Connected View

Biography

Jake McFee, Charlie Fieger and Kyle Pieloch began making music in 1999 in a band called Psychic Violence, influenced by artists like Sonic Youth, Blonde Redhead, PJ Harvey, Radiohead, Mazzy Star and The Velvet Underground. Psychic Violence broke up in 2000, then reconvened as the duo Connected View in 2008 with a fresh range of diverse new influences, including Ennio Morricone, Stereolab, Broadcast, Boards of Canada, Lali Puna, Pram, Piero Umiliani, Can and Cluster. The first Connected View album Atlas was released in 2013.

News

• New Rewilding Album “Abandoned Kiva” Out Now!

  Hidden Shoal is proud to present the wonderful new album from US experimental pop project Rewilding. Abandoned Kiva is available now in digital and CD formats. The latest single and accompanying music video is also available now to stream and watch. The music of Rewilding is available for licensing for film, tv, web, games and beyond via Hidden Shoal. Check here for more info.

  Following on from 2020’s mesmerising instrumental album Rain Patch, Rewilding’s new album, Abandoned Kiva, traverses exciting new ground for the band. In-keeping with the album’s underlying theme of seeking fresh connections in a world characterised by disconnection, the album introduces vocals by new collaborator Monica Alexandra, while continuing to explore the blurred lines between lo-fi indie-pop, post-rock and film soundtracks.

  With Alexandra’s vocals in the mix alongside Jake McFee’s own, Abandoned Kiva shares musical DNA with Broadcast’s Tender Buttons, where haunting voices weave amid dense, dark musical hallways, flickering with the promise of revelation while perpetually dodging out of reach. Single ‘Astro-Geo Alignment’ typifies the album’s charms, as rickety rhythms are held together by hazy guitars, synths and voices, warping the listener’s perception of the music’s temporal and spatial dimensions.

  “Further Hidden Shoal loveliness… a set made up of intricately teased melodic miniatures with an affectionate nod to both Fridge and Pram… its dreamily reflective tones are teasingly sculptured in a disarmingly fragile whittling” – The Sunday Experience on Rewilding single ‘High Desert’

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• New Rewilding Single and Music Video

  Hidden Shoal is excited to present the new single, ‘Astro-Geo Alignment’, from US experimental pop project Rewilding. The track is lifted from the forthcoming album Abandoned Kiva, which will see release on April 8^th in digital and CD formats with pre-orders now available. The single and accompanying music video is available now to stream and watch. The music of Rewilding is available for licensing for film, tv, web, games and beyond via Hidden Shoal. Check here for more info.

  Following on from 2020’s mesmerising instrumental album Rain Patch, Rewilding’s new album, Abandoned Kiva, traverses exciting new ground for the band. In-keeping with the album’s underlying theme of seeking fresh connections in a world characterised by disconnection, the album introduces vocals by new collaborator Monica Alexandra, while continuing to explore the blurred lines between lo-fi indie-pop, post-rock and film soundtracks.

  With Alexandra’s vocals in the mix alongside Jake McFee’s own, Abandoned Kiva shares musical DNA with Broadcast’s Tender Buttons, where haunting voices weave amid dense, dark musical hallways, flickering with the promise of revelation while perpetually dodging out of reach. Single ‘Astro-Geo Alignment’ typifies the album’s charms, as rickety rhythms are held together by hazy guitars, synths and voices, warping the listener’s perception of the music’s temporal and spatial dimensions.

  “Further Hidden Shoal loveliness… a set made up of intricately teased melodic miniatures with an affectionate nod to both Fridge and Pram… its dreamily reflective tones are teasingly sculptured in a disarmingly fragile whittling” – The Sunday Experience on Rewilding single ‘High Desert’

   

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• New Rewilding Single and Music Video, Album Soon!

  We’re excited to share the new single and accompanying music video from Rewilding. ‘Home Shore Highlights’ is lifted from the forthcoming Rewilding album Rain Patch, out April 10 2020 in digital and vinyl formats. Stream the track via SoundCloud, watch the video on YouTube and pre-order the album via Bandcamp,

  Following on from 2017’s self-titled debut album, Rain Patch continues Rewilding’s exploration of the neglected, dusty spaces found between lo-fi indie-pop, post-rock and film soundtracks. While there are the obvious recent touchstones, such as Fridge, Beak and Olivia Tremor Control, and the less obvious, such as the soundtrack to cult 1980s sci-fi movie Liquid Sky, Rain Patch mines a primitive yet mesmerising vein of instrumental music in which process and result are intimately entwined. The songs on Rain Patch are their own ecosystems, requiring the listener to step inside to fully experience their vivid details.

