Blog: Hidden Shoal Recordings

For anyone lucky enough to be in Perth this Saturday night, head on down to the Rosemount Hotel in North Perth for the launch of Umpire's stupendous debut album Now We're Active , which is now streaming in its entirety on Bandcamp . Tomorrow sees the Australian CD release and international digital release, with the international CD release to follow on 14 July. Visit the HSR Store to snap up some of the action. In further Umpire news, Now We're Active is feature album all this week on the Breakfast with [...]

Day 10 and finally we arrive at the end of Umpire 's brilliant and imminent full length Now We're Active . I could squander words describing track 10 but it's title sums it up better than I ever could. Without further ado we introduce to you the absolutely stunning album closer, 'Cyclones Into Sunshowers'. You can follow the link below to grab the track and embed it on your Facebook page, website, wherever. Even better the album is out tomorrow (June 2) on CD in Australia and digitally everywhere! Cyclones Into Sunshowers [...]

Another awesome write up at the superfine German blog Der Digitale Flaneur . This time for Umpire's ' Green Light District ' single. You'll have to do some Google translating if you're not a German speaker but trust us, its worth it!

Hot on the heels of the KZSU chart news , we now find Antonymes and Slow Dancing Society charting very strongly over at the wonderful WNYU . Antonymes The Licence To Interpret Dreams is sitting pretty at number 12 on the top 30 chart and the reissue of Slow Dancing Society's The Sound of Lights When Dim is holding down the number 17 spot on the same chart!

The mighty KZSU continues its Hidden Shoal love fest. And how could it not with releases from Slow Dancing Society and Antonymes sparkling like diamonds in their music library? Our reissue of Slow Dancing Society's The Sound Of Lights When Dim is Number 9 on the main airplay chart and number 1 on the Classical/Experimental chart while Antonymes The Licence To Interpret Dreams is sitting at number 9 on the Classical/Experimental chart. Check out the charts here . Just wait until we unleash [...]

Time to reveal the second last track from Umpire 's imminent full length Now We're Active . 'Spotlights' sees Umpire stripped back and introspective with just guitar, voice and atmospherics. Geoff Symons takes the lead here and if you listen closely you can actually hear the rest of the band banging on the locked studio door. This is stunning minimal, guitar based melancholia. You can follow the link below to grab the track and embed it on your Facebook page, website, wherever. Tune in here tomorrow for the final track! Spotlights by [...]

Head over to the excellent Phantom Channel z ine to read their wonderful Hidden Shoal birthday feature. The write up includes a run down of the zine's favourite HSR releases over the last 5 years. Unmissable!

Fresh from their awesome performance in the Billboard Battle of the Bands final in Las Vegas, Hotels are prepping to play with Glasvegas at Neumos in Seattle this Saturday night, 4 June. If you're in Seattle you have no excuse to not catch these guys do their thing, playing tracks from their Hidden Shoal releases On The Casino Floor and Where Hearts Go Broke . Advance tickets are now available from etix.com .

Excerpt: "There is something untypically delicate about Lost In Waves Of Light, Antonymes's new composition. Ian M. Hazeldine, creative mind hidden behind this contrasting pseudonym, has just released his most audacious and creative piece on The Licence To Interpret Dreams but what is even more striking is this particular composition which connects various elements from above mentioned album. In comparison to his recent mildly dreamy, more ambient piano-oriented work, Lost In Waves Of Light sounds bit bolder and more resolute. That's mostly caused by Antonymes's beautiful arrangements for violin played by Christoph Berg, better known as Field Rotation. Actually, what makes them so pleasing and captivating [...]

Excerpt: "I am perhaps a bit late to the party – given that Portland Oregon quartet Iretsu launched their album, Fang, late last year. However, with their second single, 'Sexy, No?' a recent release, I think it best to look at the track in the context of the album that it was recorded as part of. Provocative, in both title and bassline, Sexy, No? slouches and swaggers in a fashion that – despite the group's avant-pop reputation is a little reminiscent of Franz Ferdinand's Ulysses. That's not to call it derivative, there's too much nuance here for it to ever be a [...]

