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HOMINID is the musical project of Benny Jennings (he/him), a sound designer and composer based in Te Whanganui a Tara (Wellington, NZ).

Heavily influenced by UK IDM, Electronica and Deep House, HOMINID is embodied by flourishing textures, scrambled tape loops, four on the floor kicks, found sound and field recordings. Jennings’ hopes that HOMINID can add a much needed tender, human and personal touch to Aotearoa’s Electronic Dance music scene.

Today HOMINID releases their debut EP Introvert//Extrovert, a tender four tracks of electronic music, inspired by introspection, experimentation and self actualisation. Introvert//Extrovert is available now on all digital platforms.

“HOMINID makes a compelling first impression” – Undertherdar.co.nz

“Makes for an interesting, highly unique, sound experience” – Flash-Trax

“Brain pushing, synaptic firing” – American Pancake

Introvert//Extrovert acts as a collage of Jennings’ early experiences into adulthood. Field recordings range from his student hostel days, birds in his backyard, flights overseas for work and water in the coves close to his home. Jennings mixes this with contemporary IDM, Garage & Drum n Bass, inspired by Dunedin house parties and dusty op shop vinyl. Introvert//Extrovert’s four tracks were honed through Jennings’ study where he graduated Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music Sonic Art program, holding a Masters of Fine Arts in Music (Sound Design) and his subsequent career as a composer for contemporary dance & film sound (Jennings was a part of the Oscar nominated post production sound team who worked on James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water).

“Now that I’ve had some time to sit with this EP, and considering I named it Introvert//Extrovert, I see it as this sort of reclamation of joy,” says Jennings. “I spent a lot of my 20s swallowed up by depression. The past four years have been a drawn-out process of learning to love myself. This EP is for the version of me that was too scared and anxious to leave his room and experience all the beautiful things the world has to offer. I’m still very much an introvert, but I’m not crippled by introversion now. Sharing art is an act of self-love, and it’s something older versions of myself were not ready for.”

While listeners may not hear it on first listen, Jennings’ creative practice hinges on field recordings and sampling, “I love the idea of my tracks having these moments and experiences of mine buried inside them.”

“‘Stay with Me‘ samples Miki Matsubara’s vocals from her 1979 track of the same name. This was the first HOMINID track I ever made. I wanted to include this because I came across that song randomly on YouTube, and it helped pull me out of quite a dark place and reignite an interest in engaging with music. The track has recordings from my street in Hataitai. Sparrows in my backyard, things like that. Comfortable sounds. It also has a change-up made out of reversed tui recordings that I made with someone who mentored me in the past and has had some pretty massive influence in my life.”

Introvert//Extrovert is based around some underwater hydrophone recordings I made in Moa Point, Wellington. There’s this gritty textural whooshing element that sits underneath most of the track, and that is the sound of the tide moving small stones underwater.”

“Everything in ‘4me‘ except the drums are made from about 8 dollars of randomly selected vinyl from an Op shop in Newtown. I just thought it would be a fun personal challenge and my aim with that track was to try to create a feeling similar to when CDs skip. The track only has one quite subtle field recording in it. Underpinning the whole song as a noise floor is a laptop mic recording I made when I finished the track on a flight to Melbourne while travelling to perform ambient music as part of a performance art piece.”

“‘Sisyphus‘ has some of my really early explorations in field recording. Some rain that was recorded on Left Bank in Cuba St, and a crowd of drunk students leaving my old university hostel. These recordings are probably from around 2013-14. The drones that make up the intro to “Sisyphus” (and are throughout the track) are made from an old ambient improvisation I performed on a four-track tape machine. This was a technique I started exploring really heavily during the lockdowns and is the reason I got back into music making in the first place. ‘Sisyphus‘ having that extended ambient intro is in honour of those lockdown explorations.”

With the release of Introvert//Extrovert Jennings expresses “I turned 30 earlier this year and had never released any of my own music. For the longest time, I have been a music maker with no music to my name. That was my self-consciousness and self-doubt holding me back—the introvert. There is no point in hoarding your art on a hard drive. I feel really happy to have this body of work out in the world. I’m incredibly proud of it, and it has really pushed me to create and share more work in the future.”

“I feel deeply positive about the future of HOMINID.”

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Photo credit: Ciao Silva