Stream the album in full and buy it on CD or digital at the Hidden Shoal Store.

If you’ve not had the pleasure of wrapping your ears around Remixed yet then head to the Hidden Shoal Store and preview the album in full.

The European is available now as a limited edition CD postcard as well as all digital formats.

‘Antiquarian Days’ is lifted off Kramies gorgeous EP The European which is available now as a limited edition CD postcard as well as all digital formats.

Markus Mehr follows up his stunning debut album Lava with three new releases. In is the first part of the triptych, comprising two monumental tracks, ‘Komo’ and ‘Ostinato’, each of which clocks in at around 25 minutes, circling around and building upon hypnotic instrumental motifs. ‘Komo’ gradually emerges from silence, its distant, filtered throb reluctantly revealing its source material – a heartbreaking string part whose emotional impact intensifies as the loop clarifies. ‘Ostinato’ is an altogether darker, gnarlier experience, its string loops chewed into distorted knots which are highlighted by treated guitars and crafted electronics.

“In this blissful wanderlust Mehr succeeds in spades creating a completely engrossing, engaging and all together reliable album full of the most powerful ambient-drone tracks this year.” – Tome to the Weather Machine on Lava

“They’re ‘big’ compositions, the sheer scale of the sonic work is rather awe inspiring, but they never sound antagonistic or uncomfortable… it sounds like the ebb and flow of space itself – individual snippets of a grand, repeating, organic process that keeps the universe in balance…” – No Ripcord on Lava

In is  available for purchase  now in digital format and for CD pre-order. The CD version of the album comes as a limited edition two panel CD cardboard sleeve of 100 numbered units with artwork by Stuart Medley. Head to the Hidden Shoal Store for all availability details and read a full press release here.

Markus Mehr – In (excerpt)

In keeping with the theme of We Don’t Look Back For Very Long, ‘The Colour Of Long Days’ is Antonymes’ reworking of music by fellow Hidden Shoal artist Slow Dancing Society. This time ‘The Red Summer Sun’ from “Priest Lake Circa ’88″ is transformed, the original’s shimmering waves of guitar forming a background against which plaintive piano chords resonate beautifully. Antonymes marries SDS’s glistening atmospheres to his own trademark ambient neo-classical minimalism, creating a completely mesmerising hybrid.

“seamlessly weds the neo-classical leanings of Antonymes to the luscious atmospheric soundsculpting specialized in by Slow Dancing Society, resulting in close to thirty minutes of ambient-classical splendour” – Textura on We Don’t Look Back For Very Long, voted one of their favourite EPs of the year

“This album is probably the most heartbreaking set of songs I’ve heard since Bon Iver’s For Emma Forever Ago, or I Am A Bird Now by Antony And The Johnsons. It’s Brian Eno meets a dagger to the heart….a record that deserves album of the year, even four months into 2011.” – Delusions of Adequacy on Antonymes’ The Licence To Interpret Dreams

‘The Colour Of Long Days’ is available as a free download from the Hidden Shoal Store. For all other Antonymes and Slow Dancing Society music (including free downloads, CD’s and digital releases) head to the Hidden Shoal Store. Read a full press release here.

Antonymes meets Slow Dancing Society – ‘The Colour Of Long Days’

On an album crammed to breaking point with hooks, ‘Supply Chins’ has perhaps the catchiest hooks of all. Alternating between a massive fist-pumping chorus and reflective verses, the song builds towards a breathtaking climax punctuated by sumptuous horns, weaving vocals and driving guitars. This is indie-rock at its most unashamedly anthemic.

Umpire combine sprawling indie-rock sounds with reflective melancholy, expertly wielding massive sun-drenched melodies, serpentine guitar parts and soaring vocals to spectacular effect. From singles ‘Green Light District’ and ‘Supply Chins’ through the chiming guitar surge of ‘The Canyon’ to gorgeous finale ‘Cyclones Into Sunshowers’, Now We’re Active is a stunning release, as expansive as it is propulsive, as heartbreaking as it is life-affirming.

‘Supply Chins’ is available now as a free download from the Hidden Shoal Store where you’ll also find Umpire’s amazing debut album Now We’re Active. For more info read a full press release here.