Excerpt: "I've only recently discovered the music of Welsh musician Ian M. Hazeldine, who records under the Antonymes moniker. His most recent album, The Licence To Interpret Dreams (Hidden Shoal Recordings), is a lovely collection of ambient and "modern classical" songs in the vein of Max Richter and Jóhann Jóhannsson. "Lost In Waves Of Light" was created from fragments of that album, and I daresay that it's one of the loveliest pieces of music I've heard to date. A swirling, shimmering latticework of gilded electronics, melancholy strings and drones, and sparse piano melodies, "Lost In Waves Of Light" is a song that sounds like [...]

The first day of the new working week not only brings a new Umpire track to preview but also sees their new album featured all week on RTRFM's breakfast show and beyond! RTR subscribers can win a copy of the album to boot. And now for track 8 from Umpire 's forthcoming full length Now We're Active, 'Milking A Thistle'. One the surface a little rock nugget but wait for that unbridled chorus and you'll realise you've been played by the best. This track literally sticks a finger out of the speaker and presses the [...]

Check out the lovely review of Iretsu's stunning 2010 album Fang over at the excellent Reviewed Music zine! Fang has been receiving some renewed love thanks to the release of the second single off the album, ' Sexy, No? ' which is available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store .

Sunday, Happy Sunday! Australian fans will know track 7 of Umpire 's forthcoming full length Now We're Active well. The original version of 'Streamers" featured on the band's gorgeous debut EP (Australian release only) and also won WAM Song of the Year in 2009. Here we have a touched up and remastered version of the track ready to spring upon international audiences and new Australian ears. If you are not humming the lead melody of this song all week after listening, you are not human. You can follow the link below to grab the track [...]

What better way to introduce your weekend than with a brand new Umpire track. Sit back and open your ears as we present track 6 of Umpire 's forthcoming full length Now We're Active . 'On The Fringes" is the stunning centerpiece of the album with its lulling verse that leads you like a drugged candle in the intense slow burn chorus. Devastatingly beautiful! You can follow the link below to grab the track and embed it on your Facebook page, website, wherever. Tune in here tomorrow for track 7 and get ready for the Australian [...]

Check out this wonderful review of Iretsu's new single 'Sexy, No?' at the excellent Phantom Channel zine. And if you haven't already don't forget to download the single for free from the Hidden Shoal Store !

Thanks to the wonderfully talented Perth based director Robert Livings we're excited to present the official music video for Umpire's latest single ' Green Light District '. For the uninitiated, the track marries Umpire's sprawling indie-rock sounds and reflective melancholy, providing the instant gratification of massive sun-drenched melodies and soaring vocals. 'Green Light District' is lifted from Umpire's forthcoming debut album Now We're Active out in Australia June 2nd and everywhere else July 14th. "Umpire's breezy wide-panned progressive rock – smothered in buttery, reverberating humbucker tone – puts you in [...]

As part of our 5th birthday celebrations, during the month of May we'll be looking back at the history of Hidden Shoal, year by year, casting some light on artists and releases that may have been overlooked. For one week, all releases covered below will be available from the Hidden Shoal Store with a 35% discount. Flavoursome! 2008 saw the release of a fresh new raft of superb albums and EPs, including those by new signings The Slow Beings, Fall Electric and City Of Satellites from Australia, Ghost In The Water and Rich Bennett from the USA, and [...]

Excerpt: "Ambient is term which can be thrown about a little too readily these days. But how do you define it? Simple song structures? Sparse instrumental arrangement? Pace? Or a combination of these things? One's thing's for sure: if you were to add beauty to that list, then The License to Interpret Dreams is Ambient 101... Fusing gentle piano thoughts, aching string lines, and fleeting field recordings, Antonymes paints a sonic tapestry of majestically minimal excursions into daydream-esque escapes.... In all it's ghostly choirs and reverbed thumps, it feels like an enormous lumbering spirit, perhaps that of the land itself, [...]

Finally we make TGIF meaningful as we present track 5 of Umpire 's forthcoming full length Now We're Active . 'Jewellery Can Be Disturbing' was described to us by the band as their "big dumb rock song" but in actuality its their "big smart rock song"! Like The Posies playing an ode to Polvo, the track's huge rockery is smothered in layers of melodic charm. You'll be humming this sucker all through the weekend, trust us. You can follow the link below to grab the track and embed it on your Facebook page, website, wherever. Tune [...]