Hot Pockets

Kingdom Come

hotpockets — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:30:38 +0000

It’s another big day for us here at HP towers as we have just taken delivery of our next 7″, the wonderful double A slab of new wave pop perfection that is Danimal Kingdom’s Vinyl Skipping Ever Backward / Through The Ice.

The seven inch, pressed up on a beautiful snow white vinyl, will be available from next Monday (4th April) but those of you with a passion for 1′s and 0′s can jump straight in as the the single, along with a bonus track, Amputee Spirit is now available to buy digitally through all the usual places such as iTunes, Amazon and Juno and to stream on Spotify, buy it today and make your life sound better.

UPDATE: You can now order the 7″ direct from our shop and Juno and also pre-order it from Rough Trade and Norman Records amongst others.

Danimal Kingdom – Vinyl… / Through The Ice

hotpockets — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:13:31 +0000

Hotly tipped singer/songwriter, animator and musician Danimal Kingdom’s debut single Vinyl Skipping Ever Backward / Through The Ice is released on 7″ and download on November 29th through independent label Hot Pockets.

The solo project of former Bolt Action Five front man Daniel Murtha, Danimal Kingdom’s first release is a true double A-side single, two tracks of synth driven indie-pop that reveal an already fully formed and exceptional talent.

Joining the dots between 80′s influenced new wave pop and the best of today’s electronic music; Dan’s songs have already earned him comparisons to the likes of Squeeze, Devo and Of Montreal.

Now having honed his live set over the past 12 months playing some of London’s best clubs, Danimal Kingdom is ready to take his rightful place and usurp those other pop pretenders.

26-year-old Dan Murtha has already tasted music success first up with the critically lauded Bolt Action Five, then performing vocal duties on Kissy Sell Out’s debut album ‘Youth’. Determined to establish himself as an artist in his own right Dan retreated in 2010 to work on his own music and now with a head full of new songs and a hand picked band to back him up Dan is ready to once again take centre stage. With a knack for conjuring up spiky pop melodies that recall the best bands of the early eighties new wave whilst still sounding completely new and fresh, Danimal Kingdom is a welcome thorn in the paw of safe, commercial pop.

Digital Love

hotpockets — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:42:45 +0000

Following its recent vinyl release :Kinema:s My Beautiful Machines should be in all your usual digital music retail outlets today including iTunes and Juno. So if unlike me you’ve managed to kick the vinyl music habit, but want to support hungry artists you can now get your hands on the full 5 track EP, and send it racing up to the top of the pop charts!

To help our pop crusade take off we’re giving away a brilliant remix of Machines by Simon Peter, who under the name Reason or Romanza released a really rather good EP last year on Civil Music, home to the likes of Debruit and Drums of Death.

Taking Dom’s vocals as a starting point Simon’s turned the track into a blissed out 7 minutes of gorgeous slow mo disco, complete with bubbling synths, hazy pads and yes more cowbell. All you have to do to get your hands on this remix is pay for it with a Tweet or Facebook post by clicking the big button below.

How easy was that!

:Kinema: My Beautiful Machines

hotpockets — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:28:58 +0000

Following the solid gold pop smash that was their debut 7″ Circles, South Coast soul boys :Kinema: return with their biggest and best song to date, My Beautiful Machines, a joyously upbeat love song to their synthesizers.

A live favourite, the band have been closing their sets with Machines for much of the past 6 months, prompting euphoric stage invasions at venues such as Proud in Camden and Brick Lane’s 93 Feet East.

Showing off the classic pop nous that has already seen the band likened to Phoenix, Hot Chip, Culture Club and even Wham!, My Beautiful Machines comes backed by Heartstrings, another fan favourite that this time celebrates that first heady, brain derailing, feeling of falling in love, and ‘I Love Your Beam’ what is possibly the world’s first song about the opposite sex to get way with using Star Trek metaphors.

Having spent the past six months building up a devoted, high kicking, table dancing following, including a devoted Japanese fan base, My Beautiful Machines sees the band ready to fulfill their potential as one of the UK’s best new bands.

Also available on heavyweight 12″ vinyl are the Drop Out Orchestra remixes of My Beautiful Machines and a 5 track digital EP (available Feb 28) with both the original versions, the remixes plus a bonus track I Love Your Beam.

Cover Photo courtesy of Jessica Gary | www.jessicagary.com

“Lead single, My Beautiful Machines, is an infectious ditty of retro-electro-funk that instantly echoes similarities between Montrealers Chromeo and Parisian pop-outfit Phoenix.” Notion

“An exercise in pure dancefloor grooves and slick romance” Electronic Rumours

“A blinding glow that’s packed with exciting potential” The Recommender

Thrown together across an epic European road trip Dom Ashton, Andy Nelson and Ross Flight discovered their shared love for music, laptops and famous actresses. :Kinema: have developed their sound over the last 18 months, combining elements of Yacht Rock, Soul and Contemporary Pop and Dance music into something sounding like Off The Wall-era Michael Jackson being re-imagined by a 21st Century Indie band.

:Kinema: My Beautiful Machines – Drop Out Orchestra Remixes

hotpockets — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:39:22 +0000

If the original of :Kinema:‘s My Beautiful Machines is straight up classic pop then the remixes courtesy of Sweden’s Drop Out Orchestra, take the track off into disco heaven.

Having been blown away by their re-edits of Robyn and Diana Ross, and their dancefloor dominating ‘International Track’ we approached them more in hope and were overjoyed when they agreed to add their live disco stylings to the release.

Still, even so we weren’t prepared for the results when after several sleepless nights in the studio, they delivered a 12 minute live disco version that is unlikely to be bettered this year.

Teasing out Dominic’s vocals, the track builds and builds, going through several major changes, from orchestral swirls and ridiculously funky bass, through to driving percussion and arpeggiated synths, ensuring that even at 12 minutes long, you’ll still be wanting an even longer re-edit.

Completing the package Drop Out Orchestra have supplied a stripped down dub, My Beautiful Percussion, that just highlights what an insanely good job they did, reduxing their mix into 6 minutes of taut funky disco destined to rule discos this winter.

The original version of My Beatuiful Machines is available on limited edition orange 7” vinyl and on a 5 track digital EP (available Feb 28) with both the original versions, the remixes plus a bonus track I Love Your Beam.

“On Brighton blue-eyed soul trio Kinema’s second single, Sweden’s Drop Out Orchestra turn ‘My Beautiful Machines’ into a disco nugget” Tilllate Magazine

“The two Drop Out Orchestra remixes are such a mind-blowathon” Brighton Source

“Quite a massive remix! and a beautiful song” Justin Robertson

“Love it, great stuff, can’t wait to play this out” Tronik Youth

My Beautiful Vinyl

hotpockets — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:37:19 +0000

It wouldn’t be a Hot Pockets release without a bit of drama holding up the proceedings, BUT you will be pleased to hear that the new :Kinema: single My Beautiful Machines will finally be available to buy in shops from next Monday. What better way to either treat your loved on on Valentine’s Day or cheer yourself up is you are unloved and unlovable.

We went a bit to town on this one and it’s available in a wide variety (well 3) of formats, there’s the ridiculously lovely looking orange vinyl 7″, which has the original of Machines on the a-side and Heartstrings on the b-side. General consensus is that it looks like a Fisher Price record and sounds like heaven.

Then in a first for our little label we’ve pressed up a 12″ containing two remixes of Machines from Sweden’s Drop Out Orchestra. It’s fair to say these are a bit special, the ‘Special Extended Disco Mix’ in particular, with DOO completely rewriting and playing the song, turning it into an epic dubbed out disco masterpiece.

Finally a week or so later there will be a five track digital EP with all the above tracks and an extra bonus in the shape of live favourite, I Love Your Beam.

Just see what Notion Magazine had to say about this beast of a release: “Lead single, My Beautiful Machines, is an infectious ditty of retro-electro-funk that instantly echoes similarities between Montrealers Chromeo and Parisian pop-outfit Phoenix. A delightful shudder of effervescent synths and a light, breezy vocal will inevitably fulfill the band’s desire to make people dance and feel happy.”

Read the full review here (it’s rather nice).

Cover Songs

hotpockets — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:06:15 +0000

Christmas has arrived early for us here as our favourite Brightonians, :Kinema:, have taken another step closer to their deserved place at the top of the pop charts with their first ever magazine cover.

Big thanks to James Kendall and everyone at The Source for their continued support of the band and if you can’t physically pick up a copy of the magazine, head here to read the interview online and download a new track,3 Wolf Moon, for free.

If you are in Brighton you can also catch the band playing at Jam on Wednesday supporting the excellent Delorean.

Introducing Danimal Kingdom

hotpockets — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 08:30:13 +0000

And so it is with great pleasure that we can today announce that the next release on our ever growing label comes courtesy of Danimal Kingdom.

The solo project of former Bolt Action Five frontman Daniel Murtha, Danimal Kingdom’s songs join the dots between 80′s influenced new wave pop and today’s best electronic music, and have already earned him comparisons to the likes of Squeeze and Devo.

Following Bolt Action Five’s split in 2008, Dan has kept busy providing vocals on Kissy Sell Out’s critically acclaimed debut album Youth and The Aston Shuffle’s club hit Do You Want More, but now with a head full of new songs and a hand picked band to back him up he is ready to once again take centre stage.

To celebrate this momentous occasion you can now stream and download a new Danimal Kingdom track, Amputee Spirit, for free from his brand new website www.danimalkingdom.co.uk

Danimal Kingdom’s debut release Vinyl Ever Skipping Backwards / Through The Ice will be released on limited edition 7″ and digitally on November 29th, keep your eyes peeled here for some exclusive pre-order business.

If you’re in London this week you can catch Danimal Kingdom playing live at the excellent YOYO at the Notting Hill Arts Club on Thursday.

:Kinema: Remix Husky Rescue

hotpockets — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:10:41 +0000

:Kinema: were recently asked to add a sprinkling of their disco dust to the new single ‘They Are Coming’ from the wonderful Husky Rescue.

The result is an epic piano led slice of space disco, that you can check out on Soundcloud and buy now from iTunes.

:Kinema: Play Proud This Saturday

hotpockets — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:48:57 +0000

This Saturday Brighton’s finest disco pop sensations :Kinema: will be back in London to play at Camden clubbing institution Be, alongside 2 Hot 2 Sweat and Robot Dancing Music. Now it’s normally £10 to get in, but drop us an email before Friday and we’ll put you on the concessions list, in fact as an added bonus the first 2 people to email in can get in for free.