Having appeared on BlackPlastic back in December, New Zealand artist Nik Brinkman is mainly focused on guitar-based dream pop, but he is building a reputation on these pages for something a little different. In December, it was a warm and elastic electronic remix of his song Heavy World, but now we have an original dance track, Hypnotherapy, described as a ‘high-energy detour into electronic territory’.
Where Heavy World (Remix) was still ultimately an indie pop song at its core, Hypnotherapy is a full on embrace of the hedonistic experience of losing yourself in both the music and a throng of people dancing. The song itself is inspired by a combination of personal memories—Brinkman’s uncle blasting techno from his car—and the nostalgia of rave filtered through a modern lens, by the likes of Underworld, early Jesus Jones, and System7. Brinkman had previously explored electronic, technicolor soundscapes through his Bright Music artist project, but Hypnotherapy pushes further into the darkness.
The resulting soundscape is a gloriously energising slab of acid tinged tech house. Bass bubbles as tweaking synths squelch, building towards the track’s warm embrace of a drop, ambient pads surrounding a heavily filtered vocal. It is a moment of love before Brinkman pulls you by the hand back into the swirling cacophony inside his own mind. The result is transcendent — the kind of thing Dan Snaith has made a career out of. Just give me a version twice as long, please.