The blinding space pop genius that is Hotel’s much lauded Where Hearts Go Broke is now available on CD from the wonderful Norman Records in the UK. The album is still sitting in a number of big US college stations top 30 CMJ charts and has recently scooped a wonderful review in PopMatters.

But of course you know all this as you are a discerning music lover that already has a copy of this gem in their hands right? If you just shrugged then we will turn away as you quickly head to Normans (UK), n5mailorder (worldwide mail-order and distribution), 78 Records (Perth), Planet (Perth), Deluxa (NYC),  our own store or any other quality music establishment.

Hotels – Cafe Martinique  Hotels – Cafe Martinique

Hidden Shoal Recordings has announced the release of the first track taken from American ambient guitarist Sleeping Me’s debut album Cradlesongs.

Cradlesongs is an homage to the bittersweet rise and fall of fortune, the discovery and evasiveness of identity and truth, the acceptance of distance and disappointment, and the poignancy of an ever-elusive yet omnipresent love. This is no more true than for the sublime melancholy that is ‘Legs Like Gravestone’, the first track to be lifted from the album. Elegant, hopeful and infused with a sad beauty, ‘Legs Like Gravestone’ plays out like an elegy to fallen greatness as much as a passage back to the amniotic haze – an eternal return.

Textural and meticulously composed, the emotive ambience of Sleeping Me is a quiet reminder of all the beauty and personal strife that is experienced in solitude. Tidal currents of delayed guitar carry the listener across an ocean of reverb, cast adrift beneath a brooding sky. Each track hands an elusive secret to the next, hinted at but never revealed.

‘Legs Like Gravestone’ is available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store until the release of Cradlesongs on 26th May 2009. Download a full press release here.

Sleeping Me – Legs Like Gravestone   Sleeping Me – Legs Like Gravestone

Perth Hidden Shoal fans will be pleased to know they can now find more HSR releases at 78 Records. Just added were HC-B’s epic masterpiece Soundcheck for a Missing Movie (RTRFM’s Out To Lunch feature album a few weeks back) as well as My Majestic Star’s gorgeous Too Late, The Day (also an RTRFM mainstay). Jumpel’s Deuxieme Bureau, Hotels Where Hearts Go Broke and Fall Electrics Measure and Step (all three have been RTRFM feature albums!) are also available at 78’s with more to come soon.

78 Records also do national mailorder so Australian fans living outside of Perth have no excuse for not soaking in the flow of awesome music coming out of these here headquarters!

HC-B – Black  HC-B – Black

This week it’s online music/art/film magazine The 405’s first birthday. Happy birthday The 405! As part of the celebrations they’re running competitions all week and prizes include $200 worth of download vouchers for the Hidden Shoal Store.

To be in the running head over to The 405 website check the details.