Umpire – ‘Supply Chins’

Oh and stay tuned as we still have free tracks from Umpire and Antonymes/Slow Dancing Society coming your way before the end of the year!

It’s a total win-win so head to the Hidden Shoal Store and check the specials on the front page. The sale ends on the 1st of Jan 2012 and some CD stock is very limited so do be quick.

“The outcome is stunning… With so many different remixers it is as expected some variations here, but it still feels like a wholesome album, tied nicely together by the underlining of City Of Satellites shoegazing dream-pop material… And in some parts, these mixes has not just made the tunes slightly different, or added another kind of quality, but actually turned the better part of them into something more, and by that; better.” – Luna Kafe

The second review appeared in the just out December edition for Kramies‘ The European,

“Kramies has with the aid of producer Todd Tobias (Circus Devil, Guided by Voices) and guitarist David Paolucci, made The European into a delicate melancholic and poetic swirl of pop-delight.” – Luna Kafe

Hopefully you own both these releases and are sitting there nodding your head in agreement. If not however then head straight to the Hidden Shoal Store where you can stream Remixed and The European in full as well as purchase.

City of Satellites -’Moon In The Sea (Slow Dancing Society Remix)’

The Caseworker – ‘Boats’

City of Satellites Remixed is one of WRSU top 5 RPM adds and Kramies The European is one of the top 5 Radio 200 adds,  Salli Lunn’s A Frame of Reference and Kramies’ The European are in Bagel Radio’s top 5 CMJ adds this week,  The Caseworker’s Letters From The Coast continues its long term camp in the Bagel CMJ top 30 charts, Salli Lunn’s A Frame of Reference gets a top 5 CMJ rotation add at KJHK and City of Satellites and Kramies are both charting in the 3WK CMJ top 30. Nice!

Salli Lunn – ‘Parachutes Forever (Markus Mehr Remix)’

We Don’t Look Back For Very Long

The EP is now availble in MP3 and lossless formats and was also released as a limited edition CD package. If you missed out on the CD through Hidden Shoal there may still be limited stock available from Norman Records and Stashed Goods. Head here for digital as well as a full EP stream.

Produced by Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils), The European sets Kramies’ gorgeous voice and acoustic guitar within a glowing tableau, epic in scope yet delicate in detail. The EP fades into view with ‘Intro’, a simple cyclical pattern of guitar, piano and vocals gradually subsumed by drones and distortion. This leads into the majestic, glacial sway of the title track, guaranteed to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Then, ‘Inventors’ is the album’s dark, shadowy heart, a ballad of subtle intensity.

Single ‘Coal Miners Executive Club’ is an emotionally resonant vortex of swooning pop built around an absolutely heartbreaking chord progression on synthesizer, carried skyward as layers and layers of instruments build and build. And the closing ‘Antiquarian Days’ is a fitting fade towards a sepia horizon, burbling loops and chiming guitars accompanying Kramies’ gentle lament.

The European EP is  available digitally as well as a numbered limited edition of 100 cd postcards with artwork by Australian designer and illustrator Stuart Medley. All CD orders come with an immediate download of the album. The first single from the EP, ‘Coal Miners Executive Club’, is also available for free download here. Head to the Hidden Shoal Store to buy and stream the album in full. For more info grab the full press release here.

Kramies – ‘The European’

For the uninitiated, We Don’t Look Back For Very Long sees Antonymes reworking a track from each of fellow Hidden Shoal artist Slow Dancing Society’s four albums, casting radiant new light on the stunning originals. Across almost 30 minutes, Antonymes marries SDS’s glistening atmospheres to his own trademark ambient neo-classical minimalism, creating a completely mesmerising hybrid.

The EP is now availble in MP3 and lossless formats and was also released as a limited edition CD package. If you missed out on the CD through Hidden Shoal there may still be limited stock available from Norman Records and Stashed Goods. Head here for digital as well as a full EP stream.

Antonymes meets Slow Dancing Society – ‘The Grey Sea And The Long Black Land’

The Caseworker – ‘Boats’

Produced by Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard, Circus Devils), The European sets Kramies’ gorgeous voice and acoustic guitar within a glowing tableau, epic in scope yet delicate in detail. The EP fades into view with ‘Intro’, a simple cyclical pattern of guitar, piano and vocals gradually subsumed by drones and distortion. This leads into the majestic, glacial sway of the title track, guaranteed to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Then, ‘Inventors’ is the album’s dark, shadowy heart, a ballad of subtle intensity.

