The Slow Beings
“The hugely experienced songwriting duo of Craig Hallsworth (The Bamboos, The Healers) and Liam Coffey (The Rainyard, Header) brings influences from both sides of the Atlantic to the table…it’s hardly surprising the album, for the most part, ‘blurs’ its influences into forms both fresh and timeless.” – Drum Media
Out of the ashes of some of Perth’s finest indie bands (The Bamboos, The Rainyard, The Healers, Header, Tangled Star) The Slow Beings may well have been one of indie rock’s new shining lights. The band had a way of delivering wonderfully crafted and composed melodic songs with an almost imperceptible prankishness, making the world an accidentally more beautiful and arbitrarily more profound place to cut a lonely figure.
Discography
We Know Why The Earth Moves
May 2008
On their masterful debut We Know Why The Earth Moves The Slow Beings have managed to channel a range of pop and rock influences into something that is uniquely their own. Tracks such as the much loved radio single ‘I Waste The Sea’, ‘Carson Dyle’ and ‘Nil By Rote’ expose the wonderful duality and underlying playfulness at work within The Slow Beings music. Shifting from Smiths-like guitar pop to driving, hook laden indie rock through to country tinged indie pop often all within the one song, these tracks leave you in a far different musical and emotional place than you set out in.
‘(Let’s) Get (Married)’ is perfect, crafted pop with the type of warm intangible immediacy you’d expect to find on a Wrens album. Similarly ‘Yoskar-Ola Song’ exudes a kind of affected yet magnetic humanity all in the guise of gorgeous alt-country pop. The Slow Beings have an innate knack for re-inventing the edges of indie rock and pop through a reverence for its form and power, yet irreverence in its handling.
Biography
In Chronology And Out Of It: On The Same Page With The Slow Beings
The Present Day: Anonymous employee receives directive to begin band biography with quote from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (or Bob Bottom’s Bugged ).
2005: Craig Hallsworth (electrical guitar, vox) and Liam Coffey (electrical bass guitar, vox) begin correspondence, CH in Skinner Street, Holborn, and LC in Bishop’s Gate, Windsor.
2006: Dean Willoughby (drum set) leaves band.
2007: Hugh Veldon (drum set) joins band. Carl Properjohn (electrical guitar, vox) leaves band.
1822: The Shelley’s settle at Casa Magni, near Lerici.
2007: Hugh Veldon ponders his future with band.
2005: CH and LC compose first song together. “We Know Why The Earth Moves” will eventually become title track of SBs’ desperately-anticipated debut album.
1819: They depart for Leghorn.
2007: SBs complete recording at Bergerk! Studios in Chester Square. Lorne Clements (of Cologny, near Geneva) dispatches piano and hammond organ parts by sea mail.
2007: Hugh Veldon ponders his future with the Baxter family, of Dundee.
1832: SBs (CH, HV, LC and the other LC) tour Northcote and Abbotsford. All band members compete vigorously for opportunity to drive Rent-A-Bomb van to and from concert appearances. Also, Percy Florence is entered at Harrow.
2008: SBs sign to Hidden Shoal Recordings, celebrate with jar of Explosive Mixture.
1826: SBs receive rapturous plaudits for debut single, “I Waste The Sea,” from London Magazine, the Westminster Review and Keepsake.
2009: SBs airlifted into Chamounix on suicide mission to make valley as beautiful and picturesque as that of Servox.
News
Hidden Shoal in Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018 List!
Hidden Shoal is incredibly honoured to have been selected as one of Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018. Textura is, in our opinion, the premiere new music magazine and favourite of the label team for unearthing and exposing new and exciting new music. This is the second time Hidden Shoal has been selected in Textura’s best labels list and as always we are nestled against some other very special labels, all of who you should check out.Now for a very brief and unnecessary acceptance speech – we are nothing without our incredible roster of artists, who continually amaze, inspire and surprise us. Thank you all!
Continue reading →Craig Hallsworth Announced for RTRFM’s In The Pines!
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We have more exciting live news for you. Craig Hallsworth has just been announced as part of the In The Pines 2017 line up. He and his excellent new live band will playing alongside the likes of Jebediah, Sodastream, Institut Polaire, Childsaint, Doctopus, Tangled Thoughts of Leaving and many more. In The Pines is an RTRFM and Perth yearly institution with the line up and even never failing to impress. It all happens on the 30th April with pre-sale tickets available now for a ridiculously cheap $35 or $30 if you’re an RTRFM subscriber. All details available here.
Apricot Rail and Craig Hallsworth in Tone Deaf Best Of List!
