Hunter, Mathis

A man that wears many hats and an amulet around his neck, Mathis Hunter has been making music in Atlanta for decades. From his youthful outings with '90s punk stalwarts Quadiliacha, to the indie electronic/garage staple The Selmanaires in the '00s, to co-founding the disco-trap production team Noot d’ Noot, and countless bands in between, his resume looks schizophrenic at first glance. Curiously, it is his solo albums that tie all his previous work together through a heavy bias towards his first instrument: guitar. This new album, Mood Lighting, jumps through a dizzying array of guitar textures from the low rider funk of “Clone It Off” to the MPC-looped Manchester madness of “Love Becomes”, the text book classic rock of the title track, to the John Martyn-acoustic guitar run through an Echoplex inspired “She Had Designs” there is a guitar texture for everyone. It may be the lyrical content and vocal delivery that ties all these styles together as Hunter seems to be exploring the dissolving of a long term relationship. Wrestling with all of the anger, sadness, loneliness, as well as the temporary highs that come with the trauma of separation, the arc of the record is a direct one-to-one reflection of that process that provides quite a ride for the listener.