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

Throughout the month of May 2011, Hidden Shoal Recordings is celebrating its fifth birthday. The celebrations kick off on Friday 6 May with the release of its latest free sampler album, Hydrozoa, which compiles 18 singles released over the last 18 months. Other delicious surprises will be revealed in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more info.

Since starting up in Perth, Western Australia in 2006, Hidden Shoal has developed an enviable roster of genre-defying global and local recording artists. With 40+ acts from 10+ different countries ranging from the gorgeous neo-classical/minimal ambient of Antonymes through to the genius space-pop of Hotels and beyond the visionary team at Hidden Shoal continues to play an integral role in promoting exciting new independent music.

The wait is over for the first taste of The Caribbean’s sublime upcoming album Discontinued Perfume out on the excellent Hometapes label. The first single from the album ‘Mr. Let’s Find Out’ is available for free download from Hometapes. The album now has an official release date of 22nd February, 2011. Read more about the album at Hometapes including a track listing and some nice bio/interview material.

Enjoy!

The Caribbean – Mr. Let’s Find Out The Caribbean – Mr. Let’s Find Out

The Solter brothers ride again! Hidden Shoal is excited to share this stunning new music video by Mark Solter for Scott Solter‘s remix of The Caribbean‘s ‘Populations’.

In 2009 American folk-pop deconstructionists The Caribbean teamed up with engineer, producer, mixologist (Superchunk, Spoon, Okkervil River, The Mountain Goats) and one half of Boxharp Scott Solter to bring you Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean, released through Hidden Shoal. The EP comprises five tracks from The Caribbean’s 2007 Hometapes record Populations, which were sent to Solter to deconstruct, warp, and otherwise obliterate. The result is a set of dizzying curve balls that split the difference between glistening songcraft and complete re-construction. Scott Solter’s ‘Populations’ remix rounds out this unique EP in suitably woozy shimmer, like sunlight cutting through a hangover, dissolving the song’s remnants in a pool on the sidewalk. Mark Solter‘s visual accompaniment is a richly smeared, unresolvable abstract  landscape. It is at once inviting and at the same time completely unknowable – a perfect marriage to its sonic partner.

“…and as Solter overhauls their music, he makes us go back and re-hear what was already there in the original versions. Where did these sounds come from? Not from nowhere, they were there…just hidden, or living different lives. Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean may be surprising for fans of the band, but it also should be exciting for everyone.” – Erasing Clouds

The Caribbean are set to release their sublime new album Discontinued Perfume on the ever excellent Hometapes label next year along with an exciting new project for Hidden Shoal (more info in 2011!).

View the video at Vimeo and YouTube. The Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean EP and the single ‘Do You Believe in Dinosaurs? (Scott Solter Remix)’ are both available now through Hidden Shoal. The EP can be streamed in full at the Hidden Shoal Store. Also be sure to check out Scott Solter’s work with Boxharp while you’re there.