Hudson Mohawke has just announced that his forthcoming January tour – which included appearances at Southbound, Beyond The Valley and Lost Paradise as well as headline shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – will no longer be going ahead.
According to a short Facebook post, the reason is health-related, although no further details have been provided.
Refunds will be available for all ticketholders. As yet no festival replacements have been announced, but it’s possible a new name or two will be revealed soon.
It’s been a busy year for HudMo, who kicked off 2016 by producing tracks for Kanye West, Anohni and Bodega Bamz, and has now been nominated for four Grammys for his work on The Life of Pablo and its most controversial track Famous. He’s also released a couple of remixes, collaborated with Red Bull Music Academy, and even produced music for video games. He’s also toured extensively in support of his 2015 album Lantern, including a visit to Laneway Festival here in early 2016.
The year was not without its controversies, however. Hudson Mohawke made waves earlier this year when he accused both Kanye West and Drake of failing to pay him for his production work, and he was also involved in a rather baffling beef with James Blake over whether or not the pair had ever collaborated.
Hopefully HudMo will return to Australia in 2017.
Image: Supplied
Scottish producer Hudson Mohawke has shared a new remix of Boards Of Canada’s Amo Roden Bishop, taken from their In A Beautiful Place Out in the Country EP. In some ways, this is HudMo’s second round with the track by his fellow Scots. Last year he shared an unheard remix of Amo Roden Bishop by TNGHT (his now defunct trap duo with Lunice) as part of an hour long playlist for Beats 1.
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This new version cuts the length of the original by about half and brings a grimier feel to Boards Of Canada’s experimental electronica. Splintering synths and hefty beats take the place of the lighter percussion and cosmic feel. Still retaining the familiar relentless melody, HudMo’s version of Amo Roden Bishop drops into darker, more industrial places which have little to do with the ethereal ambience of the original. In place of Boards Of Canada’s atmospheric pauses, HudMo brings in builds and drops that edge towards dubstep territory.
Hudson Mohawke is currently touring around North America, and it has now been confirmed that he will make an appearance at Coachella later this month. With dates around Europe throughout the coming months, he will also play at Primavera and Mysteryland festivals.
Check out the original Amo Roden Bishop from Boards Of Canada below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBMIra45lU]
Image: WARP
Prolific producer Hudson Mohawke has shared in a since-deleted tweet that even he doesn’t get paid for his work, and went after two of the biggest rappers in the game, Kanye West and Drake, threatening to leak their music as compensation.
As XXL points out, HudMo had had an absolute gutful today, and tweeted, “Literally about to release zip of kanye and drake songs I’ve done that I got [zero] for,” before quickly deleting it. However, his consequent rant about mainstream rappers and their business senses still remain quite public.
https://twitter.com/HudMo/status/708357234640683008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/HudMo/status/709179307931918337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/HudMo/status/709188155396718593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Hudson Mohawke is the genius behind Kanye West tracks like Blood On The Leaves, and more recently FML, Famous and Freestyle 4 from The Life Of Pablo. He also worked on Drake’s Connect from his game-changing record, Nothing Was The Same, so it goes without saying the man deserves his dollars. Here’s hoping his tweets don’t prompt a Twitter tirade that Kanye is increasingly capable of, as this is pretty concerning if it’s true.
People should always be paid for their work, and it’s quite worrying that leaders in their respective fields like Drake and Kanye aren’t paying their collaborators appropriately. No matter how big HudMo gets in his own field, it could be argued he may have had a harder time getting to where he is had it not been for these collaborations (and others), so our hopes are with him and that the matter is resolved soon.
Image: Stereogum
If the idea of Valentine’s Day makes you vomit but you still have a soft spot for the passion of love, Hudson Mohawke has created the mix for you.
Valentines Slow Jams Chapter 9 is 44 minutes of upbeat love songs – the ultimate playlist for your significant other, or anyone for that matter. Even if the day’s a little lonely for you, the company of great music should do the trick. The rich retro sound flows through with the groovy melody, perfect for creating an intimate atmosphere. It’s full of soul and passion, symbolising what the holiday is supposed to show us.
