Hyetal is the alias of London based electronic musician/ producer David Corney. The project started after a move to Bristol from Southampton in 2003. At first affiliated with the city's post dubstep and techno scenes, Hyetal released several acclaimed 12-inch singles before moving towards the album format with his debut 'Broadcast' in 2011 on Black Acre. After incorporating influences from ambient, dream pop and new wave rock, Hyetal found longer form releases a natural fit. 'Broadcast' was followed by 'Modern Worship' on True Panther in 2013 and then 'Youth and Power' on Other/other in 2017, the first to feature his vocals.
On this EP, States, Hyetal explores the intersection between hard dance music and shoegaze. Threads of dream pop, new wave, and ambientare paired with influences from early Bonzai and CJ Bolland releases to createan idiosyncratic body of workperformed and recordedwith 90s sound modules andsynthesizers.The result is a collection of songs reflecting a blurred cycling through the emotions of nostalgia, melancholy, and optimism, and that sit somewhere on the spectrum between Electronic, Slowdive, Curve, and the Reactivate and React Test compilations.
Opening number Andoya, feels like an instant classic and pairs a teeming chorus guitar riff with emotive vocals in a way that recalls Marr-Sumner, Hogan-O'Riordan, and Carpenter-Moreno partnerships. The second half of the track introduces soaring string pads, acid arpeggio undercurrents, and detuned DX-7-bell stabs to intone a gothic trance omniscience through the "every wave, in every ocean" refrain.
Rise takes its cues from 4th-world and Balearic ambient releases while retaining a driving energy. Sounding somewhere between a Sade and Mark Hollis collaboration produced by Dennis Bovell post Dreamscape '92, and a joint Weatherall and Massey reworking of a Methany-written number performed by The Chameleons, Rise suits long motorway drives just as much as sunse....... more