vital weekly review: open sea
So far I reviewed all of the music releases by Lars Meijer’s solo project Hunter Complex. I can safely say I am a big fan. I once saw him play live and that was great too. He wheeled in a bunch of old analogue 80s synthesizers and had a video backing of 80s films cut-up. He played music that sounded very much like music from the 80s; say something like the soundtrack to Miami Vice. There was a self-titled CD (Vital Weekly 717), the LP ‘Heat’ (Vital Weekly 896) and the single ‘Hours’ (Vital Weekly 932), all his Narrominded label. Now he found a new home for his music, the apparently well-known imprint of Death Waltz Recordings, who re-issues music by John Carpenter, Ennio Morricone, and becoming label mates with Steve Moore, Antoni Maiovvi and such synth heroes. The new album is all instrumental and it is a treat for the ears. It combines the best in 80s synth pop, Italo disco and cosmic synth, but all within the length of a pop song. All of these pieces are highly melodic, ranging from minor chords to jubilant major ones. Sad at times, joyous at others; fat bass lines, analogue synth arpeggios and sometimes very crispy digital ones. Some of this stuff could act very easily as a movie soundtrack (‘The Heart Of High Places’, ‘We Fought For America’ or the Vangelis’ like ‘Crows Zero’), and I wouldn’t be surprised if that is what is going to happen with some of these songs, or future Hunter Complex songs. It would seem to me now is the time to make that next step and get feted by the captains of the film industry. Another first-class record by Hunter Complex; can’t wait for the next
FdW
interview: noisey
radio: de conserven van van erve (featuring night city)
radio: beautiful extremes by oscar smit (featuring crows zero)
radio: kinky star radio (featuring chase manhattan)
radio: x-rated by bob rusche (featuring chase manhattan)
‘There’s some beautiful music being made in the Netherlands. (…) Open Sea rightly gets rave reviews everywhere.’