Single ‘Coal Miners Executive Club’ is an emotionally resonant vortex of swooning pop built around an absolutely heartbreaking chord progression on synthesizer, carried skyward as layers and layers of instruments build and build. And the closing ‘Antiquarian Days’ is a fitting fade towards a sepia horizon, burbling loops and chiming guitars accompanying Kramies’ gentle lament.

The European EP will be available digitally as well as a numbered limited edition of 100 cd postcards with artwork by Australian designer and illustrator Stuart Medley. CD Pre-orders are available now through the Hidden Shoal Store ahead of the official release on the 22nd of November. All pre-orders come with an immediate download of the album. The first single from the EP, ‘Coal Miners Executive Club’, is also available for free download here. For more info grab the full press release here.

Kramies – ‘Coal Miners Executive Club’

Kramies – ‘Inventors’

Remixed sees tracks from City Of Satellites’ debut EP The Spook and album Machine Is My Animal receive the remix treatment from Manual, Syntaks, Tim Koch, Slow Dancing Society, Jatun, Tin Manzano and M-13. Tin Manzano’s remix of the title track from Machine Is My Animal is a gorgeously seductive instrumental, where restraint and space are as alluring as the sounds blooming across the stereo field. Syntaks bring their trademark wavering dream-gaze to ‘Victor! Burn City Lights’, resulting in a tantalising, sticky web of melody and beats. M-13’s take on ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ bitcrushes the original to produce an incredibly addictive slice of dreamy electroclash. Slow Dancing Society’s remix of ‘Moon in the Sea’ (from The Spook EP) is as epic and mesmerising as anyone familiar with the SDS catalogue would expect. Tim Koch’s restructuring of ‘BMX’ is masterful, rebuilt from the inside out into stunning avant-pop architecture. Jatun renders ‘Control’ as a fuzzed-out shoegaze surge, before Manual (Jonas Munk) closes the album with his remix of ‘Skeletons’, blurry and sensuous as a half-remembered dream.

“one long trip through a colorful cosmic cloud with a dreamy, mysterious flow and a lush underbelly of celestial sounds… swirling layers of enveloping orchestral harmonies and shooting stars of guitar bursts and cymbal crashes that add brilliant flairs of vaporous and heavenly ambience” – Delusions of Adequacy on Machine Is My Animal

Remixed is available as an exclusive digital release through the Hidden Shoal Store and all good third party online stores. Also be sure to check out the gorgeous music video for Tin Manzano’s remix of ‘Machine Is My Anmimal’ on YouTube or Vimeo. City of Satellites other releases can be streamed and purchased here. Read a full press release here.

City of Satellites -’Moon In The Sea (Slow Dancing Society Remix)’

We Don’t Look Back For Very Long sees Antonymes reworking a track from each of fellow Hidden Shoal artist Slow Dancing Society’s four albums, casting radiant new light on the stunning originals. Across almost 30 minutes, Antonymes marries SDS’s glistening atmospheres to his own trademark ambient neo-classical minimalism, creating a completely mesmerising hybrid.

The EP is now availble in MP3 and lossless formats as well as a limited edition CD package. There is only a handful of the CD packages left in the store after pre-orders so you’ll need to be quick to secure one if you haven’t already. The CDs come in a hand-numbered letterpress edition of 100 on beautiful 700gsm GF Smith board, custom made by Ian M. Hazeldine (AKA Antonymes) and expertly mastered by Wil Bolton. Included in the physical and digital packages is a printed copy of an essay on the release by acclaimed music writer Paul Morley. CD pre-orders also include an immediate digital download of the EP.  If you missed out on the CD through Hidden Shoal there is limited stock available from Norman Records and Stashed Goods.

Head here for Digital and CD purchase as well as a full EP stream.

