Customer Reviews

Climate of Hunter

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I suspect this album will be loved by those who value the artistic experience of listening to the 2 subsequent albums ('Tilt' and 'the Drift', both of which I adore).

The musical language is to me comparatively more accessible, less dense, and less disquieting but still exciting in its originality, depth, and variety of shape and movement. There are passages where orchestral arrangements by Brian Gascoigne integrate perfectly with the non orchestral arrangements in a way that makes them essential to the artistic whole - a masterclass for musical arrangers.

However, with no disrespect to fine guitarists or hard rock and metal fans such as myself, I suspect the artistic integrity was compromised by Virgin Records in Track 3 and Track 7:

In the former, which was released as a single, the music continues the extremely high artistic level of the first 2 cuts until the guitar solo, which is of the typical high register, showy styles a la Kirk Hammett and other guitar heroes. If there HAD to be a solo I suspect the bassist Mo Foster could have given us a tasty treat more in keeping with the flow and mood.

Track 7 is perhaps initially tolerable despite the boringly simplistic rock drumming but then became unlistenable for me when a similar style of showy guitar soloing started. Someone else may like to comment on this track as I immediately skipped to the next and have no intention of trying it again (unless there's something not to be missed later in the piece).

The last track is the only non Walker written one - a very short but beautifully understated rendition of a traditional style blues with music by Kenyon Hopkins and words by Tennessee Williams - finishing the album nicely.

Regarding the rather intense poetry which forms the lyrics, I can only say at this stage in my comprehension that it's powerful. (I prefer to interpret while listening, contemplating what I've heard - for those who want to read the words, they are all printed on the insert).

As I say, if you like Walker's musical art I think you will love the experiences that listening to this CD will generate.

When you remember the hits of the Walker Brothers with their spacy wall of sound, you'll recognize something here.
Only thing is, there are no hits on this unique record.
I bought it in the eighties, but it's psychedelics here quite different from other music of the time.
Though its dreamlike but exalted sound is acquainted maybe to contemporary music like Associates, Dead Can Dance or even Arvo Pärt, it really is more of a prelude to the music of the Tindersticks, all on its own.
Lonely and wonderful.

Over the period of a year or so this one finally clicked with me. That is pretty typical for Walkers later work. At first I'm like Huh, what, I don't think I like this, and then pretty soon it's in my top ten and I play it every day. This is lighter fare than Tilt or The Drift but it is heading in that direction so you may want to try this one before entering into those "worlds" which are kind of scary and difficult. Or if you already have Tilt and Drift I suggest you go back and get this one which you will no doubt enjoy. Walker is the kind of artist where the listener is expected to do some work in order to be let into his world, it does take some effort but worth it in the long run. Excellent.

It is difficult to fathom the reasons for the quite reception of Scott Walker's Climate of Hunter, which was originally released in the 1980s (if the public reception has anything to do with the quality of the cultural product). The pieces in the album are not only interestingly inventive but also unproblematically appealing to our senses with their strange beauty and melancholy. (By the way, I agree with James F. Anderson's review of this album, particularly with what he said in his 3rd and 4th paragraphs.)

In any case, I believe that this album is crucial to understand the unusual trajectory of Scott Walker's musical career from a more or less commercial artist to an autonomous artist that emerged in his later works, Tilt and Drift. This album marks Scott Walker's step further into the authentic artisthood. Anybody who is familiar with Theodore Adorno's essay, "On Popular Music," could probably guess the reasons for Scott Walker's desire and will to transform himself into a bona-fide artist in the last two decades, and its significance.

I highly recommend this album to those who are eager to learn more about Scott Walker's music career, as well as to those who appreciate non-standardized music.

The 1984 release of CLIMATE OF HUNTER marked Scott Walker's return to writing his own songs and presenting an uncompromising solo vision. Throughout the 1970s, which he termed his "lost years" creatively, Walker had released only covers of adult contemporary and country & western tunes, struggled with alcoholism and briefly reunited with the Walker Brothers for a couple of forgettable albums. In a sense, CLIMATE OF HUNTER is the genesis of the Scott Walker who is still performing today. The nightmarish visions are definitely introduced here: the first words that greet us are "This is how you disappear."