This is his ninth Valentine’s Day mix in as many years. “The best that ever did it,” he wrote in the description, as shared on Soundcloud. It features all artists from the UK with tracks like Imagination’s Body Talk, Eternal’s Stay and some of his own new stuff mixed in.
After releasing his second album last June and being featured in a documentary presented by Noisey, the producer has also now been featured in Kayne West’s The Life Of Pablo – he’s credited on two tracks, Freestyle 4 and Waves. The album can be streamed from Tidal now, if you want to take a listen.
Listen to his perfect Valentine’s Day mix below. Don’t forget to check out some of the others from previous years on Soundcloud
Image: SXSW
It’s been a stellar year for Scottish producer Hudson Mohawke, who released his long-awaited new LP Lanterns, his own documentary, producing on Pusha T‘s new album and more. Getting in one last cut before 2016, Glasgow label LuckyMe Records has released Escape, HudMo’s take on the theme from Escape From New York, directed, co-scored and co-written by John Carpenter.
Listen to the original version of the theme song here. While it’s already pretty synth-based, it lies at the opposite end of the electro-spectrum to what we’ve come to know and love from HudMo. His own interpretation (expectedly) hypes up the atmosphere by injecting more tonally varied synths, and the kind of bulging, bass-heavy rhythms that pitted him as one of our favourite artists of 2015.
The release is the first of 12 in LuckyMe’s annual advent calendar, and was released alongside No One Else by DJ PayPal. Sign up for the advent calendar here, as ten more exclusive “rarities, alternate versions and brand new exclusives” will be made available across the coming days as we hit 2016.
Although the downloads are free, the label has explained that the proceeds from all Spotify and YouTube streams will be donated to the Syrian Refugee Crisis – so get streaming, people!
Hudson Mohawke will be in town in early 2016 to perform at St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival.
Dates and venues:
Friday 5 February – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide (16+)
Saturday 6 February – Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane (16+)
Sunday 7 February – Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney
Saturday 13 February – Footscray Community Arts Centre And The River’s Edge, Melbourne
Sunday 14 February – Esplanade Reserve and West End, Fremantle
It’s video roundup time! Once again, Howl And Echoes are coming in hot with the freshest, most eyeball stimulating music videos to be dropped by the artists you love and some of the artists you don’t know you love yet, of this week. We do all the dirty work and herd them all into one convenient web-based location for you to enjoy every Friday so that you don’t have to. Have yourself a good old gander at the latest offerings from:
Tiny Little Houses: Soon We Won’t Exist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKfs9Y4fYPI
For some pretty sombre subject matter, the newest single from Melbourne quartet Tiny Little Houses has been partnered with a quirky cool video. Frontman Caleb Karvountzis opens the song with the line ‘How weird is it to think in 60 years we won’t exist’, a rumination on death that is as glaringly obvious as it is starkly terrifying. The lo-fi sound belies the morbid subject of the song, and the accompanying music video is niftily shot. It features the band trapped (although singer Caleb does find his way onto the street for the briefest of moments) jamming in a windowless, white room, all the while being broadcasted on static-saturated television sets.
It’s a great clip to a stomping number that pays homage to none-more-indie bands of yesteryear like Modest Mouse and Neutral Milk Hotel. The track is the latest off of their 2015 EP You Tore Out My Heart, a record we have thoroughly enjoyed this year.
Lea Porcelain – Loose Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkmjd8KFWRg
Keeping your gaze firmly planted on your shoes for this next one is Lea Porcelain, a duo out of Frankfurt, and the video for their latest single Loose Life. The track itself is brooding and intense, harsh synths dancing with an erratic beat and heavily filtered vocals, the whole thing is about the definition of off-beat but it builds up so beautifully.
The video absolutely grabbed the modern history nerd in me and shook him to life again, the track overlaid on footage of post-WWII Berlin. The footage was only uncovered recently by German director Konstantin von our Muhlen, who allowed the duo to use it in the making of this video. It’s visually confronting, the sheer wreckage and ruin juxtaposed with shots of smiling people trying to rebuild their shattered lives and surroundings. The song and clip walk hand in hand, utterly compelling.
