Wil Bolton - Under A Name That Hides Her (Vinyl LP)

On this rare vinyl outing for minimalist titans Hibernate, Wil Bolton, fresh from a triumphant and fast-selling release on Time Released Sound, is dropping six tracks of his trademark spacious minimal composition/droney ambience. Not only that, but you get an LP, a CD (with the first 100 copies only, apparently) and a download so you never need be without these blissed out tunes, whether you’re on the go or putting your feet up at home.

This is handy, because on this disc Bolton has really excelled himself, throwing together deep and detailed dronescapes with deliciously shimmering tones and slow, plaintive melodies which are reminding Phil here of Windy & Carl. I think it’s perhaps a little more distinctly melodic and less blurry than those two but it’s certainly giving me the same feeling of ease and contentment which they can achieve at their best. However, delve deeper and you will discover that on this album Bolton was in fact wanting to convey his nostalgia for bands of the ‘80s and ‘90s like My Bloody Valentine, The Cure and The Smiths.

Needless to say this record doesn’t sound a thing like any of those bands, but the sounds here are largely made with guitar that’s been looped and processed until it doesn’t sound much like a guitar any more. There’s the odd bit of field recordings here too, and general droney melodic niceness all round is the order of the day. I’d never have guessed that it had anything to do with nostalgia for the moody indie pop bands of his youth but it’s dead lovely regardless.