Hudson Mohawke – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #139 : HUDSON MOHAWKE

Other than the fact it is alphabetical, nobody can ever accuse this series of being predictable. Last week it was the near 60-year old Horse Macdonald (not her real name) while this week it is 32-year old Hudson Mohawke (not his real name).

And just like last week, I only have one track in the collection, this time courtesy of a download a couple of years back when he was shortlisted for Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) award in 2016.

From wiki:-

Ross Matthew Birchard (born 11 February 1986), better known by the stage name Hudson Mohawke, is a producer, DJ, and composer from Glasgow, Scotland. A founding member of the UK label collective LuckyMe, he signed to Warp Records and released his debut album Butter in 2009. In 2011, he formed the duo TNGHT with Canadian producer Lunice and released their debut EP the following year.

In 2012, he began a series of collaborations with Kanye West, resulting in production credits on the GOOD Music label album Cruel Summer. On 17 January 2013, it was announced that Mohawke had officially signed with GOOD Music as a producer, whilst remaining with Warp and LuckyMe as a recording artist. TNGHT announced their hiatus on 27 December 2013.

Mohawke co-produced two tracks on West’s 2013 album Yeezus (“I Am a God” and “Blood on the Leaves”) and contributed to West’s 2016 follow-up The Life of Pablo, in addition to working with various other hip hop and pop artists, including Drake, Pusha T, and Future. In 2015, he released his second studio album, Lantern (which was the work nominated for the SAY Award). Also in 2016, he collaborated with singer Anohni on her 2016 album Hopelessness, and created the original soundtrack for the video game Watch Dogs 2.

He’s been a busy young man right enough, and according to those who know about these things, he’s always been re-defining his musical style with one critic saying in 2015 “in the six years since debut full-length, Butter, Hudson Mohawke’s music has gone from a glitch-y, turntablist jitter to a euphoric, multicolored trap-hop pound and everywhere in between.”

mp3 : Hudson Mohawke – Scud Books

JC

Courtney Barnett, Hudson Mohawke

BONUS POSTING : THE TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2015…. AS CHOSEN BY YOU

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Many thanks to all of you who took the time to drop me a line with your personal Top 10 albums of 2016. More than 200 different records were nominated of which 34 received multiple nominations, with #1 and #2 in the list receiving by far the most. Here’s the reverse rundown of what I’ve submitted to the 2016 BAMS on behalf of the readers of The (New) Vinyl Villain:-

10.The Spook School – We Try To Be Hopeful
9. Miaoux Miaoux – School Of Velocity
8. Public Service Broadcasting – The Race For Space
7. Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool
6. Belle & Sebastian – Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance
5. John Grant – Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
4. Blur – The Magic Whip
3. Lonelady – Hinterland
2. New Order – Music Complete
1. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

For what it’s worth, only two of my own Top 10 made the list, which kind of makes me worried that I’m out of touch with the readership but I console myself with the fact that I spend so much time looking backwards for the blog that I’m really unable to keep up much with new music and therefore the number of new albums I buy or listen to is ridiculously limited. Having said that, Mike over at Manic Pop Thrills has put together a mouth-watering list of new albums that are scheduled for release in 2016 and so I expect to be a bit more active on that front in 2016.

I would like to finish by posting a personal Top 10 of 2015 from ISM, a friend and occasional but discerning reader who is always telling me to end what he calls my obsession with 80s jingly-jangly indie-pop. None of his choices made the final list, but I wanted to share with you his cracking descriptions on why he fell for certain records in 2015:-

Hudson Mowhawk – Lantern

Glasgow’s supplier of beats and cutting edge sounds to Kanye West (he’s on his payroll) adds great tunes for his second album.

Four Tet – Morning/Evening

Ssublime, ambitious two 20 minute long pieces with beats, samples and tunes – fought the punk rock wars to get rid of such pretentiousness – and lost!

Mogwai – Music Industry 3, Fitness Industry 1 EP

Remixes and a blistering new tune in Teenage Exorcists.

Craig Armstrong – Far From the Madding Crowd OST

The best soundtracks are written under our noses up in Park Circus, but beware, 50% sublime orchestral tunes and 50% ‘enters room and sits on sofa’ as per most film scores.

Idjut Boys – Versions

Deep, dubby, sub-Fleetwood Mac outtake type bliss! I know, who would have thought it possible or desirable!

Damian Lazarus – One Hour With (Mixmag cover CD November)

The fine art of the DJ dance mix, taking the willing on dizzying musical trip – and leaving the unwilling grumbling ‘WTF is this all about’?!

Four Tet – Pink

Him again, this time with a compilation of magnificent sold out 12″ releases first issued in 2012 and only made available as a download in the UK afterwards (or Japanese import CD – I know, get a life) before being released on a double vinyl album a few weeks ago, SO IT COUNTS for 2015!

Admiral Fallow – Tiny Rewards

Too early to tell how good this is, but who can resist their latest efforts after absorbing their tunes after seeing so many excellent live performances?

Trevor Jackson Presents Science Fiction Dancehall

One more re-release of old stuff allowed surely? – in this case a collection of original spaced-out dub released on the On U Sound label from way back and far ahead of its time.

John Hopkins – Late Night Tales

‘Dance’ mix of tracks with hardly any beats, but instead a collection of tunes and moods forming something a lot bigger than the sum of its parts.

ISM

JC adds…..

Seems only fair to recognise his contribution along with what was a very clear winner from all you good good people.

mp3 : Hudson Mohawke – Scud Books
mp3 : Courtney Barnett – Pedestrian At Best

Oh and as part of an effort to get more with it in 2016, I’ll be doing the occasional bonus post on the occasional midday featuring new music that has caught my fancy. You’ve been warned……..