HYBERNATION
Snow Cover
RN015
Rednetic Recordings 2007
06 Tracks. 32mins55secs

The last addition to the Rednetic catalogue for 2007 is Hybernation’s Snow Cover EP. Once a drummer in punk and metal bands, Stuart Bowditch as he is known to the tax office, switched to a laptop in 1999, and he has, since been expanding his sound bank by collecting field recordings from various places and deployed them in his music. He regularly plays live at various events around London and Essex. Snow Cover is his debut EP.

Collecting six slices of moody and slow moving electronica, this EP showcases a series of intricate pieces loosely formed around a wintry theme which, considering the time of the year, is somewhat quite apt.

The EP opens with Acorn, a beat-less vignette which slowly drifts through dreamy soundscapes toward the equally as ethereal shores of PM-AM, building progressively from a sparse sound wave into a gentle melody supported by a rather delicately assembled rhythmic pattern. As Snow Cover progresses, the landscapes become more hospitable. Rociruses wouldn’t look out of place on a Gimmik album, while the minimal stretches of Fellon and Planet Earth occasionally light up as Bowditch injects processed vocals, but the two pieces remain seriously drowsy and don’t manage to shake off the austere atmospheric tone of the record. The EP concludes with 011001 (December Mix), which once again displays a series of gentle electronic structures which lines up nicely with the rest of the Rednetic releases.

Bowditch is said to primarily work on his music during the winter, hence the name, and the six tracks collected here are certainly reminiscent of a considerably slowed down metabolism. There are no superfluous elements in the music, as if, aiming to preserve energy, Bowditch was activating just enough components for a track to form. This is a risky strategy as the music threatens to fall under any noticeable level of activity throughout, but it eventually pays off and reveals Stuart Bowditch as an expert handler of minimal atmospheric settings.

4.1/5

Hybernation (Myspace) | Rednetic Recordings