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Apricot Rail’s ‘Scarecrow’ and Craig Hallsworth’s ‘We’re Too Far Away (My Other Future, My Other Youth)’ have been featured in Will Backler’s (RTRFM Music Director) “The 8 Best Aussie Songs You Haven’t Heard” list over at Tone Deaf. Nice!Eat Your Friends: A Hidden Shoal 10th Anniversary Compilation
Hidden Shoal is excited to end the celebration of its 10th year of existence with the new compilation album Eat Your Friends, comprising remixes and covers of Hidden Shoal artists, by Hidden Shoal artists. This freely downloadable album not only showcases the wealth of original music released through Hidden Shoal, but also the creative ingenuity and deft musical touch of the remixers and cover artists.From searing solar-flared adaptations to delicately reconstructed covers, deep space jam reworkings, and shimmering ambient tapestries, Eat Your Friends reimagines the Hidden Shoal discography in new and beautiful ways, playing to all the strengths of the roster’s dizzying array of talent.
Includes remixes and covers by: Antonymes, Arc Lab, Glanko, Wayne Harriss, Liminal Drifter, Makee, Chloe March, Markus Mehr, Erik Nilsson, REW<<, Slow Dancing Society, Tin Manzano, Willem Gator, and Zealous Chang of music by: Arc Lab, Brother Earth, Cheekbone, City of Satellites, Medard Fischer, Gilded, Glanko & Daniel Bailey, Kryshe, Memorybell, Erik Nilsson, perth, Slow Dancing Society, Tangled Star, Umpire, and Zealous Chang.
Eat Your Friends is available now as a free download via Bandcamp and is also streamable via SoundCloud. Listen and then throw yourself into the wormhole as you explore the originals and more work by the remixers and cover artists. For all the filmmakers, games designers and others in need of engaging music, don’t forget that all tracks in our catalogue are available for licensing (film, tv, games, compilations etc).
Continue reading →New Craig Hallsworth Single!
We’ve been itching to give you a taste of the sublime debut album from the inimitable Western Australian songwriter Craig Hallsworth and now the itching can cease! ‘We’re Too Far Away (My Other Future, My Other Youth)’ is the first single lifted from What’s The Story With This Hole? which will see release on the 24th of October 2016. Many will know the man from some of Perth’s pivotal seminal outfits such as The Bamboos, The Healers, wild palms, Zuvuya, Outstation, The Slow Beings, Tangled Star so this solo outing should rightly come with some level of excitement and expectation. We can guarantee that you’ll have your expectations and me and your appetites whet! Stream the single here and download it for free here. More on the new album below.With over 30 years of songwriting experience under his belt, Craig Hallsworth makes What’s The Story With This Hole? feel effortless yet boundless. Recorded and produced with long-time collaborator Al Smith (DrAlienSmith, Bergerk Studios), the album represents the most musically developed and fully realised recording the pair have delivered to date. On the surface, these are perfectly composed and innately melodic pop/rock songs, with Hallsworth’s guitars alternately shimmering and snarling around his unmistakably keening vocals. The real magic, however, lies a little concealed; songs often end up somewhere very different from where they started, and Hallsworth’s often surreal lyrical excursions act in striking counterpoint to the music.
It’s this juxtaposition that makes What’s The Story With This Hole? so special – musically rich and familiar sounds taken into unrelated narrative territories. In Hallsworth’s own words, “To me, the mysterious undecidability in the words plays a crucial part in the overall experience of the songs, making them events of sense and sensation. It isn’t so much that I consider the lyrics to be poetry, but I think a sense of poetry would be useful in approaching these songs.”
“Craig Hallsworth knows his way around a tune with this set of sparkling power-pop, set with a country twang and cosmic touch” – 2ser on Tangled Star’s album Let’s Adjourn to the Garden
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New Craig Hallsworth Solo Album Out Late October
Continue reading →We’re excited to announce that the inimitable Craig Hallsworth (Tangled Star, The Slow Beings, The Bamboos, The Healers and beyond) will release his debut solo album, What’s The Story With This Hole?, via Hidden Shoal on October 24th. With over 30 years of songwriting experience under his belt, Craig Hallsworth makes What’s The Story With This Hole? feel effortless yet boundless. Recorded and produced with long-time collaborator Al Smith (DrAlienSmith, Bergerk Studios), the album represents the most musically developed and fully realised recording the pair have delivered to date. The first single from the album, ‘We’re Too Far Away (My Other Future, My Other Youth)’, drops on the 13th of September.Hidden Shoal is 10!
