<img src="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/store_images/medium/machine_MED.jpg" align="left" height="150" width="150" />Hidden Shoal Recordings have announced the digital pre-release of the debut album by Australian dream-pop duo <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/artists/city-of-satellites/">City of Satellites</a>.

On <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=34&amp;products_id=129"><em>Machine Is My Animal</em></a>, City of Satellites deliver on the exceptional promise of their debut EP <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=34&amp;products_id=87"><em>The Spook</em></a> – and then some. This pristine album synthesizes ’80s pop aesthetics with ’00s production values to create a truly monumental sound. From the Eastern-influenced synth lines of superb opener ‘BMX’ to the crystalline drift of closer ‘Sky Rider’, <em>Machine Is My Animal</em> carries the listener through a glistening science fiction future, as viewed from a wistful child’s window.

On single ‘Stranger Than Fiction’, swirling synth sounds, Thomas Diakomichalis’ propulsive drumming and Jarrod Manuel’s pure vocal tones glide beautifully. Its aching melodies to the fore, the song taking heartrending turns before dissolving into the ether. ‘Skeletons’ glides and weaves like a hovercar over the course of seven levitating minutes, before the epic title track stomps across a dystopian future like a Transformer with a conscience, its robot heart bleeding as its surveys the devastation it has wrought. This balance between cold synthesized tones and a warm emotional heart creates a delicious balance throughout.

<em>“equipped with hulking ice tipped chorus’ of synth chime serenades that cast out a colourfully vibrant swirling haze that’s both as demurring as it is intoxicating all the time regaling within a disarming shy eyed aspect brought to the fore by Jarrod’s softly caressing feminine like vocals and arrested by the uplifting backdrops of starry eyed dream weaves - one we suspect for admirers of OMD’s ’Souvenir’”</em> – <strong>Losing Today on single ‘Stranger Than Fiction’</strong>

<em>“You know when you catch a faint smell of something that totally spins you out and reminds you of something you haven’t though about since you were six, completely changing your day? City Of Satellites have synthesised this feeling into music… traces of shoegaze heroes M83 and My Bloody Valentine, with faint, androgynous vocals drifting in and out of clarity over a dreamy soundscape… an emotionally exhausting and incredibly satisfying little trip” </em><strong>– Drum Media EP of the Week (The Spook)</strong>

<a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=34&amp;products_id=129"><em>Machine Is My Animal</em></a> is now available in all digital formats, including lossless, from the <a href="http://agora.hiddenshoal.com">Hidden Shoal Store</a> and all good third-party digital music stores (iTunes, eMusic, Amazon, LaLa, Bandcamp etc). Fans will now to have to wait it out a little longer for the official CD release which has now been put back to January 21st, 2010.

Read a full press release <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/press/HSR_Press_Release-City_of_Satellites-Machine_Is_My_Animal_Pre-Release.pdf">here</a> and stream the album in full as well as check all digital availability <a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=34&amp;products_id=129">here</a>.

<a href="http://www.hiddenshoal.com/wp-content/uploads/Media/HSR_Radio/City_Of_Satellites/Machine_Is_My_Animal/1_BMX.mp3">City of Satellites - BMX</a>  <em>City of Satellites - BMX </em>