We’re pleased to announce that a range of Hidden Shoal CD releases are now available for online purchase by Australian customers directly through the Hidden Shoal store. Even better all CD purchases include an immediate MP3 download of the release and shipping is free! Currently available titles include CD’s by Umpire, Wes Willenbring, Hotels, Slow Dancing Society, Markus Mehr, Liam Singer, Iretsu, Sankt Otten, Salli Lunn, My Majestic Star, Mukaizake, Jumpel, City of Satellites, Boxharp, Apricot Rail and Antonymes with more added soon. Be quick as we’re getting very near sold out status for a number of titles.

And of course our US and international fans should continue to head to our wonderful distributor n5mailorder for Hidden Shoal CD titles.

Ever-wonderful blog The Underground of Happiness, home to the musings of Conor, the presenter of the Cork radio show of the same name, has recently featured an article about our 5th birthday celebrations. Conor chats about some of his favourite HSR releases, provides links to recent interviews with Antonymes and Hotels from his show, and generally says nice things about us. Thanks Conor! We love you too!

As part of our 5th birthday celebrations, 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 30% discount. Flavoursome!

In 2009, Hidden Shoal continued to release stunning music from around the world, including debut Hidden Shoal albums from Hotels, HC-B, Tarcutta, Sleeping Me, City Of Satellites and Elisa Luu, sophomore albums from Jumpel and Wes Willenbring, a third album from Sankt Otten, and EPs from Stray Ghost and Down Review (a new collaboration between Arc Lab’s Medard Fischer and Near The Parenthesis’ Tim Arndt).

2009 was also notable for the release of our compilation album A Million Square Miles, a project endeavouring to showcase Western Australian talent to the US (the titular million square miles). After more than three years of sharing independent music far and wide, A Million Square Miles represented a key facet of the Hidden Shoal Recordings story. The album brings together a pair of tracks from each of the then eight WA-based artists on the Hidden Shoal roster: Mukaizake, Apricot Rail, Fall Electric, Glassacre, Toby Richardson, My Majestic Star, The Slow Beings and Tangled Star.

2009 also saw Hidden Shoal join forces with The Caribbean and Scott Solter in a single EP. This not only began a special relationship with the wonderful The Caribbean and created an ongoing avenue for them to release some of their more experimental offerings, but it also began the label’s relationship with Scott Solter, which eventually led us to Boxharp (Scott Solter and Wendy Allen).

HSR046:   Jumpel Deuxieme Bureau
HSR047:   Hotels Where Hearts Go Broke
HSR048:   HC-B Soundcheck For A Missing Movie
HSR049:   The Caribbean Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean EP
HSR050:   Sleeping Me Cradlesongs
HSR051:   Tarcutta Tarcutta
HSR052:   Tangled Star That Time EP
HSR053:   Apricot Rail Apricot Rail
HSR054:   Down Review From Here, For Anyone EP
HSR055:   Sankt Otten Morgen Wieder Lustig
HSR056:   Elisa Luu Chromatic Sigh
HSR057:   Various artists A Million Square Miles
HSR058:   Wes Willenbring Close, But Not Too Close
HSR059:   Stray Ghost Each Paradise Is A Lost Paradise EP
HSR060:   Mukaizake Unknown Knowns
HSR061:   City Of Satellites Machine Is My Animal

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.