New City of Satellites Single and Music Video by Dael Oates

Sept. 22, 2010 - PRLog -- Adelaide, South Australia; Sydney, New South Wales; Perth, Western Australia. Hidden Shoal Recordings today announced the release of new single ‘BMX’ by Australian dream-pop outfit City Of Satellites and its stunning accompanying video, directed by Dael Oates of Mothership/Digital Domain (Tron Legacy, Benjamin Button, Pirates of The Caribbean).

The sublime opening track from their debut album Machine Is My Animal, ‘BMX’ unfolds in a magisterial swirl of synths and hovering atmospherics, driven by Thomas Diakomichalis’ propulsive, detailed drumming and Jarrod Manuel’s pure vocal tones. Part misty paean to lost youth, part anthem for a better future, ‘BMX’ is premium 21st-century pop.

The sumptuous hypnotic sci-fi visuals of the accompanying video distill the haunting, angelic feeling of the song, drawing from its ethereal lyrical plays. A group of lost space invaders is drawn towards a gleaming orb in a forest, while a BMX rider (champion German BMX wizard Michael Steingraeber) is becoming unified with light in an abandoned warehouse. Award winning Australian director and visual effects artist Dael Oates has created an absolute visual feast with this music video.

“What elevates City Of Satellites’ dream pop above others’ takes on the style is the urgency driving the nine songs on Machine Is My Animal … shoegaze is an obvious wellspring for the group, but one also hears traces of both ’80s synth-pop (OMD, for example) and New Wave in City Of Satellites’ pristine, analogue sound.” – Textura

“One of the most unabashedly shoegaze-y albums in recent memory… City Of Satellites’ Jarrod Manual and Thomas Diakomichalis have tuned their ears to the expansive dream-pop of the classic 4AD roster and the likeminded M83, relishing the elastic reach of spidery rhythms and unmoored melodies… There’s an almost austere sheen to Machine Is My Animal, such that we’re never bombarded but gently seduced and swayed. It’s a beautiful feeling.” – Cyclic Defrost

City of Satellites is an Australian duo from two cities hundreds of miles apart - Jarrod Manuel (vocals, guitar, synths) is based in Adelaide, while Thomas Diakomichalis (drums, synths, production) is based in Sydney. In City of Satellites’ music, raw guitar tones, rich vocal melodies and dynamic percussive rhythms dance and weave around layers of vintage synthesizers, textures and sequences, creating ethereal yet structured electronic pop. The band flesh out the elegant skeleton of post-rock with the warm, melodic muscle of shoegaze rock.

‘BMX’ video director Dael Oates spent several years at the Academy Award-winning visual effects company Animal Logic, working as a compositor, designer and art director on feature films and commercials before joining Prodigy Films, where he directs spots and campaigns for major brands in Australia. His work has earned him a Kodak Young Director of the Year Award. He is also a director on the Mothership roster, a sister company to Digital Domain in LA. Dael also recently co-founded The Yard, an artist collective focused on street photography, and he is a prolific contributor to its body of work.

The ‘BMX’ single is available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store and the accompanying music video is available for streaming via YouTube and Vimeo.

Hidden Shoal Recordings is an Australia-based independent music label that has earned a reputation for releasing exciting and engaging new independent music that is not bound by genre or style. Hidden Shoal Recordings was chosen as one of the top 10 favourite labels of 2007 by Textura magazine and has been dubbed “This generation’s 4AD” by prominent New York radio host DJ Mojo.

Label Site: http://music.hiddenshoal.com
Label Store: http://agora.hiddenshoal.com
City of Satellites: http://www.cityofsatellites.com/
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/hiddenshoal


YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/hiddenshoal

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Hidden Shoal Recordings is an Australia-based music label that has earned a reputation for releasing engaging new music that is not bound by genre or style. The label has been dubbed “This generation’s 4AD” by prominent New York radio host DJ Mojo.