Antonymes meets Slow Dancing Society – ‘The Grey Sea And The Long Black Land’

Fusing masterful songwriting with electronics and atmospherics, ‘Coal Miners Executive Club’ is an emotionally resonant vortex of swooning pop that simply demands repeat listens. Built around an absolutely heartbreaking chord progression on synthesizer, the song is carried skyward as layers and layers of instruments build and build, Kramies’ voice all the while intoning a timeless melody.

‘Coal Miners Executive Club’ is available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store. It is taken from the forthcoming EP The European, produced by Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard) and featuring guitarist David Paolucci. The EP is released on 22 November in digital format as well as a numbered limited edition of 100 CD postcards.

Letters From The Coast has also received a bunch of glowing reviews and press over the last few weeks in such fabulous publications and blogs as DOA, Noise, Rave Magazine, Groovemine and The Pop! Stereo.

“Without leaning too heavily on foot pedals and production, and utilising some highly defined instrumental dynamics, Letters From The Coast has as much resonance and melodic energy as any of the bands and musicians whose work [The] Caseworker draw their influence from, and it succeeds fully as a complete album. Conor Devlin’s guitar playing can stand alongside that of Frank Black and Graham Coxon, also that of Ian McCulloch in its structured and sustained composition, making every note count and blending the country rock vibes and swirling powerchordage into new and kaliedoscopic shapes. Anyone whose album colllection is incomplete without Ocean Rain, Grand Prix and Park Life will find an equally prominent space in it for this twelve track masterpiece.” – DOA

Head to the HSR Store to download the single ‘National Runner’ for free and to buy the album on CD or in digital format!

[Th]e Caseworker – ‘Boats’

The track is taken from the forthcoming album Remixed, a digital exclusive released on 27 October. Remixed sees tracks from City Of Satellites’ debut EP The Spook and album Machine Is My Animal receive the remix treatment from Manual, Syntaks, Tim Koch, Slow Dancing Society, Jatun, Tin Manzano and M-13. Download the track for free here and watch the video in full HD at Youtube and Vimeo. Check out a full press release here.

We Don’t Look Back For Very Long sees Antonymes reworking a track from each of fellow Hidden Shoal artist Slow Dancing Society’s four albums, casting radiant new light on the stunning originals. Across almost 30 minutes, Antonymes marries SDS’s glistening atmospheres to his own trademark ambient neo-classical minimalism, creating a completely mesmerising hybrid.

We Don’t Look Back For Very Long comes as a limited hand-numbered letterpress edition of 100 on beautiful 700gsm GF Smith board, custom made by Ian M. Hazeldine (AKA Antonymes) and expertly mastered by Wil Bolton. Included is a printed copy of an essay on the release by acclaimed music writer Paul Morley. CD pre-orders also include an immediate digital download of the EP. Orders will start shipping on the 14th of October. The digital release of the EP will be available from the 20th of October.

Pre-order and stream the EP here.

Antonymes meets Slow Dancing Society – ‘The Grey Sea And The Long Black Land’

Now for some important info – we will be making pre-orders available on the 5th of October and we will be mailing out to the Hidden Shoal subscribers list before the public anouncement. So if you want to make sure you get yourself a copy then make sure you’re a subscriber. It’ll be tight as we have 60 of the available 100 units available via the store. We’ll give you a heads up on the other 40 after pre-orders have taken place.

If you have no idea as to what we’re talking about then read the following and listen to the SoundCloud stream below. We Don’t Look Back For Very Long sees Antonymes reworking a track from each of fellow Hidden Shoal artist Slow Dancing Society’s four albums, casting radiant new light on the stunning originals. Across almost 30 minutes, Antonymes marries SDS’s glistening atmospheres to his own trademark ambient neo-classical minimalism, creating a completely mesmerising hybrid.

Stream the first track from the album, ‘The Grey Sea And The Long Black Land’, below.

“Twins and Wives” will see a limited edition DVD release in the coming months.The One River album is available now on CD and digitally worldwide, through Hidden Shoal Recordings. Head to the Hidden Shoal Store for all availability details.

The band have also scooped some nice early press and mentions at Noise, Twiceremoved, Listen Dammit, and Geeks Love To Maths Debate. A bunch more reviews on their way as well. Stay tuned and of course if you haven’t already – grab the album!

