Oscar Smit, the host of the online radio show Beautiful Extremes, has a fascination with Christmas music. Not with the average Christmas tracks you hear on the radio each year, but with obscure tracks from all around the world. For the compilation Christmas Cover Up he made a selection of those lesser-known tracks and asked comtemporary artists from Holland and Belgium to cover them. ‘The result is a wonderful mix of old and new songs, wrapped in a stylish 21st century cover, proving that the perfect Christmas song is timeless’, Oscar Smit says in the press release.
Oscar Smit played the track Christmas 4 AM Alone by Hunter Complex in his online radio show Beautiful Extremes, broadcasted December 7 2010. Listen to the show in the player below. Hunter Complex is first track.
Garçon Taupe – Dolby Pipeline (from Wittenburg EP, Narrominded Split LP Series #4, 2009)
FFF – Xenon (unreleased)
Hunter Complex – Hours (from Heat, to be released 2011)
Puin + Hoop – Zuurstof III (from Door, to be released September 2010)
Hydrus – Sand (from Nodes EP, to be released fall 2010)
Spoelstra – The Almighty Internet (from The Almighty Internet, 2010)
Katadreuffe – DDTd (from Quel Gargantua!, 2009)
Coen Oscar Polack – Polderramp (unreleased)
Legowelt – In Dark Trees (from Retro Retry 2: Another Another Green World, 2009)
The just released album Kutplaneet by Het Fukking Licht already got three reviews. Recent Music Heroes rates the album 7.3, Vital Weekly says it’s an excellent release and Subjectivisten/Caleidoscoop calls it a ‘geweldige kutplaat!’. The Hunter Complex debut album got a review on the blog Terrible Music: ‘What really makes this music so outstanding is that you hear classic 1980′s synthpop elements but still all sounds very fresh.’ The Dutch magazine Fret also reviewed Hunter Complex (read here), and also The Almighty Internet by Spoelstra (read here). Online radio show Beautiful Extremes played the track Unique Visitor by Spoelstra. Listen to the fragment from the broadcast on May 4 2010 in the player below.
If you still don’t own a physical or digital copy of the debut album by Hunter Complex, go here to download/preview the mp3 of the track Chinese Restaurants. The album got three more reviews. LiveXS calls it ‘decadent disco’, Written in Music says the album sounds has a sober undertone and Festivalinfo rates the album 3 out of 5. The online radio show Beautiful Extremes played the tracks Dance by Hunter Complex and The Classic Handbuzzer by Spoelstra from his album The Almighty Internet. Listen to the fragment of the broadcast on April 20 2010 in the player below.
Beautiful Extremes also played Unique Visitor by Spoelstra from The Almighty Internet on April 13 2010. Listen to that fragment in the player below.
The British online music magazine Sonomu reviewed Retro Retry 2: Another Another Green World: ‘Taken as a whole it’s an admirable effort.’ Belgian music mag Kwadratuur reviewed The Almighty Internet by Spoelstra: ‘A mush of sweet 8-bit melodies.’ Roodkapje (Little Red Riding Hood in English) of the hipster magazine Vice didn’t like the Hunter Complex debut album and named it worst album of the month. Apparently Hunter Complex is not good music to wash dishes to. Too bad. The Here Is the Night EP by Hunter Complex did get a nice review by the Dutch music mag Fret: ‘Typical eighties synthpop of the same level as New Order and He Said.’ Beautiful Extremes, the online radio show by Studio 80, played two tracks from that EP, the album version of Here Is the Night and the Cosmic Manifestation Mix by Garçon Taupe, and the track Day of the System from Spoelstra’s The Almighty Internet. Listen to the fragment of the broadcast on March 23 2010 in the player below.
Beautiful Extremes also played Apparatus Erectus by Spoelstra from The Almighty Internet on March 30 2010. Listen to that fragment in the player below.
The debut album by Hunter Complex gets positive reviews all around the world. Dutch music magazine Oor: ‘Beautiful, almost dubby synthpopdisco. Who wants to know how the future once sounded, finds comfort with Hunter Complex.’ The Belgian website Kwadratuur: ‘lightly disturbed synthwave songs!’ Dutch website File Under says ‘Hunter Complex sounds both icy cool as melancholically moving.’ Beats & Beyond rates the album 8,5 out of 10 and thinks ‘retrofuturism never sounded so fresh.’ The website Outlands, based in Macedonia, is also enthusiastic: ‘some of the songs are a real uncanny candies.’ Outlands also interviewed Hunter Complex aka Lars Meijer. The radio show Beautiful Extremes played the track Moonset by Hunter Complex on March 9 2010. Listen to the fragment in the player below.
Some people really hate Spoelstra’s music, but others try to get to the bottom of Spoelstra’s The Almighty Internet. ‘The rest of the world will look at him as a special kind and plays Spoelstra’s music as an acoustic weapon. I belong to that majority’, says Festivalinfo. The German magazine Aufabwegen sees a different purpose for Spoelstra’s electro music: ‘Musik für Sonnenstudios mit Anspruch’. Oor also has an interesting opinion on The Almighty Internet: ‘Irritate, that’s what Spoelstra does. And that’s a compliment in this case.’ Click here for some footage of Spoelstra live at Worm in Rotterdam and here for a review of a gig he did with The Ex and Julie Mittens in the Bar & Boos in Leiden. ‘Spoelstra’s set was quirky, irreverent, slightly demented and a hell of a lot of fun.’ The radio show Beautiful Extremes played the tracks Day of the System by Spoelstra and Here Is the Night by Hunter Complex on March 16 2010. Listen to the fragment in player below.
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.
Posted in press | 21 January 2010 | 14:02 | comment
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.
Posted in press | 17 January 2010 | 23:18 | comment
De Objectieve Lach by Puin+Hoop + Herman Wilken + Coen Oscar Polack got 8 out of 10 stars from Dark Entries: ‘An enchanted piece of industrial.’ Subjectivisten/Caleidoscoop calls the album ‘an apocalyptic pleasure that won’t let you go easily.’ Festivalinfo says it’s ‘a must for electro fanatics.’ Beautiful Extremes, an online radio show hosted by Oscar Smit, played an extract of De Objectieve Lach:
