Musicians love promotion, no? Actually, no. A lot of them don’t like to yap on about themselves. Some, because they are contrary arses. And some, because they want to cultivate an air of mystery around their music, and not focus on the ‘creator’.
Is that a bit self-aware? Does it – ironically – take away from the music?
For me, not when it’s a musician like Hunter-Gatherer who’s doing the mysterious-air-cultivation.
Conceived by a Dublin-based man-who-shall-not-be-named, Hunter-Gatherer is the purveyor of slightly creepy, dark electronica, the type that the phrase ‘brooding and atmospheric’ was coined for.
His debut album, I Dreamed I Was a Footstep in the Trail of a Murderer, is at times frightening, at others euphoric. It’s an album for dark winter nights, with the wind howling outside and branches casting long-fingered shadows across the expanse of your bedroom wall.
Listen to it walking down a street at dusk and every alleyway will seem like the location for a potential murder. Your murder. You’ll be on high alert for ne’er do wells and the hairs on the back of your neck will be bristling.
Hunter-Gatherer has a new 7″ out, and it will get its official release this Thursday in Whelan’s, Dublin. I promise there won’t be any murderers – honest, guv – but there will a shadowy, hooded figure on stage drawing you in with his doom-laden electronica; suitably atmospheric visuals by Tim Redfern and support from fellow electro-heads Ilex and Melijoann.
Here’s the video for the new single, Pére Lachaise, directed by the rather talented Eoghan Kidney.
It freaked the hell out of me the first time I saw it – mainly due to the obscene use of dairy products.
(It’s NSFW, as there is a bit of man-arse for a few seconds. Don’t tell your boss I didn’t warn you!)
You know you have to experience this live, right? (The music, not the man-arse).
Think a depressed Aphex Twin, or The Knife’s Silent Shout 7″ played at the wrong speed. Or just don’t think about comparisons at all, and make up your own damned mind.
Hunter-Gatherer :: Pére Lachaise 7″ launch :: Whelans, Thursday 7th October
Doors 8pm
Ilex 8:30 – 9
Meljoann 9:15 – 9:45
Hunter-Gatherer 10 – 10:45::Free USB wristbands pre-loaded with video & new mp3 (first come, first served)::
::The single will be available to buy on the night, along with t-shirts, albums and badges::
Sweet Oblivion 