If you missed out on Hunee’s debut 12″, the “Tour de Force EP,” and judged his output solely on this release you may not fully believe what I am about to tell you: this man is an artist to be reckoned with. Those three tracks of stunning house screamed quality, from the stutter-scat deep house jack of “Rare Silk” to the Jus-Ed-sampling monologue featured on “Cut Down Trees,” they confirmed he had something new to bring to the table. Nothing could be closer to the truth when you look at his recent 12″ under the Hunch moniker for John Daly’s Feel Music imprint. “Travel The Earth” may not be contain the same enviable balance of DJ-ready rhythms and melodic fulfillment, but does reach for a mysterious blend of organic and electronic abstraction.

The Dance Mania font used on the 12″ is a curious choice for the label artwork considering the music found within. Hunch’s original begins with rain forest atmosphere before a kalimba melody loop enters to form the foundational core of what becomes an African ambient-house excursion. The drum kick eventually emerges augmented by a laconic bass note chug, but it hardly seems central to the proceedings. A breakdown further cements that assertion as a guitar motif reveals further exoticism buried in its bedrock foundation. John Daly’s remix, on the other hand, keeps the original’s ethos intact while taking a more direct approach. The rhythm is centrally focused as Daly uses his trademark hi-hat shuffle to open up the percussion and brings in a rounded bass drum punch and bongos. He subtly weaves in the original’s kalimba and guitar, but the impetus of the structure belongs to the luminous synth pads during the first half and a growing acid line during the second half. “Travel The Earth” certainly isn’t the most conventional follow up but Hunee gets points for taking the road less traveled.