Creature
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Creature is the music of Steve Haunts based in Derby in the UK. Steve trained in music at a young age and took exams with the Trinity College of Music in London. Creature is an electronic act creating dark, atmospheric ambient / down tempo industrial music with driving beats influenced by bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Boards of Canada, and Hybrid.
Creature uses many experimental techniques for creating sounds including Circuit Bending. This is when old childrens toys are rewired, recorded and reprocessed to create sounds that defy belief. These sounds mixed with dark cinematic strings and dirty beats create an album full of surprises and emotion.
Click for Reviews for Mechanical
Click for Reviews for Distant Horizon
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You can now download a FREE promotional album containing 9 tracks from previous Creature releases, plus one completely new track, Glide. You are free to distribute this promo to all your friends. We also encourage you to upload this promo album to as many torrent sites and news groups as you like. We appreciate your help in spread the word about Creature. You can download the album from HERE. The track listing is as follows: 01 - Ferrite
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Distant Horizon is the latest album from electronic act Creature. Distant Horizon takes you on a much darker Journey than Mechanical and explores the sound of circuit bending in greater detail. The album is packed full of experimental sound sculpting, yet still shines with strong melodies and crunchy beats. You can now listen to previews of each track on the music page. Two of the tracks, Rise and Helter Skelter can be downloaded for free. Enjoy!!
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Creature's Mechanical is a down tempo industrial / ambient album with driving beats influenced by bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Boards of Canada, and Hybrid. Mechanical takes you on a musical journey through 16 tracks of lush ambient pads, glitchy circuit bent sound effects and distorted beats. Chain D.L.K magazine described the album as evocative and cinematic, and awarded the album 4 out of 5 stars.
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Electronic Critters is a sample dvd based on circuit bent childrens toys. The package contains:
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"Atmospheric, melodically driven industrial using experimental sound sources. UK-based electronic musician Steve Haunts uses an array of sounds including those of circuit bent instruments to create atmospheric EBM with the end result being that you wouldn't necessarily think these were experimental instruments. Creature does a great job of making odd sounds become warm almost commercial sounding to the point that you can't tell if it's some obscure bent instrument or if it's really a Roland keyboard patch. Much of the music on Distant Horizon recalls more instrumental works of X-Marks the Pedwalk's later works like Meshwork and Drawback. Cinematic pads and strings introduced the tracks with various industrial/EBM styled drum patterns and elements carrying the song. The real focus on Distant Horizon is the melodies that act as the main characters of each song from synth piano choruses to sinister synthesizer arpeggios. One of the highlights to hear on Distant Horizon is "Tenge Misuser," which sounds like an updated version of Giorgio Morodor's Cat People soundtrack, complete with dark synth sweeps and analog sounding synthesizer leads. While the album makes a great score for some type of sci-fi film or even a first person shooter game, the only criticism is that parts of Distant Horizon sound like soundtrack wallpaper and Mr. Haunts could focus on being a bit more experimental instead of sounding so mechanical and precise. Whether it is intentional or not is up to the creative mind of Creature. However, if he would just let go a little bit and put in some more abstract elements, it would greatly complement his sound and style and give it a more unique feel. The strength that this album shows is that it will appeal to fans of both industrial and techno as this record really blurs the lines between dark electronics and sophisticated techno grooves, with the end result sounding part Gary Numan and part Future Sound of London."
3 Out Of 5 : David E. Flick, Regen Magazine
"New release for the Haunted House-recording artist CREATURE hailing out of Derby, UK. CREATURE is Stephen Haunts and he continues with this new full-length his path performing a special sort of Dark Ambient/Down-Tempo Electronica. His musically outfit still relies on some dark lead synth sounds complimented with rhythm patterns between ear-catching and commercial-oriented up to experimental and abstract-minded. “Distant Horizons” is like most of its predecessor “Mechanical” a completely instrumental arranged album, but it surprises a bit, that Stephen for this album seemed to have spent some efforts in the creation of the tracks list. After a dark, cold melodic intro tune (“Indigo”), the track “Carbon” rules the scenario and offers easy-minded but powerful and I tend to say catchy synth textures. But the more this album continues, the more it turns into some darker and more ominous sounding spheres. Since all tracks work well and do the best to offer a matured listening experience, I like to point out the slow and dark-melodic track “Helter Skelter” and the DIVE-like “Flutter” as being favorites. Stephen himself extracts a lot of his sounds out of very experimental-minded kind of work. Circuit bending is to be named and this requires some knowledge of a electrician. Would be surely interesting to know more details on this, since this music is a descent trip under a pair of headphones, but also “easy” enough to work in the background while concentrating on different things. Good stuff."
4 Out Of 5 : Mark Tater www.chaindlk.com
"The debut-album “Mechanical” of this British artist sounded quite promising. “Distant Horizon” goes on a similar way, merging pure ambient soundscapes with some low tempo rhythmic. The electronic arrangements are quite well done and the global feeling of the listening remains pretty enjoyable. Creature tries to inject some extra variation on a track like “Rise”. This is for sure one of the high lights for the darker sphere and a kind of dramatic expression. This is a pure soundtrack-like release, not bad at all."
side-line.com
"Creature is an electronic music project of Stephen Haunts, who also happens to run Haunted House Records. Using circuit bending as a compositional technique, this CD is armed with an impressive array of sampled sounds, simple but strong melodies, and creative programming, therefore making "Mechanical" an unexpected listening pleasure. The circuit bending technique is when one takes old electronic gadgets and toys and rewires them to create new and interesting sounds. These sounds are then recorded and sampled and are used to create beats and melodic structure. In my opinion, what was even more impressive than the circuit bending technique were the abundance of consistently catchy melodies, which act like viscous fluid for the seamless stream of sampled sounds and beats. "Mechanical" is one of those CDs where nothing is overstated and everything works well together.I would have rated this CD higher, but there were some abrupt track changes that seemed more like technical issues than intention, and were more noticeable while listening with headphones. Otherwise this was a very balanced and encouraging release, and a sure sign that the musical future is looking bright for Mr. Haunts and his label."