The Caseworker – ‘National Runner’

“If you can imagine the pure abstraction of middle C, without the intermediation of breath or fingers touching strings or any effort at all, that’s essentially the sound of One River.” – Dusted

“a mixture of heavily processed guitars, field recordings, and manipulated voices (provided by Wendy Allen) comparable to Brian Eno. Seven songs run seamlessly together, each inhaling and exhaling tone after tone… landscape imagery comes to mind in every song, making listening to this record not so like hearing a story as taking a journey.” – Pitchfork

The album is available now on CD and digital formats worldwide, distributed through Hidden Shoal in Australia and n5mailorder in the US and internationally. Head to the Hidden Shoal Store to stream and purchase the album and grab the free download of the first track taken from the album, ‘The Great Cold’. All CD purchases come with an immediate digital download of the album. One River is accompanied by a stunning album length film by Mark Solter and Laura Solter entitled Twins and Wives. The film will be available for streaming on YouTube and Vimeo on the 30th of September and will see a limited edition DVD release in the coming months.

Scott Solter – ‘The Great Cold’

We Don’t Look Back For Very Long sees Antonymes reworking a track from each of fellow Hidden Shoal artist Slow Dancing Society’s four albums, casting radiant new light on the stunning originals. Across almost 30 minutes, Antonymes marries SDS’s glistening atmospheres to his own trademark ambient neo-classical minimalism, creating a completely mesmerising hybrid.

We Don’t Look Back For Very Long is released on 20 October in limited edition CD and digital format. The CD release comes as a limited hand-numbered letterpress edition of 100 on beautiful 700gsm GF Smith board, custom made by Ian M. Hazeldine (AKA Antonymes) and expertly mastered by Wil Bolton. CD pre-orders are available on 5 October from the Hidden Shoal Store.

Stream the first track from the album, ‘The Grey Sea And The Long Black Land’, below.

On their third album Letters From The Coast The Caseworker exude the feel of a shoegazing Velvet Underground reared by the Flying Nun label – the perfect balance of drone and chime. The band creates an enigmatic intimacy and atmosphere, which they wrap around immaculately crafted pop songs like smoke. Perfectly intoxicating.

With opening track and lead single ‘National Runner’, The Caseworker have an instant pop classic on their hands. The song’s consummate mix of hypnotic guitars and driving rhythm section are perfectly balanced with Conor Devlin’s starry-eyed vocal. Elsewhere, bassist Eimer Devlin assumes lead vocal duties for ‘The Slow Track’ and ‘Sea Years’, both reminiscent of prime Yo La Tengo, while standout ‘Boats’ carries the listener away on its buoyant yet melancholic waves of arpeggios and feedback. The album exudes a wonderful sense of timelessness and romanticism – these are songs to attach to memories.

“The Caseworker extract darkness from inside whispery, ambient pop… completely enraptured and awesomely dazed” – Rolling Stone

Letters From The Coast is out now through Hidden Shoal Recordings and is available in CD and digital formats featuring stunning illustrated artwork by Stuart Medley. Check out the full press release here. The single ‘National Runner’ is available now as a free download.

Also don’t forget to enter the Hotels comp also running over at Scene Point Blank. Check it out here.

“a beguiling album of sunburst guitar melodies, sitting on a foundation of drone, with a thin gauze of hazy suspense draped over it.”

Read the full album review by Conor O’Toole over at The Underground of Happiness.

Heresy and Rite producer Jonas Munk (Manual) takes on ‘The Invention of Steel’, rendering the song a brilliant, cascading and hypnotic krautrock jam. Previously unreleased track ‘50 Kisses’ is reworked by TV Baby as a driving, lo-fi chase scene, while ‘White Sight’, also previously unreleased, rounds out the album in fine style, with its main riff simultaneously drunken and laser-guided in intensity.

“… Salli Lunn persistently avoid any repetition or similar themes – and take every opportunity to push their music into new territories and expand on their own musicianship… on Heresy & Rite, this act of innovation and unpredictability delivers with extreme accuracy.” – No Ripcord

A Frame of Reference is available as an exclusive digital release through the Hidden Shoal Store and all good third party online stores. Album Heresy and Rite is also available worldwide in CD and digital formats and for the first time is now available through Hidden Shoal on vinyl. Be sure to check out the awesome music video for Scott Solter’s remix of ‘Mirror Girl’.