Jones – Hoops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUuexNwsVGc
Heading across the pond to London for this next one with songstress Jones and her latest single Hoops. Having released her debut EP earlier in the year, this is a track from her forthcoming debut LP New Skin that’s set to drop later next year. There’s a lot of hype surrounding Jones and for good reason: she has a voice on her that will chill you to the bone. Mixing a funky electronic beat with her own soulful voice, the chorus of Hoops will hook you with a tonne of force.
The video keeps the focus squarely on Jones, it’s her voice in the driver’s seat after all. Professionally shot, making full use of mood lighting and confronting closeups, it’s a solid visual accompaniment to a track by a fantastic up and coming singer-songwriter out of the UK, an area producing them left right and centre.
SOAK – Reckless Behaviour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUL4VslJykA&feature=youtu.be
Taking a hop, skip and a jump from London to neighbouring Ireland, this next video comes from the youngest female nominee to be shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize in seven years, Bridie Monds-Watson, known also as SOAK. The nomination in question was for her stunning debut album Before We Forgot How To Dream and the latest single to be given a music video from that album is Reckless Behaviour.
It’s a nifty little alt-pop number that is catchy as all hell. The video explores a wonderful friendship shared between two unlikely individuals, the craftiest old durry-choofing granny out there and a lonely young girl, both residents of a mental health facility. It’s a great story she and director Bob Gallagher manage to unfold in just north of three minutes, and it will warm your heart.
You can catch SOAK live when she tours Australia in the New Year, including appearances at the Falls and Southbound festivals.
Espa – Swan Song (ft. Giggs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwhzNGGu0h8
We flat out loved this track the first time we laid ears on it. Espa’s is the kind of voice that just stops traffic and Swan Song is such a consummately professional and mesmerisingly great track in every aspect. The subtle G-funk beat (courtesy of the production desk of Erick Arc Elliot of Flatbush Zombies), the super smooth baritone flow of hip hop legend Giggs. Did we mention that voice? Because it’s one of the better RnB voices we’ve heard in quite some time. Close your eyes and you’ll swear it’s Mary J. giving her best crack at the coolest James Bond theme you’re likely to hear.
The video of course lives up to all the expectations set by the original track, a lazy cool wander around a dimly lit house that just happens to have two fine musicians breaking up the gloom with their respective talents.
BUT DID WE MENTION THAT VOICE THOUGH??? Because damn. Espa just killing it every time.
BRNS – The Way Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL7khw_3TGw
Sprawling, ambient, intense; the new single from Belgian multi-instrumentalist BRNS, titled The Way Up, is sublime. The track, clocking in at over six minutes, takes the static notion of genre and throws it right in the river. It’s an eclectic mash up of haunting falsetto vocals, jarring percussion, slow-burning guitars and weird little electronic noises, all blended together to forge a super cool soundscape and launching into the atmosphere with the crescendo.
The accompanying video is shot in beautiful black and white and explores a stark and lonely urban existence, rising and dipping with the ever-changing tempo of the song before going a mile a minute with fights and barking dogs to match an equally frenetic climax.
Stunning to put it simply.
Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique – Love Is Free (ft. Maluca)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOGFdCWC5ls
Coming in with hands down the most fun film clip on the list this week are Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique, a trio out of Sweden with their debut single Love Is Free. The track is a throwback to 90s aerobics class anthems and is outrageously funky and up-tempo.
The video for the single is full of toothy grins, ceiling level energy, a man covered entirely in crimson lipstick, some fantastic dance moves between Robyn and featured artist Maluca and jumping on the bed. So much jumping on the bed. The whole thing, song and video, is just a barrel of fun that should have everyone cracking out the spandex and working up a sweat.
Hudson Mohawke – Indian Steps (ft. Antony)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iavImpqC81s&feature=youtu.be
Just shy of a trip down under for a headlining tour and a highly anticipated spot on the Laneway Festival bill, the trap lord with the Midas touch and an all-round great Scotsman, producer Hudson Mohawke, has dropped the video for his latest single Indian Steps.
