Hunter Complex – Dead Calm And Zero Degrees (Album – Burning Witches Records)
Genre/Influences: Electro-ambient, experimental, cinematographic.
Format: Digital, Vinyl.
Background/Info: Hailing from The Netherlands, Lars Meijer is involved with music since the 90s. He has been busy with different projects and is co-owner of the Narrominded label. He this year stroke back with the fourth full length of Hunter Complex. The new work has been introduced as ‘the twin record’ to the previous album (cf. “Open Sea”) because the tracks were conceived around the same period.
Content: The style and influences aren’t that different from the previous album. Hunter complex invites the listeners to embark for a cinematic voyage, where you’ve to create your own images. The music is electronic, definitely ambient and therefore nearly always dreamy. Some cuts have been accomplished with extra bleeps while I also noticed an organ sound at the last cut.
+ + + : This album is well-crafted, revealing a meticulous writing process. The songs are very efficient in the cinematic style and “Dead Calm And Zero Degrees” is even the most accomplished cinematic work from the artist. It clearly opens perspectives for further releases and why not the writing of a real soundtrack.
– – – : Some tracks are pretty similar to each other, but what really hurts me is the sensation it all feels like an album conceived with preset sounds. It might be just a wrong sensation, but I’m expecting a bit more originality in sound research.
Conclusion: This is an album with a relaxing effect, which will please lovers of electro-ambient music. I however preferred the previous album.
Best songs: “Dead Calm And Zero Degrees”, “Hot Streets”, “Star Crash”.
Rate: (6).
Artist: www.huntercomplex.com / www.facebook.com/huntercomplex
Label: www.facebook.com/burningwitchesrecords
About Hunter Complex
Hunter Complex is the moniker of Dutch artist Lars Meijer. Meijer began releasing music on handmade tapes in the late 1980s, turned to lo-fi pop as Larz in 1994 with two albums on the Californian label Blackbean and Placenta, and later released material with the improvisational band Psychon Troopers and the duo Living Ornaments. He started Hunter Complex in 2008; the self-titled debut arrived in 2010, followed by “Heat” on Narrominded in 2013 and “Open Sea” in 2019. “Dead Calm And Zero Degrees”, reviewed here, was conceived as a twin record to “Open Sea”, and Meijer followed it with “Airports And Posts” in 2022.
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