The sweeping orchestral arrangements that dominate the earlier canonical Scott Walker albums play a minor part here. His songs are mainly cast as 1980s rock with keyboards, in your face bass and steady, unimaginative drumming. That's not to say that it's a complete surrender to pop trends. "Dealer" features the Ligeti-like tone clusters that Walker experimented with in the late 1980s. "Track Six" makes use of the weird blocks of noise that would form such a key part of his late aesthetic, here provided by layers of Evan Parker's free-jazz saxophone solos. The texts introduce a tendency to free association and building lyrics up from fragments. The album closes with an cover of Tennesee Williams' "Blanket Roll Blues", where Walker is accompanied only by guitarist Mark Knopfler -- far from being a comforting conclusion, this song's straightforward acoustic blues are oddly disconcerting after half an hour of Walker's electric music.

Although Walker's songwriting is as challenging and thought-provoking as ever, his performance here as a singer leaves much to be desired. Walker's voice, so magnificent on the classic 1960s albums, is subjected to electronic treatment and buried somewhat in the mix. On "Track Three", his voice competes in a duet with that of Billy Ocean, of all people. It sounds as if he's unsure of himself, which is understandable, but that makes this album feel cold and impersonal. Walker's voice had deteriorated by his next two records after CLIMATE OF HUNTER, but at least it was presented straightforwardly in the mix, and proved to have a visceral impact.

Bottom line, Walker's efforts of the 1960s are must-hear parts of the pop repertoire, and TILT and THE DRIFT are emotionally devastating artistic statements, but CLIMATE OF HUNTER is probably the last you should collect of the albums he acknowledges. Even lesser Scott Walker is better than most other acts out there, but I'm rarely drawn to this album when the rest of his output is so much greater.

In "Climate of The Hunter" we hear Scott's "Before and After Science", the Album that starts his foray into the darker more emotional and unknown corridors of the emotions, both lyrically and musically. On "Climate" we start to hear the disintegration of the contemporary music form as accompaniment for a favoring of sounds that illustrate a scenario.

The next CD (ten years from this one) "Tilt", was full-on nerve pulses and synapses, sonically surrounding the internal dialog of the other, the outsider, as seen and described by an ascetic.

Although this manner of composition is more art than what those in the west would consider music, "Climate" is a good CD to test the waters in order to see if you would like to delve deeper into the no-mans land of the psyche. Nobody does it better and few would know where to start.

This is perhaps the most accessible album that Scott Walker put out during the second half of his solo career, and certainly the most beautiful. It is dark, certainly. Very dark. But this is less stark and more melodic that much of his music, without sacrificing any integrity. Track Three is a standout, but there is not a weak moment on this album.

Thank God for this iconoclast and his brilliant musical vision.

This is the first of Walker's very sporadic, contemporary, solo albums (essentially one every ten years) and tends to get overlooked, which is a shame. I bought this on lp when it first came out and only recently replaced it on CD, and so have had a chance to listen again with both fresher ears and in light of Tilt and The Drift. What sticks out, beyond the fact that it is a terrific album, is the way that Walkers solo records, including his late 60's work, really do make for a logical, consistent evolution. If you count his four tracks from the Walker Brothers' Nite Flights album, this is even more consistent.

This is not the place to go into great lengths (other writers have already done it, and better than I would), but despite its rather brief running time, this is a wonder picture of Walker moving from there to here and on to whatever comes next. Listening to, say Scott 4 then Nite Flights (his songs, anyway), then this, then Tilt, finishing up with (for now) The Drift, the progression of Walker's work seems logical, almost linear.

Suffice that Climate of Hunter holds a great many delights and shouldn't be overlooked because it is, in hindsight, transitional. One of the tags available for this is "Baroque Pop." Indeed, this is what baroque pop sounds like as it moves along. And heck - that voice... Highly recommended.

This is strange to say, but Walker sounds as if he's imitating Bryan Ferry on this album. Of course, Walker was originally a huge influence on Ferry, which creates an odd feedback loop. It's comparable to the way blues guitarists such as Freddie King attempted to update themselves by imitating the rock guitarists who had originally learned to play from them. At any rate, the Ferry-ish mannerisms are so distracting that it's difficult for me to fully appreciate his singing here.

Just want to say I enjoy the music of Scott Walker.
I own 1, 3 and 4...and I wanted so much for this
to have the same high quality songs as those albums,
maybe expecting it to be a bit more progressive...but
this is a mess...the songs go nowhere, the voice is so
off-key and straining it becomes, to me, unlistenable
by track 3...

The musicianship is fairly good, but there is a
disconnect throughout the disc...and I didn't think
it went anywhere...at all...caveat emptor...

Hate to say it, but even the cover photo of Scott seems
to somehow suggest him saying, "WTF?"...