NEW CLIENT: The Engines of Armageddon

Invisible Hippo are very happy to announce that The Engines of Armageddon will be joining our tight knit family of eclectic and boundary pushing acts. The trio from Nottingham masterfully blur all genre lines to bring their unique blend of  Thrash/Prog/Doom/Stoner Rock to our roster of clients.

Last year for UK Metal Underground I reviewed The Engines of Armageddon’s self titled debut album and immediately fell in love with them. Despite their muddy production, lurking underneath was a southern tinged beast fuelled by political angst and conspiracy theory. They quickly became one of my one’s to watch from the UK scene. Now, I’m really happy to say they are joining Invisible Hippo for artist representation.

They have a new 3 track demo – The Obelisk Demo – available to listen to on their myspace page.

Read my full review of their debut album – at UK Metal Underground.

New Client: Dr Slaggleberry join Invisible Hippo

Invisible Hippo are absolutely over the moon to announce that Dr Slaggleberry will be joining our tight knit family of eclectic and boundary pushing acts.

As long standing fans of Dr Slaggleberry we’ve been watching their progress and evolution with a keen eye for a while now. Throwing away the genre rulebook, the trio from London produce some of the most brain bending, schizophrenic instrumental ear cacophony you’ll have heard outside of bands such as Behold…. the Arctopus and Mr Bungle whilst their psychedelic side hints at essences of King Crimson and Pink Floyd .

And whilst reviewers struggle to classify them and audiences stand agog trying to work out how they play the medical math jazz technical prog frenzy, Dr Slaggleberry march onwards, working on a new release to be unleashed in 2011.

Dr Slaggleberry are currently signed to Crash Records and previous critically acclaimed EP’s include Dr Slaggleberry, Tuc into the Tar and The Slagg Factory.

http://www.myspace.com/drslaggleberry

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What they say…..

‘So unhinged they somehow make Rolo Tomassi and Mr Bungle sound like Keane covering The Feeling.’ Rock Midgets

You certainly won’t get bored of the insane genius that lays at the heart of each suite.’ Subba-Cultcha

‘…I don’t think their full length would be anything short of mind-blowing.’ Absolute Punk

Damnation Festival announces 4 more bands

Four more bands announced for this year’s Damnation Festival.

Damnation Festival veterans ANAAL NATHRAKH will return to lay waste to Leeds this year for the sixth instalment of the UK’s finest metal event.

They’ll be joined by French experimental duo ALCEST, the synth driven mathcore of ROLO TOMASSI and crusty Brummie brothers-in-arms FUKPIG, who make their Damnation debut after a crushing performance at Deathfest earlier this year.

Anaal Nathrakh – who headlined the Terrorizer Stage three years ago – will unleash their black metal tinged grindcore at Leeds University Union, on Saturday, November 6, 2010, in what is their only planned UK show of 2010.

The latest additions join the already confirmed The Dillinger Escape Plan and reformed Earthtone9 with many more bands to be announced across three stages.

Festival director Gavin McInally said: “No band – not even the mighty Carcass – has been requested to return to Damnation Festival by the fans as often as Anaal Nathrakh so it’s a pleasure, and a relief, to be able to make that happen.

“In contrast to the aural chaos of Nathrakh, Alcest will bring a touch of French sophistication to proceedings with their haunting, black metal inspired shoegaze.

“Rolo Tomassi are one of the rising stars of the current UK metal scene and it’s great to be able to host their energetic live show this year.

“As for Fukpig, well the devastation at Deathfest is responsible for their return!”

Tickets are priced £27 and are available from:

See Tickets: http://www.seetickets.com, Ticketline: http://www.ticketline.co.uk and Leeds Tickets: http://www.leedstickets.com

For more information visit the official Damnation Festival sites:

Web – http://www.damnationfestival.co.uk

Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/damnationfestival

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/damnationfestival

Twitter – http://twitter.com/damnationfest

PIN-UP WENT DOWN RELEASE SECOND ALBUM “342″ ON JUNE 28TH 2010

‘342’, the stunning second album from French avant-garde metal masters Pin-Up Went Down will be released through Ascendance Records on June 28^th 2010.