  This ecological analogy extends to the process of the album’s creation. In 2017 Jake McFee relocated to Glacier Bay, Alaska, where much of the album was conceived and recorded. Given the limitations of not being able to transport all the studio equipment he used on previous Rewilding music, he wrote and recorded many of the original ideas using small, portable instruments such as hand percussion, glockenspiel, acoustic guitar and mini Korg synths. The summers were spent at Glacier Bay, while winters were spent back in Philadelphia, where he was able to overdub drums and electric guitars. Between 2017 and 2019, the songs evolved into the forms heard on Rain Patch, as McFee reckoned with his experience of witnessing the pristine wilderness of Glacier Bay being transformed by climate change.

  The music of Rewilding is available for licensing for film, tv, web, games and beyond via Hidden Shoal. Check here for more info.
  

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• Three Questions With Connected View

  Connected View produce trojan horses. On first listen their output is littered with seemingly innocent, naive late-night instrumental jams, but on each successive spin you begin to notice the patterns and the purposefulness. By this time the woozy, rolling melodies have begun to mesmerise and before you know it you’ve fallen through the wormhole. Kinetic synths, sinuous basslines, live drums and found sounds intertwine to create an atmosphere akin to eavesdropping on Boards of Canada improvising with Fridge. Playful, dirty, brooding, radiant and rhythmic. Magic stuff!
  

  To learn a little more about what makes Connected View tick we asked the boys to pull three questions out of the bag…

  What’s the best show you’ve ever been to?

  The best show we’ve been to was Stereolab opening for Sonic Youth at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia in the year 2000. It was a crossroads in many respects. We were young and impressionable and it changed our view of music henceforth. At the time, we were huge Sonic Youth junkies, had been for years. We had heard of Stereolab, but never really investigated. Their set blew us away. It was a lot of stuff from the Microbe Hunters/ Cobra era. From there on we were Stereolab fanatics. It was just what we needed at that time. The next day I went to the record store and bought everything by Stereolab that they had in stock. Instead of noisy guitar-based music, we started seeking out more synthy and baroque stuff. We dug into the types of music that inspired the Stereolab sound and sought out decades worth of influences and then the influences of the influences. Kraut, psych, electronic, edm, tropicalia, different styles of jazz, synth pop, shoegaze, ect. We loved it all. Its been like peeling an onion. That show set us on the path to eventually making our own music.

  Why make music?

  We’ve been asking ourselves that question forever as well. Not sure its ever been adequately answered or ever will be. It doesn’t have to be. Whenever I ask myself this question I think of a few of my acquaintances who are not creative, or not involved in art in any way, and I just couldn’t imagine living that way, without a creative outlet. It seems like a pointless existence. Sometimes I wish I could go without music, it would save us a lot of time in editing. I’ve realized that whenever I feel down or I am having some difficulties in life, I turn to music more. It is the great escape. Other artists I’ve read in interviews have said things like “it’s the search for the unknown, a beautiful mystery that you get to unfold.” We can go with that too. There’s some kind of nervous energy within us that can only be released through music.

  What’s one of your favourite albums that’s unlikely to be featured on anyone else’s list of favourite albums, and why do you love it?

  One of our favorites that has seemed to be in the rotation for a long, long time & probably isn’t well known is Movietone’s ‘Blossom Filled Streets.’ We enjoyed all of Movietone’s output, but this one most. I was instantly drawn in by how it sounded as if it was recorded on the beach and the ocean imagery imbedded within. It enlightened me to the idea of concept albums beyond the proggy stuff I had previously been exposed to. It helped to form my concepts of what an album is supposed to be. A cohesive group of songs with a central theme tying them together. A theme, but also similar instruments and a style spread over a group of songs. When I hear ‘Blossom Filled Streets’ it connects me to moments and places over many years and now has that nostalgic importance that some albums obtain. To describe the sound to someone who hasn’t heard it would be difficult. The album is kind of a post-rock-ish array of horns, rhythm section, electric guitar, keyboards, bass, and sea sounds with great singing and lyrics.

   

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• Hidden Shoal in Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018 List!

  Hidden Shoal is incredibly honoured to have been selected as one of Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018. Textura is, in our opinion, the premiere new music magazine and favourite of the label team for unearthing and exposing new and exciting new music. This is the second time Hidden Shoal has been selected in Textura’s best labels list and as always we are nestled against some other very special labels, all of who you should check out.

  Now for a very brief and unnecessary acceptance speech – we are nothing without our incredible roster of artists, who continually amaze, inspire and surprise us. Thank you all!

   

   

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• Connected View “Energy Negative House” Out Now!

  We’re excited to announce the release of  Negative Energy House, the new EP by US-based experimental instrumental pop outfit Connected View. The EP is available now via the Connected View Bandcamp.

