<img src="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/store_images/medium/unknownknowns_MED.jpg" align="left" height="150" width="150" />The Australian music label Hidden Shoal Recordings today announced the US CD and worldwide digital release of the eagerly awaited sophomore album by Australian indie math-rock marvels <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/project/mukaizake/">Mukaizake</a>.

The cliché ‘all killer, no filler’ is often bandied around with very little to back it up. In the case of Mukaizake’s stunning new release <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=43&amp;products_id=130"><em>Unknown Knowns</em></a>, the cliché applies: this six-song, half-hour mini-album is sheer perfection. <em>Unknown Knowns</em> kicks off with the fuzzy propulsion of single ‘<a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=43&amp;products_id=124">The Yeah Conditioner</a>’, immediately launching the listener into Mukaizake’s compelling corner of the musical universe. This is serpentine indie-rock at its finest, weaving hook after hook around your chest until you’re suspended from the clouds, a grin plastered across your face, unable to even think about listening to anything else.

‘Rule Norse’ ups the ante with a thunderously rollicking first half that follows with gorgeous layered backing vocals and hovering guitars in the exultant, expansive second half. ‘Corporal Steam’ winds the album down a notch with its chiming circular guitar harmonics and Geoff Symons’ plaintive vocals before ‘Frisbee’ launches the listener off the edge of a cliff attached to an electric boomerang of riffs and angular melodies. Then, the stunningly wistful ‘My Friend Flicker’ and the dreamy lament of ‘Slack Bees’ bring the listener down in a pool of dazzling songmanship.

<em>“Mukaizake are a testament to the powers of rock music to find other places to go, to regenerate and make itself over. Had the martians landed in the midst of Mukaizake’s set they would have thought that rock music is a boundless and exhilarating thing. In the right hands, it is” </em><strong>- Hype Magazine</strong>

Mukaizake comprises Dan Erickson (Bluetile Lounge), Simon Struthers (Umpire, Adam Said Galore), Geoff Symons (Umpire, ex-Adam Said Galore, O!), and Michael Lake (Umpire, ex-Adam Said Galore). <em>Unknown Knowns</em> is the follow up to their critically acclaimed debut album <em>Mapping The Static</em> released in 2003.

<em>Unknown Knowns</em> is now available digitally worldwide and on CD in the US distributed by <a href="http://n5mailorder.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&amp;cPath=3&amp;products_id=826" target="_blank">n5Mailorder</a>. The album will then see its Australian CD release and launch on December 11th in Perth, Western Australia at the Amplifier Bar. Head to the <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=43&amp;products_id=130">HSR Store</a> for all availability info and to stream the album in full. You can also read a full press release <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/press/">here</a>.

<a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/Media/HSR_Radio/Mukaizake/unknown_knowns/Rule_Norse.mp3">Mukaizake - Rule Norse</a>  <em>Mukaizake - Rule Norse </em>