''The Hunter'' is the first EP (and follow up to the 2010 solo album ''

The Boxer "The Boxer" is a song written by Paul Simon and recorded by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fifth studio album, '' Bridge over Troubled Water'' (1970). Produced by the duo and Roy Halee, it was released as a standalone sing ...

'') by Kele Okereke (under the professional name Kele), lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the British rock band

Bloc Party Bloc Party are an English Rock music, rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Loui ...

. It was released on 7 November 2011 by

Wichita Recordings Wichita Recordings is an independent record label located in London, founded in 2000 by Mark Bowen and Dick Green. Its most notable signees include Bloc Party, The Cribs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Yeah Yeah Ye ...

in the UK, set back a week from the original release date, and 3 days earlier on 4 November 2011 by

and

Liberator Music Liberator or The Liberators or ''variation'', may refer to: Literature * ''Liberators'' (novel), a 2009 novel by James Wesley Rawles * ''The Liberators'' (Suvorov book), a 1981 book by Victor Suvorov * ''The Liberators'' (comic book), a Britis ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The first single released from the EP was " What Did I Do?", which features guest vocals from

Lucy Taylor Lucy Taylor is an American horror novel writer. Her novel, '' The Safety of Unknown Cities'' was awarded the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel and the International Horror Guild Award for Best First Novel in 1995, and the Deathrealm Award ...

. The music video was released on 13 September 2011, with the song released as a digital single in Japan 10 days later.

Background

The EP was announced about 2 weeks after

met up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to begin the writing process for their fourth studio album. The EP's first single was " What Did I Do?", which features vocals from singer

. The music video was released on 13 September 2011, with the song released as a digital single in Japan 10 days later. A remix of the single by All The Lights was released as a single by

to the Australian

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

on 16 November 2011. The EP featured production from

XXXChange Alex Brady Epton, known professionally as XXXChange (formerly known as XXXCBIOSCCC), is an American, New York-based record producer, mixer and film composer. In 2014, he joined XL Recordings in New York, and as their in-house producer/engineer wor ...

(who was responsible for the production on Kele's first solo release, ''

''),

RAC RAC or Rac may refer to: Organizations * Radio Amateurs of Canada * RATCH-Australia Corporation, electricity generator * Refugee Action Collective (Victoria), Melbourne, Australia * Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, US * Rent-A-Center, ...

Fred Falke Frédérick Falke () (born 7 January 1973), known professionally as Fred Falke, is a French house and dance music producer and DJ. Biography Falke started out as a bass player before moving to production work. His first record, a collaboratio ...

and QNESS, with

Sub Focus Nicolaas Douwma (born 13 April 1982), better known by his stage name Sub Focus, is an English DJ, record producer, songwriter, musician and sound engineer from Guildford, Surrey. He has been releasing records since 2003. On 12 October 2009, ...

also mixing the lead single. The EP also sees Kele doing production work for the first time, producing the track "Cable's Goodbye". It contains six original songs, as well as a cover of

Q Lazzarus Diane Luckey (December 12, 1960 – July 19, 2022), known professionally as Q Lazzarus, was an American singer. She is best known for her 1988 song " Goodbye Horses", which became a cult classic after being prominently featured in a scene from ...

' song "

Goodbye Horses "Goodbye Horses" is a song recorded by American singer Q Lazzarus. It was written by Q Lazzarus's bandmate, William Garvey, and released in 1988, with an extended version being released three years later. It is a synth-pop, dark wave, new wa ...

". Speaking to

This Is Fake DIY ''DIY'' is a United Kingdom-based music publication, in print and online. Its free print edition is released monthly with a physical circulation of 40,000 in UK venues, clubs and shops. DIY Magazine ''DIY'' was launched in 2002 by then-editor ...

, Kele said, about the cover of "Goodbye Horses":

Musical style

The musical style of the EP differs from Kele's first solo effort, ''

'', in that it explores into adding dubstep basslines,

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

elements and

dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rou ...

tones to songs, while still keeping some of the experimental elements of ''

s production.

