This Friday the opening of the exhibition The Object Lag in De Nieuwe Vide in Haarlem will be the stage for a Narrominded improv event with Puin + Hoop, Herman Wilken and Coen Oscar Polack doing an extended improvisation. Come listen, free entrance! As a teaser for this event and as a gift to you in general we share with you a half hour long improvisation piece by Coen Oscar Polack entilted Test Drive, recorded live earlier this week. Download the mp3 here or listen in the player below (note: the track starts quietly).
3voor12/Amsterdam interviewed Lars Meijer, the man behind Hunter Complex, about his debut album. He talks about the release party in Smart Project Space (check out the video and the pics from that evening), his influences, the eighties and his plans for the future. Read the interview here (it’s in Dutch).
The international music magazine 365Mag rates the debut album by Hunter Complex 8,5 out of 10: ‘Each song features a magnificent and well balanced structure that finds it origin somewhere in the area between dance and pop, with the vocals adding a certain pop element to the overall in a Kraftwerk kind of way. Recommended!’ The Hunter Complex album also got some very positive reviews from Vital Weekly (‘it’s great’) and Subjectivisten / Caleidoscoop (‘highly recommended!’). Musicfrom.nl is less enthusiastic about the latest Narrominded releases. They think the idea behind The Almighty Internet by Spoelstra doesn’t make a good album and compare Hunter Complex to The Edge. The online radio program Beautiful Extremes played tracks from both albums, so you can judge for yourself. Listen to the fragments from Beautiful Extremes in the players below.
Beautiful Extremes, February 16 2010, with Moonset by Hunter Complex and Day of the System by Spoelstra:
Beautiful Extremes, February 23 2010, with Dance by Hunter Complex and The Classic Handbuzzer by Spoelstra:
A new edition of NMFM, our monthly audio show at eclectro.nl, is now online. This edition was mixed by Lars Meijer of Narrominded and is entitled 25 Years of Synths. From Delia Derbyshire in 1963 to Jean-Michel Jarre in 1988. Listen or download the mix here. Check out previous editions of NMFM here.
Hunter Complex is the moniker of Lars Meijer. On his self titled debut album he moves from synthpop to electro and from italo to new wave. Just like the European electronic acts The Tough Alliance, Neon Neon, JJ, M83 and Delorean, there’s an imperative reference to the eighties in the music of Hunter Complex. Not only in the sound, but especially because of that intangible feeling. Meijer: ‘It’s a feeling that switches between whimsicality and melancholy. You can see that for example in Miami Vice – true television of the eighties: subtropical beaches, flamingos, but also nocturnal streets full of muggy evil.’ More info on Hunter Complex here. The album is available on cd in our shop (10 EUR including shipping in Europe, 12 EUR including shipping outside Europe) and digitally via iTunes and emusic. Preview the track Wait in the player below.
Retro Retry 2: Another Another Green World got some mainstream attention in NRC Next: ‘Not all the remakes are evenly succesful, but I’m sure Eno will appreciate this album. After all, he always encouraged breaking down conventions.’
Lobo by Garçon Taupe, elected dance track of 2009 on Eclectro, made it into the playlist of Nalden, a prominent Dutch lifestyle blogger.
The Almighty Internet by Spoelstra has just been released, but already got two great reviews. Vital Weekly: ‘Shut down Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and go that nice bar around the corner, and have some of this great music, preferably played by Spoelstra, sweating over his equipment. Loud is best, cold beer in your hand, and Spoelstra’s quirky electro beats, chopped up synth lines, bits of noise will do the rest.’ Incendiary Magazine on Spoelstra: ‘I love it, and if you like the oddball, you’ll love it too.’
Incendiary Magazine also reviewed Katadreuffe’s Quel Gargantua EP: ‘It’s a long time I heard any band so wound up and truculent, to be honest. Fantastic stuff.’
Besides giving one great show after another, Katadreuffe also has spent some time in the studio. Later this year they will release some new material on Narrominded. The song Cut Up Comfort on 3voor12’s Hollandse Nieuwe 3 compilation is a taster of what is coming. And damn, it tastes good.
The Dutch magazine Fret reviews three Narrominded releases in their January/February issue. On Retro Retry 2: Another Another Green World: ‘This other other green world doesn’t make you happy; hopefully this gloomy undertone isn’t a prediction for the near future. But besides that, this compilation is cool, relaxed, deep and groovy.’ [read more] They were a little less enthousiastic about Slow Country for Old Men by Psychon: ‘A carefully composed diary that never actually gets exciting, but nonetheless is nice to listen to.’ [read more] However, they recommend Korrels by Living Ornaments: ‘A firm and powerful piece of work.’ [read more] Belgian e-zine Kwadratuur is also very excited about Korrels: ‘The two sound doctors behind this project are very talented.’ And last but not least, the radio program Beautiful Extremes again played some Narrominded tracks: Here Is the Night (Another Version by Spoelstra) by Hunter Complex from the Here Is the Night EP and Huppy Capsule by Garçon Taupe from Split LP #4. Listen to the fragment from the broadcast on January 19 in the player below.
The gallery Delicatessen in Amsterdam released a book with a compilation with tracks by Narrominded artists Coen Oscar Polack and Hunter Complex. For four weeks in a row different music photographers showed their photos at Delicatessen. Each week different musicians and writers where invited to give their response to one or more of the photos shown in the gallery. A week after each opening they read and played their response in the gallery. A very nice book with lots of photos and cool words including a cd-r with 12 tracks is the result of these four weeks. You can buy this book + cd-r in our shop for only 10 euro, but you can also download the whole compilation for free on the Delicatessen website.
Igloo Magazine wrote a very nice profile on Narrominded: ‘Narrominded’s catalogue is diverse; it tests the waters of electronics with some very interesting results. For anyone wanting to discover something new, go no further than this imprint as you are guaranteed to find something that will undoubtedly itch that scratch.’ Also some kind words from Bertels who wrote a review on Last.fm of Spoelstra’s The Almighty Internet release party in SUB071 in Leiden. ‘Yet another great evening at The Black Tower!’ And Beautiful Extremes, the great online radio show hosted by Oscar Smit, played the tracks Huppy Capsule by Garçon Taupe from Split LP #4 and Here Is the Night (Cosmic Manifestation Mix by Garçon Taupe) by Hunter Complex from the Here Is the Night EP. Listen to the fragment from the broadcast on January 12 in the player below.