Salli Lunn – ‘The Invention of Steel (Manual Remix)’

“a mixture of heavily processed guitars, field recordings, and manipulated voices (provided by Wendy Allen) comparable to Brian Eno. Seven songs run seamlessly together, each inhaling and exhaling tone after tone… landscape imagery comes to mind in every song, making listening to this record not so like hearing a story as taking a journey.” – Pitchfork on Scott Solter’s One River

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. He has also executed a number of remixes, including Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean (Hidden Shoal, 2009), as well as remixes for Division Day, Voices Voices, and Neon Indian, plus Hidden Shoal band Salli Lunn’s track ‘Mirror Girl’. He is a member of The Balustrade Ensemble, producing 2007’s Capsules for Dynamophone Records, and Hidden Shoal’s very own Boxharp with Wendy Allen.

‘The Great Cold’ is available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store. One River is released on 29 September (CD + Digital) and will be available for CD pre-orders from 15 September from n5Mailorder. View the stunning video accompaniment on Youtube or Vimeo.

With ‘National Runner’, The Caseworker have an instant pop classic on their hands. The song’s consummate balance of drone and chime features a heady mix of hypnotic guitars and driving rhythm section, all perfectly offset by Conor Devlin’s starry-eyed vocal. Learning that the track is an ode to famed Ethiopian Olympic long-distance runner Miruts Yifter makes all the more sense after being doused in its heady atmosphere.

“The Caseworker extract darkness from inside whispery, ambient pop… completely enraptured and awesomely dazed” – Rolling Stone

‘National Runner’ opens the band’s forthcoming third album Letters From The Coast, which sees The Caseworker continue to deliver their own unique sonic magic. The album has the feel of a shoegazing Velvet Underground reared by the Flying Nun label, creating an enigmatic intimacy and atmosphere, which the band wrap around immaculately crafted pop songs like smoke. Perfectly intoxicating. Letters From The Coast (Hidden Shoal, 2011) was recorded by Monte Vallier (also of the band Swell) at San Francisco’s Ruminator Audio Studios (Young Prisms, Weekend, Tommy Guerrero).

‘National Runner’ is available now as a free download. Read a full press release here. Letters From The Coast is out 22 Sept, 2011.

[The] Caseworker – ‘National Runner’ by Hidden Shoal

This comes as we prepare for the release of the upcoming EP We Don’t Look Back For Very Long which sees Antonymes remix and re-construct one track from each of the four  Slow Dancing Society albums. The release will be available as a gorgeous hand made limited edition package as well a digitally. More on this very soon!

With each successive release, garage-dreampop trio [The] Caseworker deliver their own timeless sonic magic. Their upcoming 2011 album Letters From The Coast has the feel of a shoegazing Velvet Underground reared by the Flying Nun label – the perfect balance of drone and chime. The band creates an enigmatic intimacy and atmosphere, which they wrap around immaculately crafted pop songs like smoke. Perfectly intoxicating.

Dutch-American singer-songwriter Kramies has been honing his inimitable craft for many years, bewitching all who have heard his music along the way. Fusing masterful songwriting with electronics and atmospherics, stepping into a Kramies song means being swept up into an emotionally resonant vortex of swooning pop that simply demands repeat listens.

[The] Caseworker’s new single ‘National Runner’ is released on 18 August, with their new album Letters From The Coast released on 22 September. Kramies new EP The European is released on 22 November with a single preceding the release in October.

Also lovely to hear ‘Milking a Thistle’ beaming out of the breakfast show on Triple J the other day. Nice one Tom Ballard!

Also be sure to tune in to RTRFM Friday morning (Perth time) where the band (well two of them) will be interviewed by the lovely Peter Barr ahead fo the gig. Oh and check out the sweet little review of the single in this week’s Beat magazine (Melbourne). And if you’ve not yet nabbed your free download of the single then…….come do I need to finish that. GO HERE NOW!

‘Mirror Girl (Scott Solter Remix)’ is taken from the forthcoming album A Frame of Reference, which includes remixes of Heresy and Rite tracks by artists such as Markus Mehr, City Of Satellites and Manual, plus all new, previously unreleased material recorded with Jonas Munk (Manual) during the Heresy and Rite sessions.

