
Umpire Single Review at DOA
Fabulous review by the wonderful Brad Tilbe of the new Hotels Review in Italy's Ondarock
Check out this lovely mini-review of Hotels sumptuous epic On The Casino Floor in Italy’s pivotal music mag Ondarock. Check here for an English translation.
Antonymes Reviews
The glowing reviews for Antonymes The Licence to Interpret Dreams just keep coming in and why wouldn’t they considering its sheer beauty. Check out what reviewers had to say at Cyclic Defrost, BlogCrtics, DOA, Normans Records, 4zzz, Fluid Radio, Headphone Commute, AmbientBlog and Future Sequence… and that’s just for starters.
More to come!
Antonymes – ‘On Approaching The Strange Museum’
Antonymes Featured in Record.Pause.Play Podcast
Antonymes stunning track ‘Endlessly’ has been featured on the 1 year anniversary episode of the very excellent Record.Pause.Play podcast. To listen, head to the Record.Pause.Play website or subscribe via iTunes and soak in episode 12 before working your way backwards through their fabulous set of shows.
And don’t forget to check out the rest of Antonymes acclaimed new album The Licence to Interpret Dreams. You can stream the whole album at the Hidden Shoal Store or via Bandcamp.
Hotels Interview on The Underground of Happiness
Check out the excellent interview with Blake Madden of Hotels on the fabulous Irish radio show Underground of Happiness with Conor O’Toole. You can stream the whole thing over at the Underground of Happiness blog.