The Hidden Venture - Press Kit

Quotes

Best played loud in a room where you stick to the carpet and it smells like stale beer. This one packs a mean punch.

Dom Alessio, triple j

If Hendrix was resurrected, then enlisted into Queens of the Stone Age's desert recordings, The Hidden Venture would probably be the result... At their best, they're simply ferocious.

Beat Magazine Sep. 2011 (live review Baldessin Sessions II EP launch)

Lock up your daughters, lock up your wives, hell, lock up anything with a heartbeat! One word to describe this band? Unstoppable.

Deaf Ambitions Aug. 2011 (Baldessin Sessions II EP)

There's an energy that bursts from this release and your attention is immediately captured.

Inpress Magazine Aug. 2011 (Baldessin Sessions II EP)

As capable of soulful falsetto as he is hell-bent wailing, his powerful vocal guides the track towards its propellant climax... You can almost feel the sweat splashing about as this four-piece lash their instruments into submission.

Beat Magazine Feb. 2011 (Live at St Andrews EP)

Bio

The Hidden Venture prepare to unchain their long-awaited debut album, Old Sins Cast Long Shadows, this November. After a string of singles and EPs, the over-amped Melbourne riff-rockers are finally dishing up a full-sized serving of their monstrous sounds.

The band have been dishing out their loud and dirty take on rock ‘n’ roll throughout Melbourne’s iconic sticky carpet venues since they formed in early 2010. Inspired in equal parts by sun-dazed Stoner rock, gut-bucket Blues and psychedelic excess, the band specialise in the kind of ruffian rock that worries the working stiffs and scares the Hipsters.

In creating Old Sins Cast Long Shadows, the band wound their way to Echidna Studios in Christmas Hills. Cut loose from the daily grind, their phones out of range and holed-up in the rustic confines of a mud brick studio, the band sought guidance from producer Mirko Vogel (Cut Copy, Bertie Blackman, Sekiden). The album was cut live and after the wrap it was then mixed and mastered in-house by the band’s bass player, Alex Hayes.

With the release of Old Sins Cast Long Shadows, the band will finally reveal the full spectrum of their sonic palette. Moving from the chugging Stoner riffs of the opening track (Worlds Collide) to the “Carl Perkins on amphetamine” sounds of the chaser (I Don’t Care I Want Your Money) and then to the spacey conclusion of Fire Away, the band traverses many sonic landscapes.

Old Sins Cast Long Shadows certainly ain’t a one trick, one groove trip. It’s a heartfelt, gut-wrenching journey into the band’s inner-world that is preoccupied with the torment of temptation and the search for that elusive, fleeting moment of clarity. There’s rage, there’s tenderness and then there’s the other-worldly. Old Sins packs it all, in an unwashed, organic way that leaves a handful of dirt and critters in the mix.

Old Sins Cast Long Shadows will be released on November 29th 2013 - available from thehiddenventure.com as a Digipak CD or digital download and online stores.

A little history...

The Hidden Venture came into being at the beginning of 2010. The group started as a power trio rising from the ashes of prog/dub/electro outfit, A Planet in Space. Featuring Dan Fox on lead vocals and guitar, Alex Hayes covering backing vocals and bass, with Ben Thomas on drums, the group made its live debut at the Northcote Social Club. Having broken free of the complex musical structures of A Planet in Space, the lads delighted in their new-found freedom, cutting loose with a fearsome sound following in the spirit of The Mars Volta and Queens of the Stone Age.

The band further bolstered their sound in the second half of 2010 with the addition of Dale Brimblecombe on guitar. With the line-up cemented and an expanded range of sonics, the band continued to hammer their sound into something they could call their own and after a slew of gigs across many of Melbourne’s iconic rock haunts, the began to hit their stride at the start of 2011 during a successful residency at the The Espy Front Bar.

Past Shows

  • The Espy (Front Bar) - Feb 2011 residency
  • St Andrews Hotel - 2010 monthly residency
  • Myer Basement w/ Bertie Blackman
  • Ding Dong Lounge w/ [ME]
  • Northcote Social Club
  • The Tote
  • Evelyn Hotel
  • Brunswick Hotel
  • The Arthouse (RIP)

Press Photos

Press Shot 1

Members

  • Dan Fox - Vocals & Guitar
  • Alex Hayes - Bass & Vocals
  • Dale Brimblecombe - Guitar
  • Ben Thomas - Drums