Is Huntar still a mystery artist? We only ask because now there’s a new picture of him (above), which if we’re not mistaken looks a bit like this lad (see here). If that’s correct then Wikipedia is also right. And if they’re all correct then our suggestion in a previous blog post from last September that he may have already had some sort of fledgling musical career as an Ed Sheeran / Lewis Watson styled troubadour but decided to try something different and felt it should go under a different name seems to have been pretty bang on.
So with that out of the way let’s get to the music, because this is a music blog not a detective agency.
Love I Know is the first track from Huntar’s next EP which arrives on the 4th May and is distinctly in the camp of the r ‘n’ b key pushers and knob twiddlers that have become common place since the arrival of the likes of James Blake / The Weeknd etc. This one’s no sex sizzler like The Weeknd though. No, this is more relationship gone tits up than anything else. “We’ve been fighting way too long, don’t walk away from me, stepping backwards seems so wrong,” he sings against oppressively tasteful electronic atmospherics before he pleads that he can give all the love he knows in the chorus. But maybe it’s all too late?
Huntar - Love I Know
Here at Breaking More Waves we like comparisons. Some people call this lazy journalism, but that’s fine – paraphrasing our blog brother Andy Von Pip of The Von Pip Musical Express, copying and pasting a press release straight onto a blog or website is lazy journalism, actually giving some consideration to reference points isn’t.
So here are some comparisons. In getting these we asked four different people what artist they thought this song sounded like. Yes we know that’s lazy as well, but we hoped it would reinforce our views. 75% of them said Bastille. 25% of them said Hurts. Not one of them mentioned that Bitter sounded a bit like Aquilo, but then we realised that when writing reference points, if you mention bands that only 0.1% of the population know of it's probably not a very useful reference point. We’d probably also have described Bitter as sounding a bit like commercial credible boy band pop with a hint of chill wave, but then again probably less than 0.1% of the population know what chill wave sounds like.
Which brings us to a conclusion and question:
What is the point of writing about what music sounds like, when as a reader you can just press play and decide yourself? Maybe we should have just written “New tune by Huntar, this is good.”
Now that’s what we call lazy.
Oh, and if you see anyone write “Emerging from the shadows of south east London's electronic scene with his pop sensibilities twisted, 21yr old producer and vocalist Huntar's heart beats in time with the rhythms that birthed him, from the maximalism of Hudson Mohawke to Prince at his infectious best ,” that came from the press release.
Bitter is taken from Huntar's debut EP released on the 8th December. You get the track for free immediate download when you pre-order the EP (here)
Footnote: There's a bit of Chet Faker in this as well perhaps? Right, we're done with comparing.
Huntar - Bitter
Who is Huntar and why is he hiding his identity? We'd like to know.
Here's some possible reasons:
1. He’s ‘letting the music do the talking.’ (Yawn) In which case why not tell us his real name and then just get on with the music? Maybe because if he did Google might tell us more.
2. He’s already had some sort of fledgling musical career as an Ed Sheeran / Lewis Watson styled troubadour but decided to try something different and felt it should go under a different name.
3. He’s actually an escaped convict and is having to hide his identity so the police can’t catch him.
4. His real name is Algenon Picklesthwaite, which really isn’t a very cool name for a budding electronic artist, the blogs really wouldn’t go for it would they?
5. He’s actually called Huntar and isn’t hiding it at all. His parents really wanted him to appear in a dystopian sci-fi film like Hunger Games or Divergent and thought the name might help.
Anyway our money is on number 2, (although wouldn’t it be great if he was really called Huntar?) but we guess for now we’ll have to continue with the ‘it’s all about the music’ route until someone official says who he is. Thankfully in this case the music is good, with Huntar bringing animated passionate lyrics about ‘screaming for more’ and being ‘close and your body is on fire’ against a sultry and atmospheric production (think Sohn as a vague reference point). Basically this is come to bed music and we can imagine Algenon or whatever his name is getting quite a few results with this one.
Huntar - All That I Want
Another day, another ‘mystery’ artist. A name, a picture (that may or may not be of himself standing by a circular gas tower) and a song. That’s all we get. It’s probably not the sort of approach that is going to create instant levels of One Direction fan excitement, but of course that’s probably not the aim here.
So with no facts, tit bits, attitude or anything else we'd better focus on the music.
Expectations is a dusky sounding piece of electronic based pop formed out of doomed synths and vocal samples, solid drum sounds and lyrics about crawling until you walk then running until you break away. Perhaps he's plotting the course of infant to child to adult? Although frankly we have no idea, it could be something far more deeply profound than that and we’ve missed it. What we particularly like in Expectations is the moment near halfway through when you hear Huntar say “3,4” as if this was a fully live band he’s counting in when clearly it isn’t. We're also enjoying the part where two thirds through, just as you might be feeling a bit ‘Delia Smith’ and wanting to shout “come on let’s be ‘avin you,” Expectations gets a bit more sprightly, throws off its low-key cloak and puts its metaphoric hands in the air, aiming for the land of bliss. A confident and intriguing start.
Huntar - Expectations