Coverage

Despite the EP's lead single " What Did I Do?" being publicised by many major magazines online, the EP itself was not widely reviewed. At the time of release a statement from Bloc Party's guitarist, Russell Lissack, was circulating in the press suggesting that Kele was no longer a part of the band and that they were planning to audition new singers. The band later indicated that this was not the case, as did Okereke when he posted pictures of him working with the other Bloc Party band members on his own website.

Critical reception

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

were rather critical of the album, stating that the track 'Release Me' "is irredeemably poor, a beige-by-numbers of bland synth stabs and trite lyrics that somehow manages to be both incredibly dull and, like the EP’s cover, unintentionally hilarious". However, they were also more positive with mixed comments regarding the song "Love as a Weapon", calling it "the clear standout" of the EP, noting that it "builds from glitches and light percussion into a mesh of samples and piano arpeggios and hummed melodies lifted straight from ' The Prayer'".

gave the EP a score of 7/10, criticising the tone of Kele's lyrics, stating that ''The Hunter'' "sees Kele complete his journey from

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

miserabalist to dubstep, floorfilling… miserabilist", and the EP's title, saying that "after the release of ''

'', Kele continues his attempt to lay claim to all traditionally masculine roles with ''The Hunter''", they jokingly added that "contenders for his next album title could be ''The Brickie'' or ''The Mechanic''". The generally favourable review did however praise the EP in other areas, stating that "for the most part, this is an EP of arms aloft, triumphant club bangers - of someone comfortable with their voice and with their sound".

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

commented that main producer

"brings a bracing electro sensibility to proceedings". They also recommended the songs "Release Me", "Devotion" and "Cable's Goodbye".

Commercial performance

Commercially, the EP performed poorly, charting only in Australia with a peak of 79 on the Australian Albums Chart, and a peak of number 27 on the Australian Digital Albums Chart. The lead single, " What Did I Do?", also only achieved a chart position in Australia, reaching a peak of 82 on the ARIA Digital Track Chart and 18 on the Australian Dance Chart.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from ''The Hunter'' CD booklet. * Kele Okereke -

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

(tracks 2-7),

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

(track 1),

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

(track 5), songwriting (all tracks except 4)

Additional musicians

- lead vocals (track 1), backing vocals (tracks 4 and 5),

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(track 5) * William Garvey - songwriting (track 4) * Dan Smith -

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

(track 6) * Jack Tarrant - additional guitar (track 6) * Jodie Scantlebury - backing vocals (track 7) * Bobbie Gordon - backing vocals (track 7)

Production and mixing

- production (tracks 1, 3, 6 and 7), mixing (tracks 3, 6 and 7) *

- mixing (track 1) *

- production (track 2) * QNESS - additional production and mixing (track 2) * Daniel Lindegren - production (track 4) *

- additional production and mixing (track 4) * Ben Jackson - mixing (track 5), recording (all tracks) * Scott McCormick - recording (all tracks) * Guy Davie - mastering (at Electric Mastering)

Artwork

* Cathal O'Brien -

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

* Rob Crane -

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

Publishing

- publishing *

- publishing (in Australia, with

) * PIAS Entertainment Group - manufacturing and distribution *

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

/Kobalt Music - song publishing (all tracks except 4) *

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

ATV ATV may refer to: Broadcasting * Amateur television *Analog television Television stations and companies * Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra * ATV (Armenia) * ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate * ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourne * ATV (Austria) * AT ...

- song publishing (track 4)

Management

* Tony Perrin - management * Simon White - management

Release history

Chart performance

Album

Singles

References

External links

Kele's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter (Kele EP) 2011 debut EPs Dubstep EPs Wichita Recordings EPs Kele Okereke EPs Synth-pop EPs Albums produced by XXXChange Albums produced by Fred Falke