Haunter Records

Haunter Records is a Milan-based record label and squat promoter consisting of Francesco and Daniele, who DJ under Red Army Fracture and Dan Haunter aliases respectively. The label is known in underground circles for its rough and unsettling noise records and weird experiments with harsher forms of dance music. Their signature sound bursts with fierce physicality, anxious atmospherics, unexpected twists and perverse grooves. It resembles an unpleasant trip across the uncanny valley, where strange hauntings appear in the shape of sharp and raw sonic structures. Haunter Records have already released some excellent releases including Somec’s psychedelic excursions, Honzo’s neurotic noise, and the Eastern explorations of Petit Singe. Haunter stands on the precipice between gritty eccentricity, deconstructed dance music tropes and haunted eclecticism. The label also explores various sensitive social and psychological issues such as digital information privacy, distorted body image, surveillance, and the anxieties of modern society.

Records and connections

STM 158 is a diverse and challenging selection, which summarizes the duo’s aesthetic perceptions and includes material from greatly varying artists as well as tracks from Haunter Records’ forthcoming releases. No wonder it starts with a piece by Howard Shore taken from the original soundtrack of David Cronenberg’s movie “Videodrome” which has that body and surveillance horror feel, similar to moods in some of the Haunter Records production. The selection then proceeds with several new Haunter label tracks, which serve as a short introduction and set the tone for the remaining selection. We are led across grim and dark urban soundscapes using intense compositions from such artists as young grime prodigy SD Laika, dark jungle/bass explorers Killing Sound, and the rough garage sounds of Mumdance & Logos or the uncontrolled chiptune/breakbeat insanity of Patric Catani. The dynamics and intensity are also maintained here by high-voltage techno/industrial flashes from Drøp, Perc or Honzo, while the synthesized post punk of Big Black adds some lo-fi touches. Francesco and Daniele end the selection quite abruptly with the sheer intensity of digital noise from Cage Suburbia. The selection is quite a heavy listen, but the duo manages to maintain the balance between sonic tension and distorted grooves. The mix somehow resembles Enrico Prampolini’s abstract art painting „Il mercante di cuori, bozzetto di scena“, expressing the extreme latitudes of the introspective world.