Brooding and delicate juxtaposed with an intermittent gunshot backbeat, the track is absolutely haunting. The feature crooning from English singer-songwriter Antony anchors a song made for burning midnight oil to ever so fantastically. The music video is inspired by The Kiss, a sculpture by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, the scene evoking the timelessness of true love.
See you real soon, HudMo.
Hudson Mohawke is one of the biggest and most influential producers of our time. If you were to make that statement about anyone else, there’d be tonnes of debate about it, but not with Hudmo, because it’s undeniable. With the release of his latest album Lantern earlier this year (read our review here), Hudmo has brought what would traditionally be called ‘underground sounds’ into the mainstream and beyond. It’s no surprise then, that he’s getting more and more attention – now having his own documentary.
Presented by Noisey, the documentary follows Hudmo, real name Ross Birchard, as he heads back home to Glasgow to throw a party to honour the good old days with his oldest friends. We get clips of his youth, including his stint as 15 year-old DJ Itchy at the UK DMC Championships for vinyl scratching, a revisit to his compositions on the original Playstation, and his first gig on air at Glasgow University’s Subcity Radio. Noisey and Ross also delve into the history of LuckyMe, originally a club night that Ross and his mate’s started in their hometown, which is super interesting. Shots and discussions of his signing to Warp, working with Lunice as TNGHT, and starting work with Kanye are all explored too. It starts to become undeniable that Hudmo is one of the most influential of our time, finishing off with an ode to the music he and his mates have played in their lives so far.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsL2-wY9-Cs]
Hudmo comes from humble beginnings, and something that everyone throughout the documentary keeps going back to, is the fact that he’s stayed humble. That comes across so well – in conversations with him, his mum, his friends, and his fellow musicians. Is there anyone more deserving of the success that’s come unto them? “It remains to be seen.”
It’s been a minute since Cashmere Cat has released some new music, but the wait is finally over, with an irresistibly serene remix of Hudson Mohawke‘s Forever 1.
Recent years have seen both producers making big names for themselves, producing for huge artists including Kanye West, Ariana Grande and Kid Ink. Though the two are frequent collaborators, their solo career have allowed them to maintain totally separate identities. So when the pair comes together, it truly is worth stopping in your tracks.
Cashmere has previously released an edit of the track for an episode of Diplo & Friends, however this offering shows the producer putting his unique stamp on the track. This remix is soothing, featuring stripped back vocals in favour of mellow synths that is sure to fit right in on anyone’s summer playlist.
Cashmere Cat had this to say on his SoundCloud page after the release of the track:
“hi
heres a cover version i did of hudson mohawkes “forever 1”. ive been opening my sets with it for a year and a few people have been asking for it, so im very happy to share it with you today. its fall in new york city, im feeling inspired and working on lots of new music. see u soon <3 cc dom i love u”
Listen to the track here:
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Over the course of his career, Hudson Mohawke, aka Ross Birchard, has constantly been labeled as groundbreaking. From his debut album Butter, to the follow up Satin Panthers, his sounds have always set him apart from other producers – and though not always working in the genre, his work alongside Lunice as TNGHT created a definitive trap EP, which would inspire many others to pursue a similar sound. Mohawke’s latest work, Lantern explores a number of genres all at once, all interacting in their own way with his signature electronic sound. There’s classic Hudmo sound here for older fans to enjoy, and also some much more accessible stuff that’ll bring in new fans too, but something just feels like it’s missing a mark with Lantern.