Hidden Shoal is extremely excited to be celebrating its 10th birthday this month. It’s hard to believe that back in May 2006, Perth-based musicians Cam Merton, Stuart Medley and Malcolm Riddoch began Hidden Shoal Recordings as a means to put out releases by local artists. Tim Clarke, based in Melbourne, joined the team in 2007. Hidden Shoal has since gone on to become a much-loved independent label and publisher, releasing over 120 albums from a diverse range of international artists and licensing music from its catalogue across film, tv, web and compilation.Stay tuned for special anniversary announcements in the coming months!
Continue reading →Outstation's "Let The Mess Shine In" Now Available For Streaming and Download!
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Hidden Shoal is excited to be able to share the brilliant 1999 album Let The Mess Shine In from the Craig Hallsworth-led, Perth-based Outstation. Loud, brash, melodic and always engaging, Outstation lit the stage up wherever they played. Let The Mess Shine In captures this raw power beautifully. The band consisted of Craig Hallsworth (guitar, vocals), Jim Butterworth (bass), Jamie Hamilton (drums).“…one of the most ferociously heavy live bands going round in the mid-90s. They played ear-splitting indie rock and were killer live. Critically acclaimed, sadly underappreciated, they were a true gem, delivering top shelf servings of gritty indie rock.” – Life is Noise
Thanks to the band, the album is now available in full for streaming and download via the Hidden Shoal SoundCloud. Fans of Hallsworth’s work should also check out his current project Tangled Star and his previous band The Slow Beings whose releases are available now through Hidden Shoal.
Hidden Shoal Turns Six!
Throughout the month of May 2012, Hidden Shoal Recordings is celebrating its sixth birthday. Later in the month will be the release of the latest free sampler album, Triangulating Nature, which compiles 12 singles released over the last 12 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 British ambient artist Antonymes through to American musical experimentalist Todd Tobias and beyond, the committed team at Hidden Shoal continues to play an integral role in promoting exciting new independent music.
Come join us and keep an eye on the Hidden Shoal Store for lots of cool special birthday deals!
Continue reading →2009: A Million Square Miles
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
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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
Reviews
Craig Hallsworth “What’s The Story With This Hole?” Out Now!
We’re excited to announce the official release of Craig Hallsworth‘s brilliant new album What’s The Story With This Hole?. The album is available now as a limited edition CD and in digital format via BandCamp, iTunes, Spotify and all the other other usual suspects.With over 30 years of songwriting experience under his belt, Craig Hallsworth makes What’s The Story With This Hole? feel effortless yet boundless. Recorded and produced with long-time collaborator Al Smith (DrAlienSmith, Bergerk Studios), the album represents the most musically developed and fully realised recording the pair have delivered to date. On the surface, these are perfectly composed and innately melodic pop/rock songs, with Hallsworth’s guitars alternately shimmering and snarling around his unmistakably keening vocals. The real magic, however, lies a little concealed; songs often end up somewhere very different from where they started, and Hallsworth’s often surreal lyrical excursions act in striking counterpoint to the music.
It’s this juxtaposition that makes What’s The Story With This Hole? so special – musically rich and familiar sounds taken into unrelated narrative territories. In Hallsworth’s own words, “To me, the mysterious undecidability in the words plays a crucial part in the overall experience of the songs, making them events of sense and sensation. It isn’t so much that I consider the lyrics to be poetry, but I think a sense of poetry would be useful in approaching these songs.”
Continue reading →'A Million Square Miles' – The Dwarf
Excerpt: “Turn the clock back a few years and most people were convinced there was something in the water in WA because of the sheer number of excellent acts who called that piece of Australia home. Fast forward to 2010 and it seems our short attention spans have been diverted elsewhere in the search of the source of the ‘next big thing’. A Million Square Miles is a compilation…. Drawing together 16 tracks from eight artists, it successfully navigates the folk, indie pop and rock genres….A Million Square Miles is a pleasing and mellow offering that is easy-on-the-ear and reaffirms the fact that there is something in the water out west.”
Continue reading →"A Million Square Miles" – Adequacy.net
Excerpt: “This is the rare exhibition of musical aptitude that delights from start to finish, with nary a disappointment to be found. Being tagged by some as Australia’s answer to the British label 4AD, Hidden Shoal (HSR) does indeed specialize in a brand of music that places atmosphere, ambience, and texture high on the priority list. With an onslaught of reverb and delay effects that would put the Edge to shame, this album features eight acts that run the gamut from quirky playfulness (Toby Richardson) to hypnotic melodrama (My Majestic Star). Hidden Shoals’ impressive roster on A Million Square Miles is bound to shore up some buzz, and deservedly so: it’s an exhilarating listen from beginning to end.”
