Category Archives: press
oor review: open sea
bleep review: open sea
Lars Meijer drops his third LP as Hunter Complex a full six years after the last one. The Dutch electronics veteran and Narrowminded Records boss clearly took his time when making Open Sea, and the care he put into this record has paid off in spades. This is a dense album of synthwave and retro electronics. Going by track titles alone you would expect numbers like ‘Night City’, ‘We Fought For America’ and ‘The Heart Of High Places’ to sound like they’d been nicked from an 80’s action movie OST, and their clattering programmed drums and burbling basslines more than deliver on that promise. Italians Do It Better is an obvious comparison for Open Sea, though its home of Death Waltz Originals is just as fitting.
norman records review: open sea
New synth business from Hunter Complex, using a vibrant mixture of analogue and digital synthesisers and drum machines to achieve excitement. Open Sea isn’t one of those abstract modular jamming records: it is full of melodic interests and rhythmic fun, although it does also have a great textural richness. Ten tracks on Death Waltz Originals.
chain d.l.k. review: open sea
written in music review: open sea
the sunday experience review: open sea
louder than war review: open sea
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
