Hidden Shoal Recordings have announced the digital pre-release of the debut album by Australian dream-pop duo City of Satellites.

On Machine Is My Animal, City of Satellites deliver on the exceptional promise of their debut EP The Spook – and then some. This pristine album synthesizes ’80s pop aesthetics with ’00s production values to create a truly monumental sound. From the Eastern-influenced synth lines of superb opener ‘BMX’ to the crystalline drift of closer ‘Sky Rider’, Machine Is My Animal carries the listener through a glistening science fiction future, as viewed from a wistful child’s window.

On single ‘Stranger Than Fiction’, swirling synth sounds, Thomas Diakomichalis’ propulsive drumming and Jarrod Manuel’s pure vocal tones glide beautifully. Its aching melodies to the fore, the song taking heartrending turns before dissolving into the ether. ‘Skeletons’ glides and weaves like a hovercar over the course of seven levitating minutes, before the epic title track stomps across a dystopian future like a Transformer with a conscience, its robot heart bleeding as its surveys the devastation it has wrought. This balance between cold synthesized tones and a warm emotional heart creates a delicious balance throughout.

“equipped with hulking ice tipped chorus’ of synth chime serenades that cast out a colourfully vibrant swirling haze that’s both as demurring as it is intoxicating all the time regaling within a disarming shy eyed aspect brought to the fore by Jarrod’s softly caressing feminine like vocals and arrested by the uplifting backdrops of starry eyed dream weaves - one we suspect for admirers of OMD’s ’Souvenir’” – Losing Today on single ‘Stranger Than Fiction’

“You know when you catch a faint smell of something that totally spins you out and reminds you of something you haven’t though about since you were six, completely changing your day? City Of Satellites have synthesised this feeling into music… traces of shoegaze heroes M83 and My Bloody Valentine, with faint, androgynous vocals drifting in and out of clarity over a dreamy soundscape… an emotionally exhausting and incredibly satisfying little trip” – Drum Media EP of the Week (The Spook)

Machine Is My Animal is now available in all digital formats, including lossless, from the Hidden Shoal Store and all good third-party digital music stores (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, LaLa, Bandcamp etc). Fans will now to have to wait it out a little longer for the official CD release which has now been put back to January 21st, 2010.

Read a full press release here and stream the album in full as well as check all digital availability here.

City of Satellites - BMX  City of Satellites - BMX

Check out the lovely mini review of Rich Bennett’s sublime Music For Underwater Supermarkets at Proper Songs. If you’ve not yet had the pleasure of losing yourself in the intoxicating allure of Rich Bennett’s shining and strangely moving symphony to daydreaming then head straight to the HSR Store where you can stream the album in full and buy it.

Rich Bennett - Entrance  Rich Bennett - Entrance

Hidden Shoal Recordings today announced the release of Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise, the new EP by English ambient drone architect Stray Ghost.

On his latest EP, Anthony Saggers works his magic in reverse. Rather than begin at the bottom, exploring the depths of melancholy, Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise is dominated by waves of rich, major-key chords, which seem to be simultaneously advancing and receding, suspending the listener. It is perhaps one of the most light-filled and hopeful of the Stray Ghost releases thus far. However, Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise is still frayed at the edges and cut through with vulnerability. Although reinforced by glowing, enveloping drones, there’s ever the sense that everything is about to fall apart – albeit beautifully.

Ten-minute opener ‘La Belle Semaine’ blossoms into life with wavering Mellotrons and blankets of rich synths. Halfway through, the music begins to disappear, before shimmering back into life with a tremolo pulse. Shorter centrepiece ‘Au Revoir à la Belle Semaine’ reprises the wavering Mellotron, but fractured by metallic tones and distant ringing. Finally, ‘Réminiscences Et Rêves De Beauté’ takes all the elements of the preceding tracks, aerates them, then sends the tape loop disintegrating into nothingness across another ten spellbinding minutes.

“Of all the daring new punks giving old ambient stalwarts a run for their money, Saggers is at the top of the heap, a prime example of the refreshing and beautiful ambient renaissance of the past few years” – Jack Britton, The Silent Ballet

Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise is the first in a special new series of digital-only releases by Hidden Shoal Recordings. The EP is available now in all digital formats, including lossless. For all availability information, visit the Hidden Shoal Store. The release of Each Paradise is a Lost Paradise is a precursor to the epic full-length reply to Stray Ghost’s 2008 masterpiece Losthilde, to be released by Hidden Shoal on January 27th, 2010.

Read a full press release here.

Stray Ghost - Au Revoir à la Belle Semaine   Stray Ghost - Au Revoir à la Belle Semaine