Guest Review: Hunting Club – “Mosaic”

About a week ago I saw that Hunting Club had a new album coming out. I immediately remembered that about two years ago Andrew Archer came out of nowhere with a great review of their debut album Plaid Album. I wondered how he was doing and promised myself that I would check out the album. A couple of days ago Andrew (now a recently published author! [check out the link below]) once again wrote me out of nowhere with a review of Hunting Club's new album Mosaic. Thanks again Andrew for another firey review! You're always welcome on these pages. 

"Musical Concoctions"

I attended a Hunting Club show in the spring of 2012 at “Cause” in Minneapolis (after party was at “Effect”). After covering most of “The Plaid Album,” the instruments leapt into an awakening new track. Front man and infinite hipster—Eric Pasi (known to wear sunglasses on cloudy days)—had previously shared the unnamed song with me via e-mail, so I had some vague familiarity to the track.

I’m not sure if “Double Vision” is a dance or the dance created is the song? The hairs on my arms and neck gathered while I felt my bodily atmosphere shift. The feeling it invokes is between the one you get during a captivating speech and the moment you found out Steve Jobs died; it sort of comes out of nowhere with an auditory hurl, but parasitically implants itself. This shock never gets old. If you don’t at least tap your foot to the jam I would consult a physician about potential paralysis or other pseudo-neurological condition (e.g. blurred or double vision):

how can you pretend it’s super-stition?

knowing what is next would beat you senseless

After the 5 to 6 audience members left the venue, I slalomed to the front of the stage to catch up with Eric;

“That new [Double Vision] track is hot. It’s gonna be your hit single...I’m telling you, the Current [radio station] is gonna be all over that shit, you wait n’ see.” 

Hunting Club’s sophomore album opens with “Magic Bullet.”  The feel is something like running while you are stoned.

Tracks like “Skyscraper” exhibit the band’s true talent for uniquely-crafted yet stylistic jams that even inspire the most talentless of Caucasians to dance. My journalist copy was initially titled “THC 1,” which I was told did not refer to the band’s extra-curricular activities^{[citation needed]}.

“White Lies” has that hypnotic or transient, gritty sound that is like tentacles to the senses. The listener is held and it conjures an image of a benevolent octopus slow dancing with someone.

There is an omniscient—or at the very least—arrogant thread to “Hollywood (who cares?).” The lyrics are a nonchalant series of incongruent polarities:

blind faith black flag
line up get trashed
i know everyone
forwards backwards

The recursive track is ripe with satire depicting a Hollywood culture enveloped in the superficial. This commentary reaches the depths of that type of social complacency:

live in magazine
culture and wet dream
you know everyone
inside and outside 

The album finishes strong with the anthem and declaration, “Nothing Lasts Forever” as well as “More Than Games,” which takes aim at the romantic quest with existential annotations:

Deep in the sky I’m empty

[...] Dying for your apathy

The chorus grows incrementally as the song evolves into a remarkable ballad rich with emotional countenance.

I still can’t understand any of the words in the final song, “Suburban Bear,” but the fucking title is awesome!

This idiosyncratic collection of songs is an exploration of the shallow state of America. Songs like “Skyscraper” might be hinting at the capitalist ethos in general;

Living well on paper,

Living well on borrowed time

Or maybe I’m projecting... #studentloans

The album’s musical diversity is a concoction of jazz, hip hop and indie-rock. Despite the eclectic blend, the prodigious writing, instrumentation and swagger has left the audience with a musical composite that is creatively uniform; a "Mosaic."

-Andrew James Archer, author of the new book “Pleading Insanity”-

HuntingClubMusic.com

Hunting Club-Plaid Album

Andrew "Undeez" Archer is a brother of a friend of ours, Juliet, and is working out in a small town in New Hampshire doing clinical therapy for a Federal program. Lucky for us, in his free time he's finding cool indie rock bands like the Hunting Club from Minneapolis and writing jamandahalfs. Thanks Undeez. The jams keep coming from unexpected places, and we love it.

"Musical Textiles"

Hunting Club’s debut, “Hunting Club (“The Plaid Album”)” can be explained much like the presentation of the opening track; speechless. Rather than being pulled into the music there is a natural magneticism towards this original, idiosyncratic, yet familiar sound. As it opens, slowly the instrumentation intensifies with piano sounds of morning and then abruptly stops, leaving the listener waking to the drum beaten lucid state that “The Coast” transports. A relationship that seemed to burn at both ends, the voice echoes: “started forcing our hands.” The smooth waves of music quickly attach to your long term memory. One cannot help the instant mental attachment the song brings, which fits thematically with the piece; “we were careless in letting it go.”

There is a sense of self blame in the 3rd track, “Real Chance,” which is accompanied by powerful harmonies and tight instrumentation. It stands out from the rest of the songs, but does not seem to fit. That being said, this is the one that repeatedly wakes up the neighbors at 3am. Perhaps a Minnesota connection or nod to the Coen brothers, “Raising Arizona” is a somber, existential tale. Past heartache resurfaces as spilling rumination manifests into an emotionally charged psychotic angst.

As track 5 alludes to, not holding back is exactly what Hunting Club does with “Gold Wheat.” The unification of the instruments, pace and lyrical prose cultivates as the fulcrum to the album. Take note and gather on a second listen (especially if you were texting or on Facebook) to the not so subtle analogical lyrics that stem from the band’s name. There is an eerie start to what appears to be side two of “The Plaid Album”, with distortion that breaks and lends to a sense of starting again or is it starting over? There are more questions than answers, “was it all bad taste?” in “Black Snowflake,” which is a direct contrast from its inverse, “The Coast.” This one offers more confusion and conflict -- “makes no sense.” Still chasing these uncertainties, “Alamo” is a ballad with a lyrical quest for liberation from the pain of losing a complimentary lover that is “the center of my universe.” The record is recharged with “Saucy Banana” being a testimony that rationalizes the shift in perspective that gives Band of Horses something to gallop to. Cocky lines such as “baby I’m on top of your world” declare the past being left behind.

“Sweet Soprano” is a Lo-Fi conversion of sound that is reminiscent of a band like The Black Keys. There is a softer inability for disclaim to the loyalties of a troubled relationship; “I can't leave ya, I can't leave ya.” The tender, wavy ended, “Cactai” begins acoustically before the full band marches to what is a solidification of the diversity that Hunting Club has produced. The song may approximate the concept of the album; acceptance of letting go, but the listener is going to want to hold on to these eleven tracks. 

-Andrew "Undeez" Archer

The album can be bought/downloaded for free here (pay what you want). Check out the album, and if you like what your hear, support this young band.