Although he hasn’t made an album for seven years, he’s still been busy. Ross Birchard aka Hudson Mohawke has not only released EPs and soundtracks or worked on projects like TNGHT, he’ s also been busy as a producer, ranging from Anohni to Kanye West to Christina Aguilera. »Cry Sugar« now seems like a fresh cure for club music, although he doesn’t do anything differently than before. He throws in his breakbeats, their hard precision readily associated with expressions like »Laser«, along with all sorts of things, such as the sounds of a Hoover on »Dance Forever«. Yet he prefers to draw on soul vocals, sampled, of course, short quotations that are then laid over the frenzied story as gorgeous little melodies. Sometimes, he leaves the hecticness behind in favour of astonishingly rested hymns. »It Is Supposed« is one such case, a catchy tune and club behemoth slowly building to mid-tempo ecstasy all in one. Then again, one of Hudson Mohawke’s main endeavours has always been to shred supposed opposites. Here he often succeeds with minimal effort. A violin solo like on »Lonely Days« is not to be missed. And it is a good example of his skill: in other hands, such things tend to turn into an embarrassingly uncool moment. With Hudson Mohawke, though, partly because the violin is mixed behind the vocals and the electronic elements and expands from schmaltzy to string furioso very quickly, it becomes something cool/uncool. Sensory overload is good for you.
Hudson Mohawke
Chimes EP
Warp