I’m tired. Like, really tired. It’s been another long day out in the field, working and walking, and frustratingly with seemingly little gains on the face of things. In some ways, the last thing on my mind at the end of the day was coming back and reviewing Hanetration’s newest EP Timelapse, but I tend to be more receptive of music when I’m sleepy and this is definitely music you can relate to whilst sleepy.

“Moon” opens in the mindless patter of some unknown rythm, the itchy thumping of some object on a desk. Slowly a thin violin melody is eked out, becoming increasingly fleshed out with accompanying syncopated siblings but ultimately remaining extremely sparse and minimalistic in attitude. There’s a sort of beauty in how nonchalant it is; we’ve all seen the Moon a thousand times, we’re intimately familiar with its appearance and various phases, and yet every time I see it it’s an interesting experience, just being somewhere slightly different and looking upon that unchanging face and being amazed at its continued, unwavering presence. Like its namesake, the track keeps cycling repetitively and despite its barely evolving appearance, continues to be an interesting journey.

“Thought” is one of two brief, drone lead interludes that break up the EP’s 3 main tracks. It slips abruptly into my favourite track of the album “Opal”. It begins rather like the opener, a percussive riff carves a path but it begins to differ almost immediately as pulses of shimmering glitch begin to scour their own way through the track. Just as we become convinced this is the direction the track will ultimately continue in, distal bass beats suddenly thrum through the barely-there music, pauses of overwhelming, intoxicating distraction. The Moon has suddenly become sped up, rotating rapidly and alternately presenting us with its light and dark sides, like some delirious dream.

“Square” is the second interlude, an obnoxious, brash break filled with rolling glitch and noise to “nicely” counteract those mildly more melodic sequences. It terminates quickly to move into the finalé “Sleep”, where menace creeps in fully formed at last. Glitch pulses, glistening synth and distal electronic form a writhing, uncomfortable mass 7 minutes long. It sounds unappealing, and I’ll concede that you’ll probably need to stick it out, but it’s worth the trip. It’s a stuttering, delirious monster that cant find solace even through sleep, a tormented sub-conscious brought to bear as we’re forced to toss and turn under the sheets in the moonlight. Somehow it’s compelling, and we’re forced to stare into the belly of this cathartic beast for 7 whole minutes before it spits us out again on the other side.

Timelapse is a little inconsistent and something of an acquired taste, but if you can get past the noisier sequences there’s a decent amount to enjoy here. It’s continually restless and twitchy, and slowly becomes increasingly twisted and tormented as the night thickens and we’re forced to succumb to our internal forces. It sucks you in and there’s no escape until the closing note whereby we’re finally relinquished, presumably to the oncoming dawn.

P.s, the EP is free to download and you can check it out in the widget below: