Over a year since the drop of their second long-player on the label, “Lost Spirits”, German outfit Hidden Empire reemerges on Stil vor Talent with “Who We Are”, the first single taken from their third album, “Momentum”, to be released in early 2023. Riddled with stadium-sized emotional bursts and their genotypic peak-time readiness, Novakovic and Schäfers’ latest keeps on pushing in that zenithal direction their previous efforts continuously hinted at, fusing textbook cinematic poignancy with that of the most fiery DJ-friendly tools through ambitious sound tableaux that promise to provide the raver in you with compelling amounts of poetic spaciousness and tight-wound dancy dynamics.

The first track and lead-single featuring Felix Raphael on vocals, “Who We Are”, is a pop-influenced chugger that perhaps best defines Hidden Empire’s ambivalent style, both hi-NRG and innervated with a melancholy that infuses down to the bass and most functional elements. Geared up for big-room traction with its seesawing synths and clinical drumwork, Raphael’s moving timbre does more than offer a sensible counterpoint to the track’s overall sturdy backbone, it takes it to a whole other dimension completely. Then there’s “Momentum”, a more openly jagged and quirky weapon that hatches into a further solar number around the half, like a flower slowly but surely finding its way to the sunlight. Roaring up the club’s highway at full throttle, it proves a formidable asset when it comes to plunging dancers into a state of weird, left-of-centre euphoria.

released January 13, 2023

Catalogue number: SVT327X