In 2006 Alexis Damien, multi-instrumentalist and former drummer for avant-garde metal band, Carnival in Coal, launched his new project, Pin-Up Went Down. He brought in vocalist, Asphodel and although they had only met twice prior to recording, together they went on to create the critically acclaimed ‘2 Unlimited’, an album that managed to combine gothic metal with funk, jazz, punk, and a whole host of other experimentations into the mix, melding together to create an utterly unique and bizarre blend of styles and moods.

If 2 Unlimited surprised by its originality, 342’s most significant feature might be its maturity. 342 is an un-inhibited display of eccentricity, pushing the genre to new and unchartered waters. Inventive musicianship coupled with Asphodel’s vocal gymnastics strike the balance between unrestrained sickness and emotional beauty. The track Vaginaal Nathrakh features Andy Schmidt from German band ‘Disillusion’ (courtesy of Metal Blade).

“…surprisingly cohesive, having been composed with real intelligence and insight, to remarkable and versatile effect.” 8/10 Subba Cultcha

“Pin-Up Went Down is a band with no inhibitions and absolutely no limits.” 93/100 Femme Metal

www.myspace.com/pinupwentdown

www.myspace.com/ascendancerecords

For more information and press tools, to request a digital audio pack or to arrange an interview, please contact: lisa@invisiblehippo.com

Lisa joins Damnation Festival Team

I’m  really chuffed to have been asked to join Damnation Festival to work as their Press and Promotions Organiser.

Now in it’s 6th year and held every year in Leeds, it’s already had some amazing bands grace it’s stages including The Haunted, Carcass, Kreator, Anaal Nathrakh, Lock Up, Pitchshifter, Cathedral, Sikth, Jesu, *shels and a myriad of other amazing bands from the metal and alt genres.

2010 is promising already to be bigger and better than ever with the first announcements being made soon, so watch this space!

See what Damnation Festival is all about – check out the video below!

Damnation Twitter

Damnation Facebook

Damnation Myspace

New Client: Pin Up Went Down joins Invisible Hippo

Invisible Hippo is happy to announce the signing of a new client to our family, French Avante Garde Metal Masters – Pin Up Went Down.

Invisible Hippo will be handling UK press on behalf of Pin Up Went Down, their new album ’342′ is released on June 28th from Ascendance Records. You can hear samples of the record on the Ascendance Records myspace and pre-order from their webstore.

As huge fans of PUWD we’re more than a little excited to be working alongside them to promote what is an absolute belter of an album. We’re pretty sure ’342′ will be one of those ‘jaw droppers’ that will leave you astounded at the sheer complexity and genre hopping of the band. You have been warned.

New Client: Serotonal join Invisible Hippo

Invisible Hippo is happy to announce the signing of a new client to our family, Liverpudlian hard rock outfit SEROTONAL – featuring the talents of Darren White, Gary Hill, Jon Francis White, Andrew Heath and Wayne Denny.

SEROTONAL are busy promoting their debut album ‘Monumental – songs of misery and hope’ as well as working on new material for a second album due for release early next year.

We’re really excited to be working with Serotonal, the lads are fantastic to work with and their addition to the Invisible Hippo roster is an easy fit. Check out some video footage of them in action to see why we’re big fans.

Self Control Seizure Live Footage

To mFlow or not to mFlow – that is the question!

Every morning there’s an invite in my inbox to trial the latest new trend in social networking. Whilst Facebook eats up the largest proportion of market share, plodding along like an unstoppable behemoth – smaller more savvy sites are specialising in areas which Facebook and the other large social sites have as yet overlooked. But the question is do busy consumers have enough time in their already social media overdosed lives for one more site to keep updated?

Most recently I’ve been dabbling in mFlow, a free to download stand-alone application for Windows and Mac and at first glance it looks very much like iTunes and Twitter had an illicit liaison and the result was a very polished, music library, player and social network. So far so good.

Whilst initially resistant to adding yet another site to my catalogue of daily things to do, I decided to check out what was on offer. Aimed primarily at the music obsessed it offers its users the chance to combine the rapid fire disposability of Twitter with the music recommendation elements of sites such as Last fm, Spotify and iTunes. Add into the mix the chance to make a bit of money from your recommendations and on paper you have a site which should appeal. But does it? And do you need another social networking site in your life?

