7 / 7
We last year reviewed the album Heat of Hunter Complex. The 2nd full length of the Dutch musician Lars Meijer holds onto the vintage electro-experimental touch and features pop elements.
Hours is the 2nd single taken from this album and the least I can say is that this is an excellent title song. The EP opens with the ‘original’ version revealing a cool vintage electro-pop style animated by fine bleeps and embellished with sweet vocal parts.
We next get 2 remixes of songs originally released on Heat as well. The remix of Serious Glass by The No is driven by a bombastic repetitive rhythm and vocals reminding me of shoegaze productions. It’s an interesting experimental pop music format. The minimal approach of the Highway Hypnosis-remix by Drvg Cvltvre is another interesting cut. Next to the minimal style there also is a rather evasive melody part totally achieving this remix. This is a beautiful song.
I regret there’re no remixes and/or alternative versions of Hours. I think it would have been a bonus for this EP. Hours wants to ‘persuade the listener to tune in to a strange mix of Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter film scores and ’81-’82 era Simple Minds’. It’s a rather strange definition claimed by Hunter Complex, but it probably says something about their potential sources of inspiration.
Conclusion: Hunter Complex composes a very own pop-style, which is merging retro-electro influences together with a pure experimental & minimal element.