Hunch Music

Album review

Globetrotting deep house producer/DJ Hunee (Hun Choi) recorded his debut album, Hunch Music, during a brief stint living in Los Angeles, in between Berlin and Amsterdam residencies. His sunny, spacy brand of dance music recalls classic Chicago house producers such as Larry Heard as well as the more jazz-inflected side of Detroit house, but even more so than on his previous 12" singles, he allows a multitude of influences to seep into his work. The tense, eerie "Burning Flower" buries operatic vocal samples underneath its mosaic of pianos and clattering synth-drums. "The World" is built around a sample of June Tyson's mantra "It's after the end of the world! Don't you know that yet?!" from Sun Ra's film Space Is the Place. Here, Hunee eschews kick drums for handclaps and acoustic percussion loops, staying true to the cosmic vision of its source material while giving it a danceable pulse. His exploratory tracks enthusiastically try out a wide variety of textures, and even on explicitly dancefloor-centered tracks such as "Error of the Average" and "Hiding the Moon" he's never content to just loop a few sounds; there's a cornucopia of distortion effects, voices, and instruments explored. "Failed Movement" even begins with a free-flowing collage of nature sounds, melancholy strings, stray hand percussion, and mournful trumpet before gaining a fluid beat and crumbling synth textures. Without seemingly overtly avant-garde, Hunee successfully takes a free-form, experimental approach to house music, following his instincts and incorporating whatever comes to mind into his sound.
© Paul Simpson /TiVo