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Adequacy.netThe Slow Beings "We Know Why The Earth Moves" – PopMatters
Excerpt: “Although not as heavy or metal-leaning as Black Mountain, there’s a certain stoner pop feeling on the opener ‘I Waste the Sea’ with more muscle and brawn tossed in halfway through. Meanwhile, the airy, spacey ‘People Leave Heaven’ also shines quite nicely with its subtle nod to The Smiths. Perhaps the first real highlight is the strong, powerful nugget ‘Nil By Rote’. The band’s knack for crafting brilliant melodies is also apparent on ‘Yoshkar-ola Song’… the record returns to life with a delicate but delicious title track, resembling Explosions In the Sky.”
Continue reading →The Slow Beings "We Know Why The Earth Moves" – Ondarock
Excerpt (translated from the Italian): “This disc is ten songs of indie-rock, vaguely Pavement-y in the more abrasive moments, softened with arpeggios… The long title track is the missing link between post-rock and psychedelia…. a perfect listen for the summer months.”
Continue reading →The Slow Beings "We Know Why The Earth Moves" – FasterLouder
Excerpt: “Like many of WA’s indie rock bands, the emphasis in The Slow Beings’ sound is on melody and beauty rather than heavy rock and glitz, like the Shins and the Panics before them… The high point of the album, and the song everyone raves about, is ‘I Waste The Sea’. Its mash of Weezer-style rock and nonsensical lyrics nods to At The Drive-In, before becoming psychedelic half-way through… We Know Why The Earth Moves… will please those who like indie pop-rock blends without the electro-frills that have adorned much of the scene lately. It dishes up folk and garage in just-palatable sized pieces.”
Continue reading →The Slow Beings "We Know Why The Earth Moves" – Delusions of Adequacy
Excerpt: “The Slow Beings are a fresh, new outfit from Australia. Their blend of pop, rock and fuzzy, funny punk is a nice change of pace that allows their music to soothe over you. With their debut, We Know Why the Earth Moves, they have accomplished a modest task: make an album that has equal parts indie and rock, that doesn’t sound cliché or bland… The Slow Beings are the kind of band that could break through onto the mainstream. They already control the hooks, melodies and riffs to compete with anyone. It’s a surprise that this album hasn’t been getting more attention because We Know Why the Earth Moves is a great listen. These Australian cats know how to make catchy music that works in many different ways and I only hope they continue to improve from here.”Delusions of Adequacy
Continue reading →The Slow Beings “We Know Why The Earth Moves” – Drum Media (Perth)
Excerpt – “The hugely experienced songwriting duo of Craig Hallsworth (The Bamboos, The Healers) and Liam Coffey (The Rainyard, Header) brings influences from both sides of the Atlantic to the table, making the chiming, country-tinged guitars, Blur-ish vocals and rock-riffs of ‘Carson Dyle’ a possibility and more importantly, a beautifully cohesive reality…Add the accomplished musicianship of these Perth-music veterans, and it’s hardly surprising the album, for the most part, ‘blurs’ its influences into forms both fresh and timeless.”
Drum Media (Perth)
Continue reading →The Slow Beings "We Know Why The Earth Moves" – Luna Kafe
Excerpt: “Last month I raved about The Slow Beings’ single choice from this album, ‘I Waste The Sea’… We Know Why The Earth Moves‘s opening track still is a nice song, but is now stretched out into a 6-minute-piece – twice its single edit length. It’s a cool opener… The neatly titled We Know Why The Earth Moves holds 10 songs of sparkling indie pop/rock. Magnificent and grand, yet down to earth in sound and attitude. A fine combination of tip-toe and slack… ‘Yoshkar-ola Song’, ‘People Leave Heaven’, ‘Carson Dyle’, ‘The Happy Few’ and the title track are among many fine moments from a strong debut.”
Continue reading →The Slow Beings 'I Waste The Sea' – Luna Kafe
Excerpt: “the toughest music I’ve heard from the Hidden Shoal label so far… In ‘I Waste The Sea”s rear window there’s both grunge (Nirvana) and Britpop (Blur), and maybe also traces from New Zealand’s 1980s Kiwi pop scene. It’s a powerful song with a nice pop hook… makes me excited to hear what’s to come.”
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Artist Photos
Music Videos
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Licensing
The Slow Beings’ music is available for licensing (master & sync cleared) through Hidden Shoal. Please contact us with some basic details about your project and the track(s) you wish to use and we’ll be sure to get back to you straight away.