Founded as a vinyl label in 2009, Clouds Hill Group in 2019 is a world-wide operating group of companies with profound knowledge from the first idea to the finish product. Clouds Hill Label is connected to the renowned analog recording studio Clouds Hill Recordings that hosts artists from all over the planet. This unique setup under one roof and a pathbreaking cooperation with Warner Music guarantees highest effectiveness from the very first idea to a world-wide release.
In a review for his debut solo album Versa Vice in 2016, Joe Gideon was described as playing “Pithy, powerful, lyrically erudite and observational, post-financial crisis English blues.” (Mike Barnes – Wire)
Joe Gideon first came to wider attention with his band, Bikini Atoll, signed to Bella Union in 2003. The first album, Moratoria, was critically well received, with the lead track ‘Desolation Highway’ (described by The Independent as “…an awesome, soul-searching slice of sprawling Americana”) featured in the film My Little Eye. Their second album Liar’s Exit, recorded with Steve Albini and released through Bella Union in 2005, received glowing reviews from the likes of NME and Q magazine.
Inspired by dream-state visions under the influence of san pedro on a trip to Bolivia, Joe decided to hone his craft as a songwriter and lyricist and formed Joe Gideon & The Shark, a two-piece band with his sister Viva. Their debut album, Harum Scarum, released in 2009 on Bronzerat Records, achieved rave reviews and a rare 6-stars-out-of-5 review in Time Out magazine, with reviewer Bella Todd observing, “To be funny and moving at the same time is one thing, but their combination of true grit and grace is rarer still.” Joe Gideon & The Shark toured with Seasick Steve and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds to packed venues across the UK; but by the time their second album, Freakish came out in 2012, also to great reviews, Joe and Viva had decided to move on.
Having made friends with Bad Seed Jim Sclavunos on tour, Joe invited Jim to contribute drums to his debut solo LP, Versa Vice. Released in 2016 also on Bronzerat, this under-the-radar release nonetheless elicited raves from blogs & online press, including Joyzine (“A dark but rewarding trip into the shadowy corners of the human mind”) and Penny Black Music (“A master class in minimalism”).
And now, Joe has teamed up with the Clouds Hill Label and, along with Jim Sclavunos and band mate Gris-De-Lin, have just completed recording and mixing their next project set for release early in 2020. The listener can look forward to Joe’s ruminations on, amongst other things, time travel, primordial bliss, reptile people and, of course, expandable mandibles… Coming soon on Clouds Hill !!
Everything is easy with pathos and bombast – nothing is more apparent in the loud world of Rock and Roll. Without the common delusions of grandeur, however, you really have to come up with something. With something like “Runway Markings”. In the recent past, only the Arctic Monkey were able to pull off something like this with their “Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino”. Yet, “Runway Markings” is no calm, no shy record. Quite the contrary, in fact. It is radiating dynamics, it is captivating, exhilarating, is growing into crescendos and welcomes in with an utterly holistic aura. Bred and raised in Hamburg’s own Clouds Hull Studio, Okta Logue consciously left enough room for ideas to spread, for spontaneity, for spur of the moment things. “We wanted the songs to retain an untamed, uncontrollable edge. We simply watched where we would go once we stopped thinking everything through.”
Bass player György Barocsai, who also produced the album, weighs in on their fun-loving sound. “Obviously, ABBA have had a tremendously big influence on all of us! And a of lot the old Italian disco stuff.” No wonder they have their very own island, aptly titled “Slacker Island”, to flee to. Also the name of their summerly debut, Two Year Vacation are here to turn us all into islanders. Not the desperate, funny type of islander you might remember from “Lost” or “Castaway” but rather the sort of relaxed Gilligan type of islander.