‘Mirror Girl (Scott Solter Remix)’ is available for download now from the Hidden Shoal Store and its accompanying video is available for streaming on Youtube and Vimeo. A Frame of Reference is released on 8 September 2011. Album Heresy and Rite is available worldwide in CD and digital formats through Hidden Shoal Recordings. Read a full press release here.

“Imagine the ethereal pop of early Múm, the whimsy of Sigur Rós’ more optimistic moments, and (occasionally) the emotional edge of The Twilight Sad. This is consummate indie post-rock laced with Australiana, and well worth checking out.“ – Rave Magazine

‘Surry Hills’ gradually blooms from a shimmering haze of harmonics and ride cymbal into a delicious interweave of resonant guitars and woodwind melodies. The song’s restraint becomes its strength as the hairs on the back of your neck slowly rise. Inhabiting a similar sonic space to Sweden’s marvellous trio Tape, ‘Surry Hills’ is destined to garner a fresh new raft of fans for Apricot Rail’s addictive brand of melodic instrumental pop.

“…what genre-defining bands like Explosions in the Sky take eight or nine minutes to do Apricot Rail are capable of in three and a half. This impeccable sense for the immediacy of great pop structures is arguably one of their biggest assets, and is displayed masterfully on their debut album.” – Drum Media CD of the Week

Formed in 2008, Apricot Rail is Ambrose Nock (guitar), Jack Quirk (guitar), Matthew Saville (drums), Daniel Burt (bass), Mayuka Juber (clarinet/flute) and Justin Manzano (guitar/electronics). In November 2008, the then-quintet headed into Kingdom studios under the guidance of Simon Struthers (Umpire, Adam Said Galore, Mukaizake) to record their self-titled debut album, released on Hidden Shoal in 2009. Since its release, the album has been wowing fans and critics alike, with feature album status galore across Australian radio, charting in US college radio (including a number 1!), and receiving glowing reviews left, right and centre.

‘Surry Hills’ is available now as a free download from the Hidden Shoal Store, along with Apricot Rail’s self-titled debut album. The single is launched on 6th August at The Bakery in Perth – check out the Facebook event page for more info. Their forthcoming sophomore album will be released in 2012. In the second half of 2011 the band are proud to announce prestigious support slots with the likes of Marnie Stern and Akron/Family. Stay tuned for more details.

On Now We’re Active, Umpire combine sprawling indie-rock sounds with reflective melancholy, expertly wielding massive sun-drenched melodies, serpentine guitar parts and soaring vocals to spectacular effect. From lead single ‘Green Light District’ through the chiming guitar surge of ‘The Canyon’ to gorgeous finale ‘Cyclones Into Sunshowers’, Now We’re Active is a stunning release, as expansive as it is propulsive, as heartbreaking as it is life-affirming.

Immaculately produced by bassist Simon Struthers at Forensic Audio, the album’s ten tracks bring progressive rock influences, indie-pop sensibilities and shades of math-rock into explosive collision, then shape them into songs that are at once epic and intimate. After the last song fades you’re left with a lump in your throat and admiration of how Umpire’s songcraft and sonics are so consistently elegant, melodic and widescreen. Now We’re Active is much more than a collection of tracks – it’s an album that blossoms beautifully on repeat plays.

“Now We’re Active is an album which reveals a band whose imaginations are now finally within their own grasp as musicians. Alternately full on, grandiose and brilliantly inventive, Umpire have very nearly made a prog rock masterpiece, and I say nearly only because their more ambitious ideas are continuing to develop.” – DOA

“Beautiful, chiming guitar pop with layered, soaring vocals from the Perth band’s upcoming new album. Comes on like The Shins with more gumption. “Widescreen” (always a description that gets my attention), it says here, and I concur.” – The Underground of Happiness on ‘Supply Chins‘

Now We’re Active is available now on CD and digitally worldwide, distributed through Hidden Shoal in Australia and n5mailorder in the US and internationally. Head to the Hidden Shoal Store for all availability details. Read a full press release here and be sure to check out the fantastic music video for single ‘Green Light District‘.

‘Supply Chins’ by Umpire