Brighton's Hypnotized are the three boffins of Robbie Wood, Robin White, and Paul Whelan whose own experimental audio research has found them signed to the UK imprint, Love Thy Neighbour (operated by Andy Rossiter, and Daniel from Esben & The Witch). Seen playing gigs with fellow creative company like clipping., Flamingods, Islet, Speak Galactic, TRAAMS, and more; Wood, Whelan and White have also busied themselves stock piling an impressive cache of obscure equipment and ammunition displayed on their upcoming Telesto EP. Taking the name from one of Saturn's moons, they resurrect the Greek mythology that identifies the space rock otherwise known as, Saturn XIII or Tethys B— Hypnotized examines the distinction and properties of these intergalactic titles through oscillating audio scopes.
The ancient doors of alchemy swing wide open, with the trippy-chants, lo-fi synths, and muffled electronic rhythms. The natural realm is harnessed like spells that speak samples of water and wind in the same stream with a controlled collage of percussion pieces and other surprising stems. “Vanity of Names” trips off the conceits from orders of archaic elders, as the mind flipping effect loops transform into the sound of an encrypted and skipping break beat to complete the song's nearly six minute exercise. The three-headed brain of Robbie, Robin and Paul take cues from their own interpretations, and readings of the elemental existences that lie between the margins, lines, and sheet music notes that only the new age mystics can decipher.
Robin White from Hypnotized was kind to take us deep into their hypnotizing craft, via overseas connections.
How did Hypnotized begin?
Well me and Robbie have actually been making music together from about the age of 12, but around the age of 16 we really started getting interested in electronic and experimental music. We would have these two hour long drone jams in my garage using a microkorg and looping various percussion with a delay pedal. It was when we moved to Brighton we met Paul who seemed to be into what we were doing and joined the band. We recorded a couple of demo songs together and slowly built a collection of musical equipment.
Give us some behind the scenes views on recording the upcoming Telesto EP.
Our writing process can vary quite a bit depending on the track, sometimes Paul will give us a beat to write stuff over or our songs will come out of jamming. Luckily before we recorded this EP we got a chance to play them live, allowing us to develop these songs more and getting them to a place we’re all happy with. We recorded all the tracks in Robbie’s bedroom adding a lot of layers to them and getting very stoned. Once we’d finished all the tracks we gave them to our good friend from college Tom Turner, who mixed and mastered them for us. We like to try and keep people who we work with good friends as we feel they understand what we’re about the most.
What contributes to your psyched up approaches to capturing natural essences in new ways?
Me and Robbie grew up in the Chilterns where we were surrounded by fields and woodland, Paul grew up in Bromley where he was more surrounded by city life, so we believe this all had an effect on our sound. Paul’s beats are very heavily influenced by hip-hop and electronica where as we are influenced more by psychedelia, we all come from different angles but we try and find a way of taking all our different influences and blending them together. We enjoy including a lot of nature samples in our music too, for example the beat for the first track “Thawed” is created from the sound of an iceberg collapsing, and we like to include lots of water sounds. Living in Brighton has an impact on that too, as we live close to the beach. We took a sampler to the beach one night just to record the sea. We also enjoy the idea of making electronic sounds more organic, whilst also including the harsher end of electronica.
Give us the details on the watery, digital sonic sorcery on, “Vanity of Names”.
“Vanity of Names” was actually a track that came out from one of our drone jams when we were about 17, it was also the first song shown to Paul. We recorded several versions before we ended up with the one that exists on Telesto, changing around the structure and the beat till we were happy with it. The nature of the track is very repetitious, having the same synth line going on throughout and adding different sounds and elements as it goes. We feel that this is one of our darker songs, so we played around with that idea a lot. Generally when we create songs we talk about what kind of place or setting we feel the song belongs in, and try and add sounds that match that vibe.
Release plans and parties in the works for Telesto?
Telesto will be available on the 24th of March, but we have two release parties happening beforehand, one on the 10th March in Brighton and the second on the 13th in London. We have some really great acts playing with us for these shows, mainly friends whose music we really enjoy. Along with our EP we’re releasing a remix version called, “Tethys” including a remix of every track. Again all the people who are included in the remixes are good friends of ours and also people who have actually inspired us a lot whilst creating this EP.
Hypnotized's Telesto EP will be available March 25 from Love Thy Neighbour, with pre-orders happening now from Rough Trade and Record Store UK.
Catch them March 13 in London at Old Blue for the Telesto EP launch party with Flamingods & Caveman Genius, at 8pm.