As with other social media sites, the more followers you have, the more you are going to gain from using the site as the basis of mFlow is sharing musical recommendations via a Twitter like post which pushes (flows) your selection to your followers. Your followers can then listen to your recommendation and if they want to, they can buy it online and in return you’ll receive a 20 percent share of the selling price. However you can only use this money to buy more music on mFlow, it does not translate into hard cash. Not only this but with a decent pool of followers all using the site daily you can, in theory, end up with a socially driven radio station. But with sites such as Spotify and Last fm already established in this market space and struggling with their business model to turn a profit, can mFlow really step up to the plate and succeed? Will the initial buzz created around its launch be enough to translate into a large sustainable subscriber base and favourable turnover? And more crucially, will this method of recommending music encourage people to buy music. Is this the Holy Grail that the music industry has been looking for? My answer is, probably not. Not in its current form anyway.

As with Spotify in its early days, the catalogue of music available on mFlow is hit and miss, especially in the less commercial music genres such as Rock and Metal. A quick scan across the Metal and Rock catalogue on mFlow finds no Iron Maiden, no Pink Floyd, no Gojira, no Porcupine Tree, no Led Zeppelin, no AC/DC, no Emperor and these aren’t obscure bands in their respective genres by any stretch of the imagination. In fact 2 out of every 3 queries in the alternative market space leads to no results found.

I’ve found myself, after 10 minutes of faffing about searching for something to recommend, rather bored and drifting back to Facebook. The lacklustre catalogue coupled with the apathy of the current users using the site means that for the alternative music scene at the moment it’s not really a winner. But it has potential and that potential lies in partnerships – if mFlow is absorbed by a larger site such as Facebook it has a larger potential subscriber base, more daily traffic, larger advertising revenue pull and is not just another site you have to somehow fit into your day.

It’s early days yet and there are lessons to be learned from other social media sites previous mistakes. mFlow is playing catch up in an already saturated marketplace. The idea is great, but to grow, improve and expand it has to find a relevant partner to nestle alongside. Otherwise it’s just another passing trend that will soon be surpassed when one of the larger social sites adopts its model.

Check it out for yourself. Metal Hammer currently has a special early bird offer available – join up using their invite below and your account will be credited with 5 free tracks. http://www.mflow.com/metalhammer/

In the beginning…..

Welcome to the nesting ground of Invisible Hippo.  We are a small agency, specialising in music publicity and management for alternative artists.

The path to setting up Invisible Hippo has been a long and interesting journey. From small seeds, silly ideas grow!

After working in Corporate Marketing, PR and Consultancy for 10 years working with the giants of industry such as Vodafone, Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley, T-Mobile and Arts Organisations such as the Edinburgh International Festival, Scottish Childrens Festival, Edinburgh Book Festival and various theatre groups I wanted a change.

In 2004, I set up UK Metal Underground as a hobby on MySpace to help network and connect underground metal and rock bands with industry figures and provide free resources. The ethos was on diy, keeping everything as simple and as free as possible whilst providing a service to people within the UK to promote and support the underground scene. Along the way I’ve met some amazing people, from black metal bands nestling away on the Shetland Isles to industry figures who help to keep the scene alive and moving to touring acts flying the flag of British Metal abroad. UK Metal Underground now has a large team of volunteers across the UK and Europe helping to spread the word about how fantastic the UK Metal and Rock scene is.

Through my involvement with UK Metal Underground I’ve come to know gazillions of bands across the country in all genres of the metal spectrum, some that never get heard. UK Metal Underground was there to give them a voice. It’s been massive amounts of fun and a lot of hard work!

Now I help to promote and publicise a myriad of bands, labels, festivals and magazines across the country and have set up Invisible Hippo with the same aim – to provide management and publicity services and consultation for bands who have that special something and need the help. Regardless of budgets, if I can help a band or organisation that I believe in, I will. So if you are looking for help, please get in touch to discuss your needs. If I can’t help you, I will be able to point you in the direction of someone who can.

I love what I do. I love discovering new bands, helping out established ones, meeting people in all walks of the industry and most of all, I just love the music.

Over the course of this journey I’ll keep this blog up to date with info, what I’m listening, new discoveries, helpful advice and release info. Feel free to join me.

Now, it’s time to plunge boldly into the thick of it….

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side. “
Hunter S. Thompson