HC-B’s latest album, Soundcheck for a Missing Movie, has received mighty praise (and then some) on Vermont college radio station WRUV. Hop across to WRUV to read this glowing review.  Anything that is going to “blast your face off for its entirety” is definitely something you’ll want to get involved with.

Soundcheck for a Missing Movie is available at the Hidden Shoal Store.

HC-B – A Dusty Book, A City of Lights HC-B – A Dusty Book, A City of Lights

Ambrose Nock from instrumental pop quintet Apricot Rail has been interviewed on Sydney’s Radio 2SER. He talks about the process of recording the Rail’s self titled debut album and the price of a decent glockenspiel, among other things. Check out the transcript here. Apricot Rail is available from the Hidden Shoal Store.

Apricot Rail – If You Can’t Join Them, Beat Them Apricot Rail – If You Can’t Join Them, Beat Them

Hidden Shoal Recordings is proud to announce the signing of American ambient experimental pop duo Boxharp to its roster of artists.

For American duo Boxharp, inspiration comes from 78s of Burl Ives and John Jacob Niles’ children’’s songs played on a Fisher Price record player, and Zoviet France albums encased in burlap and tinfoil. Field recordings, layered harmonies, found objects, obsolete hand-me-down machines – all these things brought producer Scott Solter and singer Wendy Allen together. In their music, the disparate parts lead down diverse paths, rich in atmosphere and emotional resonance.

Boxharp is singer Wendy Allen and engineer/producer Scott Solter. Allen and Solter moved to the quiet, lonely, rural atmosphere of the American South in 2006. Allen says, “We moved there for the space and the solitude and we were unprepared for how much of that we got. This album reflects the experience. Themes of nameless grief that run through my family roots in the Virginia mountains make up a large part of the lyrical content.”

Allen has played and toured with several bands since the start of the decade, including The Court and Spark, Tarantel, Paula Frasier (of Tarnation), William Lazarus, and Howard Hello, as well as writing film scores for small indie film projects. She is a member of The Balustrade Ensemble.

As a producer, recordist and mixer, Solter has worked with numerous indie artists, including Erik Friedlander, Spoon, The Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice, Lazarus, The Forms, Pattern is Movement, Superchunk, Okkervil River, Liam Singer, and St Vincent. Solter has released two solo albums, The Brief Light on Manifold Records (2003) and One River on Tell-All Records (2005). He has also executed a number of remixes, including the full-lengths Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean (Hidden Shoal, 2009), Scott Solter Remixes Pixel Revolt in Analog (digital download, 2007), Canonic: Scott Solter Plays Pattern is Movement (Home-Tapes 2006), and MGM Endings/Cellar Door Remixes (Artichoke, 2004), as well as remixes for Division Day, Voices Voices, and Neon Indian, among others. He is a member of The Balustrade Ensemble and produced 2007’s Capsules for Dynamophone Records.

Boxharp’s debut EP Loam Arcane is released digitally through Hidden Shoal Recordings on 12th January 2010, preceded by the single ‘Rainbirds’ on 1st December 2009. Their forthcoming album The Green is due for release on 20th April 2010, preceded by a single on 2nd March 2010.

Download a full press release here.

The latest from Sankt Otten, Morgan Weider Lustig, continues to gather praise, this time over at German site Titel Magazin. You can read that review here, or read a translated excerpt at the artists’ reviews section. As always, you can drop by the Hidden Shoal Store to stream and purchase this album.

Sankt Otten – X Für U Sankt Otten – X Für U