8 out of 10 : Michael Casano for Virus Magazine
"MECHANICAL bring to the lovers of electronic music sixteen tracks of music influenced by bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Boards of Canada, and Hybrid. Stephen took exams with the Trinity College of Music in London but his will to explore new sound solutions made him tweak old electronic toys by rewiring the insides to create new sounds. His music is always driven by rhythm but he likes to create dark atmospheres and ambient pads. The result is evocative and sometimes cinematic."
Maurizio Pustianaz for Chain D.L.K Magazine
"The style of Creature can be easily defined as a mix of low trip hop influences and ambient soundscapes. It’s all a bit in the style of soundtrack music, which comes over you like a warm summer breeze. The serene atmosphere is a real pleasure and especially when becoming more refined like on the great “Hotel”-track."
Side Line Magazine
"We had already a review on this release, but thanks to a double-mailing I too come into the pleasure to consume this first full-length release by this British solo project. Behind CREATURE stands Stephen Haunts, who’s also responsible for the label Hauntedhouserecords. With a look on the cover I expected at first an effort woven into the Powernoise genre, so I was a bit surprised to enter an almost instrumental Dark Electronica/Ambient album, which obviously tries to explore some cinematic attitudes. The musically fundament is based on dark Synth basses, piano sounds and wide-ranging Synth layers sounds. Some diverse percussive elements are joining this relatively dark sounding scenario, while real vocals are only featured on two tracks “Daisy Cutter” and “Nox”. The tracks which manage to provide rather complex structures with a constant melodic content like the title track, “Wish” or the already mentioned “Daisy Cutter” get my vote for being the best worked-out pieces here. CREATURE’s music isn’t designed to wrestle against the nowadays popular club sound virus, it rather needs to get heard under a pair of headphones for example. It’s an entertaining, filmic, although not sci-fi infiltrated kind of music, which also works well as a sedating background sound."
Marc Tater for Chain D.L.K Magazine
"I try to do reviews in an orderly manner. When a disk comes in, I burn it into iTunes, then put the disk at the bottom of my review pile and I try not to write the review until I unearth the disk. In the meantime, music from that disk may come up in shuffle when I’m listening to the ’pod. And sometimes I’m so eager to write about it that I almost break my own rules and pull it out of the queue to get to it sooner. Such is the case with Mechanical from Creature (aka Stephen Haunts). As soon as a song from this disk popped into my ears, I was infected. Creature constructs intriguing tracks that meld EDM sensibilities, house beats and sound snippets created through "circuit bending," where new aural oddities are created by re-wiring electronic children's toys. The result is a disk of intriguing cuts filled with a wide array of sounds that get cut, chopped, de- and reconstructed, all under the cadence of body-swaying rhythms. Solid piano work on several tracks lends a sedate, classical flair under Creature's throbbing electro-constructs. Tracks such as "Vitamin," the title track, or "Daisy Cutter," with its repeated phrase, "disco bombing," pulse with energy and drip enough melty ear candy to satisfy people like me who thrive on the work of an artist stitching together bursts of noise and clatter and creating truly listenable music out of it. Check the thunder of the distorted drums that kick around Yaz-esque bop and slow chords in “New World" or the subdued but tactile raw power of the all-too-brief “Magenta.” The sixteen pieces here almost feel too short, but they pack so much into two to four minutes that it's hard to fault Haunts for his brevity. All in all, a great CD for those who need cool beats and lots of interesting sonic surgery with their electronic music."
Hyphagogue
"Creature blends a moody, industrial aesthetic with down-tempo electronic rhythms and soundtrack orchestration.
Stephen Haunts, the UK artist behind Creature, takes a unique approach to electronic music, using deliberately retro sounds instead of the slick, soft digital effects more common in the IDM scene. Add in a subdued but unmistakable industrial aesthetic and a flair for cinematic synth arrangements, and the end result is something like a trip-hop album recorded by Einstürzende Neubauten. In terms of sound design, the emphasis is definitely on the beats, and while there are familiar breaks and hi-hats on "Reverend" and softly pulsing kicks on "New World," Haunts is at his best when he gets creative with the percussive effects. "Nexar" combines digital glitches and drippy analog drum patches, "Twilight" merges tingling mechanized rhythms and more acoustic-sounding rock drums, and title track "Mechanical" blends a metallic dulcimer arpeggio with what sounds like industrial hand percussion. Symphonic elements add emotion throughout the album, with the moving orchestral arrangement of "Wish" and the moody science fiction synths of "Terrapin" standing out in particular. Haunts works with a fairly limited palette when it comes to melodies; most of these tracks employ either pianos, modified string pads, or both, but instead of sounding repetitive, the familiar sounds lend a sense of coherence to Mechanical, almost as if the album was being performed by an actual band rather than a bank of computer equipment. Besides, there's no dearth of variety here; though all of these songs can be loosely lumped into the category of down-tempo electronic music, individual pieces range from brooding experimental house on "Daisy Cutter" to Aphex Twin-inspired ambient on "Neptune." There's even an electro-pop ballad, "Nox," complete with vocals. It's a pleasant surprise to hear someone embrace such a wide array of sub-genres without sacrificing his own voice, and Creature's unique industrial soundtracks are dark and brooding, yet emotionally evocative enough to be appeal to more casual listeners."
3 out of 5 : Matthew Johnson for Re:Gen Magazine
RELEASES
HAUNTED02: Nightmares and Dreamscapes
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