  “As though pulled from some rarely seen and certainly forgotten, straight to VHS sci-fi cult classic soundtrack, ‘lizard’ prowls with playful impishness ducking between the narrowing corridors that divide the worlds of the Stranger Things community and Zombi, its mooching mutant funk gouging tripping imagined wastelands of dystopic future worlds.” – The Sunday Experience

  Following on from their stunning Hidden Shoal debut release Chun Pop, Connected View’s Energy Negative House finds them at their playful best, weaving rugged analogue tones with playful percussion, aching synth lines and growling bass. Recorded during the course of a single inspired evening, the jumping off point for the tracks was the drum loop from Chun Pop’s ‘Energy Positive House’, which was then reworked to create opening track ‘Empty Surroundings’, effectively becoming a continuation, but shadowy inverse or negative, of the album’s sun-dappled positivity. Reminiscent of Tortoise at their most obtuse, or Dialogue-era Four Tet, Energy Negative House is simultaneously playful and malevolent – a party played out in a maze of warped mirrors.

  Connected View’s music is available for licensing (film, tv, web, games and beyond). More info here.
  

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• New Connected View Single, EP Out Soon!

  We’re excited to present the first cut from from Negative Energy House, the forthcoming EP by US-based experimental instrumental pop outfit Connected View. ‘Lizard’ is available to stream now with the EP seeing release on the 10th of July.

  Following on from their stunning Hidden Shoal debut release Chun Pop, Connected View’s Energy Negative House finds them at their playful best, weaving rugged analogue tones with playful percussion, aching synth lines and growling bass. Recorded during the course of a single inspired evening, the jumping off point for the tracks was the drum loop from Chun Pop’s ‘Energy Positive House’, which was then reworked to create opening track ‘Empty Surroundings’, effectively becoming a continuation, but shadowy inverse or negative, of the album’s sun-dappled positivity. Reminiscent of Tortoise at their most obtuse, or Dialogue-era Four Tet, Energy Negative House is simultaneously playful and malevolent – a party played out in a maze of warped mirrors.

  Connected View’s music is available for licensing (film, tv, web, games and beyond). More info here.
  

  Continue reading →

• Connected View “Chun Pop” Out Now!

  We’re very excited to finally be able to lay Chun Pop on you, the brilliant new album by experimental instrumental pop trio Connected View. The album follows on from single ‘Dark Dogs’, accompanied by a wonderful music video by Australian video artist and Hidden Shoal head honcho Cam Merton. Chun Pop is available now via Bandcamp and all good online stores.

  The on-the-fly yet incredibly dreamy nature of Chun Pop’s magic feels like switching between hidden late-night radio stations after a handful of quaaludes. Whether it’s the filthy, sinuous bass of ‘Galacticraft II’ or the interweaving synth tones of ‘Energy Positive House’, all the musical decisions here feel inspired, without obtrusive thought. Right from brooding opening track and single ‘Dark Dogs’, the album feels like eavesdropping on a wonderfully flowing jam session, with each successive track a gleaming gem that radiates and reflects off its neighbours in fascinating ways.

  Chun Pop is also part of the Hidden Shoal licensing catalogue and available for use across film, tv, games, web and beyond.

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• Connected View ‘Dark Dogs’ – New Track and Music Video

  We’re excited to announce the release of ‘Dark Dogs’, the brooding first single taken from Chun Pop, the new album by experimental instrumental pop trio Connected View. The track is available for download via Bandcamp, for streaming via SoundCloud and is accompanied by a wonderful music video by Australian video artist and Hidden Shoal honcho Cam Merton. Chun Pop will see release on the 21st of March 2018.

  The on-the-fly yet incredibly dreamy nature of Chun Pop’s magic feels like switching between hidden late-night radio stations after a handful of quaaludes. Whether it’s the filthy, sinuous bass of ‘Galacticraft II’ or the interweaving synth tones of ‘Energy Positive House’, all the musical decisions here feel inspired, without obtrusive thought. Right from brooding opening track and single ‘Dark Dogs’, the album feels like eavesdropping on a wonderfully flowing jam session, with each successive track a gleaming gem that radiates and reflects off its neighbours in fascinating ways.

  Continue reading →

Reviews

• Connected View ‘Lizard’ Reviewed at The Sunday Experience

  “much darker than we’ve been known to expect heading out of the Hidden Shoal imprint, this is a sneak peak of the shadowy call signs locked within Connected View’s imminent EP set ‘negative energy house’ via the immensely brooding dark star that is ‘lizard’. As though pulled from some rarely seen and certainly forgotten, straight to VHS sci-fi cult classic soundtrack, ‘lizard’ prowls with playful impishness ducking between the narrowing corridors that divide the worlds of the Stranger Things community and Zombi, its mooching mutant funk gouging tripping imagined wastelands of dystopic future worlds. Expect further visitations soon.”

  – The Sunday Experience

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Artist Photos

Music Videos

Licensing

Connected View’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.