Hudson Mohawke
Poom Gems
Album · Electronic · 2020
Mere months after his quarantine hard-drive dump B.B.H.E. (Big Booty Hiking Expedition), Hudson Mohawke returns with another baker’s dozen of unreleased cuts. This set is just as diverse as its predecessor, offering glimpses not only of HudMo’s familiar future-funk pocket, but also some truly unexpected off-world explorations. If “All I Need” opens the album on a particularly audacious note, serving up a blender full of choppy chipmunk vocals and pulverized breakbeats, “Solstice Izo” drops us deep in the Scottish producer’s trap-rave zone, horn synths blaring. Along the way we get plenty of his trademark sawtooth abandon and percussive high drama, but what mainly stands out is how experimental some of these long-shelved cuts are. “Schmurgen” drizzles shimmering organ synths over frostbitten breaks, a play of pure texture; “Solesaft” is a slow, soulful take on Detroit-inspired house; and “Hoiarp” takes a fistful of arpeggios and turns them into a shivering approximation of ambient music. None of these are avenues anyone might have expected HudMo to pursue; that they’re as compelling as his biggest anthems is further proof of his remarkable talent.