Trap and heavy bass is arguably what Mohawke has become known for. TNGHT was absolutely huge. Higher Ground and Goooo still get played in sets and at clubs on the regular – plus solo stuff like Chimes and my personal favourite, 100HM. From Lantern, the biggest trap-styled numbers come in Scud Books and Lil Djembe. Both are super different approaches to trap drums and bass, with Scud Books much more synth oriented and Lil Djembe being all about the obscure percussion and drum sounds. Though they’re both interesting to listen to, these tracks just don’t seem to hit as hard as some of Hudmo’s others. TNGHT was groundbreaking, and tonnes of other artists have taken huge inspiration from that sound, and so maybe it’s a case of Hudmo’s stuff now becoming the norm. It still bangs hard, and sounds super interesting at the same time, but there’s just so much of it around now that it doesn’t have the same impact.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/210168386″]
For the most part, Hudmo moves away from the trap sound on Lantern. I’ve never heard any combination of gospel styled vocals with trap drums and orchestral instrumentation laid over the top, but Ryderz brings the heat. It’s these orchestral instruments – a huge variety of horns (typical for Mohawke, see tracks like Chimes), lots of bells and drums, as well as some strings – that show that Birchard’s trying to experiment with sounds not commonly found in electronic music. They can work incredibly well to bring the feeling of a track to the next level, like with Ryderz, but often it feels like they’re just being used for the sake of it, rather than because it wouldn’t be the same without. Kettles is the perfect example of this. It’s a fantastic track. It’s really interesting to listen to, it sounds beautiful and stays fresh after a bunch of listens, but I don’t really know what it’s doing on this album. A of tracks don’t feel like they really reach their full potential and don’t head into any new territory. There’s a whole bunch of different sounds happening in tracks like Portrait of Luci and Shadows but they just sit in those sounds rather than escalating them.
Hudmo’s also got some fantastic vocal features on Lantern. Ruckazoid, Miguel and Jhene Aiko just to name a few – though the album is for the most part purely instrumental. Miguel kills his feature on Deepspace, with Hudmo providing some really gloomy and dark sounds feat. a little bit of organ, but this is by far the best the features get. Resistance with Jhene Aiko is nice, and her vocals sound absolutely gorgeous, but as a track it just sounds like it should be a single that she releases, not a Hudmo track that she features on – like most of the other vocal features. The production and the vocals work well together, but like a lot of the album, it bubbles beneath the surface rather than boiling over.
Don’t get me wrong, I like this album. It’s really nice to listen to and I think that all the production is superb, but honestly I expected more from Hudson Mohawke. Whether it’s because his sound has been replicated more and more recently, or because this album’s been getting hyped for five years, it just kind of fell flat for me. I’m being harsh because it’s Hudmo though. He’s always been seen as groundbreaking and I just don’t really see that on this album – it all just feels too safe. Birchard’s signature is all over Lantern, but it’s an album that has too much happening and not enough at the same time.
Gearing up for his new album Lantern, Hudson Mohawke visited Benji B’s BBC Radio 1 show for a “Hudson Mohawke Album Special.” Throughout the program, HudMo shared loads of new music and unheard tracks, including brand new tunes from the upcoming album. Click here to listen to the full show, or here to just listen to everything he shared from Lantern. The special runs through a full 40-minutes of largely unheard tracks, so it’s DEFINITELY worth a listen if you’re as big a fan as we are.
HudMo also spun a half hour mix on the radio show, including tracks from Zebra Kats and Redhino. Listen to the whole thing here.
Following the interview, HudMo has also premiered the brand new video clip for Scud Books, which follows on from earlier singles Ryderz and Very First Breath.
The epic track opens with a marching drum-style beat and immense horns, before rapidly giving way to bright spindly synths and a euphoric melody. The beat just gets bigger and heavier from there on in, interlaced with these wonderful melodic phrases. It’s a really interesting sound, and something HudMo is incredibly talented at: making tracks that are not only heavy as hell, but so completely beautiful and uplifting. This just works so well to develop an atmosphere that’s not only vast, but completely unique to Hudson Mohawke.
The video itself shows the silhouetted crowd at a Hudson Mohawke show, waving their hands in the air like they just don’t care. Occasionally the camera flips to colourful footage of the man in action – and the whole things just makes you wish you were there right now. Throughout the video, the concert clips are weaved in with these stunning, visceral, almost erotic time-lapsed close ups of flowers in bloom.
Lantern comes out on June 16 via Warp Records.