The Golden Child Disciple of J Dilla and Flying Lotus

Though his discography is rather thin, Hudmo’s status as the rising golden child of the UK Warp/LuckyMe/Wireblock community has long been established. He was Scottish DMC Champion and UK finalist at age fourteen, and the few EPs and compilations that have escaped his bedroom studio met with enormous critical acclaim. His Polyfolk Dance EP and his work with Mike Slott as Heralds of Change solidified his position as the heir apparent to Dilla’s legacy of chopped, distorted sample-based hip hop and Flying Lotus’ ongoing digital reconstruction of abstract hip hop production. At times listening to Butter, Hudmo seems to triumphantly achieve that “promised one” rhetoric, crafting furious, kinetic beats that tear forward through warped electronic melodies. Hudson bombards the tracks with layers of alternately polished and buzz saw synth lines, pushing them forward and gridding off their melodies with chopped vocal creations. Especially during the middle passage of “3.30,” “Trykk,” “Fruit Touch,” and “Zoooooom,” Hudmo seems to embrace and faithfully execute the dogma of turbo-charged glitch hop. At other times in the album, however, he seems bored by the limitations of the genre and transforms his vision into that of…

The R&B acid revisionist

At certain points throughout his career, Hudmo has expressed an infatuation with the potent pathos of contemporary R&B. His bootleg bass remix of Tweet’s jam “Ooops” is widely considered to be the song that directly preceded his signing to Warp. In interviews past, he has mentioned the looming possibility of joining Erykah Badu or Chris Brown in the studio someday soon. On Butter, his collaborations with vocalists Olivier Daysoul and Dam Funk stand in stark contrast to his other tracks; they operate under an entirely different aesthetic. Tracks like “Joy Fantastic,” “Tell Me What You Want From Me,” and the extraordinary break up song “I Just Decided” tweak the butter-smooth (no pun intended), nu-soul efforts of 80’s R&B classics like Belle Biv DeVoe by throwing their earnest hooks over enormously busy and glossy backing tracks. Hudmo’s effects work well enough with the flamboyance and vitality of his guest vocalists to give classic R&B a neon/day-glo facelift.  Olivier Daysoul in particular comes off like Slick Rick’s New Jack twin in his star turns on “Joy Fantastic” and “I Just Decided.” The eclecticism of Hudmo’s surreal subjection of R&B to his own eccentric means is eclipsed only by his turns as…

The Triumphant Abstraction

Two of the tracks off Butter that attracted the greatest prerelease buzz were the massive cuts “Fuse” and “Rising 5,” neither of which fit neatly into the artistic modes of Hudmo described above. These two are the true gems of the album. Both songs seem to incorporate elements of live instrumentation jammed through powerful electronic filters in ways that amplify digitally yet preserve entirely their   organic melody and vitality. They are too sprawling, too awe-inspiring to be considered hip hop; there is not an MC alive who could take on these massive constructions and make them his own. “Fuse” sounds as if some one took a triumphant yet tinny 8-bit synth line from an old Zelda game, remastered it a bajillion times and crafted a goddamn anthem out of it. Though Butter as an album is most likely stronger than the sum of its components, “Fuse” and “Rising 5” are its most exciting contributions. If these tracks are indicative of his newest assumed artistic identity, then we can expect exciting things in the future from Hudson Mohawke.

Though this cut isn't on the album Butter, it still ranks as one of Hudmo's most popular and innovative to date. Check out Hudson Mohawke's bass remix of Timbaland's beat for Tweet!

Hudson Mohawke - Ooops

You can't buy happiness but you CAN brew it, distill it, put it in a keg, and then give it out for free on the dance floor at Blue Dog while John, Myrna, and Howard let a mudslide of grimy funk wash over you. Ain't no law against that. Yet.

$3 for the privilege of draining the keg!

LP:  During Pop Montreal, Megasoid will be playing the Red Bull MegaHurtz A/V experience, by far one of the festival’s most anticipated shows. Do you and Hadji have anything new up your sleeves for the event?

SR: Well, I suppose the main thing is that we are not be playing together as Megasoid. For now, I will be the visible representation of Megasoid. Most recently we made the decision (due to travel distances and responsibilities / pursuits outside of music on both of our parts) that it was best for the band for me to handle the live performance of Megasoid material, and for Hadji to be my creative studio partner. We have really had some amazing times together onstage, I truthfully have always felt more comfortable without the accountability of having 'players chemistry' all the time...

We are both pretty intense individuals and as such, it comes out in our personalities in and out of music... we are best as creatives that come together and make things and not people that should be surrounded by each other all the time.  That being said, Hadji is my favorite person in the world to make music with, I think he is an incredibly dynamic individual that deserves to follow his passions outside of music..  and that it will ultimately be best for Megasoid for me to be the live extension of our collaborative outlet.

Perhaps when the LP drops we might do another 2-man AV show, but who knows, I guess time will tell. Until then, I am busting ass to make our shows something that stands alone in electronic music, with a philosophy about it carved out by two people with similar passions.

LP:  Your Turbo Crunk events were definitely some of the best parties Montreal has ever seen. What do you think makes them so good and will we see a return anytime soon?

SR: Thank you! I am really glad you liked them. I think it was a very special time for music in general, but especially for Montreal, being able to be the visible alternative to all the 'club club' music that was dominating dance-floors for the last couple of years, and for Montreal to be worldwide contemporary to the visible laptop beat scenes.

I think that most of the people involved with Turbo Crunk have an expansive knowledge of music, combined with an amazing group of residents and locals (Seb Diamond + Hovatron [both ex-Mofomatronix]  Lunice, Blingmod, Ango, Ghislain, Khiasma) being supported/co-signed by everyone from Zoobizarre to High Food to Peer Pressure to Mutek and MEG really made for some exciting things to happen. I also take a lot of pride in being able to say that we taste-made a lot of people that did their first shows here, and that we have in-turn built up good fan-bases for them enabling alot of our good freinds to return and be on bills that are bigger than the events we have promoted....

Getting to play alongside people like Theophilus London, Machinedrum, 215, Hudmo, Rustie, Mike Slott, Lorn, Nosaj Thing, Glitch Mob, Modeselektor has been nothing short of amazing. I am actually planning to move to the west coast for a bit, and as such Turbo Crunk has been put on ice... That being said, the Super Aqua Club team has joined forces with Duval (who we all love) and they together will be promoting events under the 'Night Trackin'' Moniker... all of which I am sure will be exciting and well curated, and that deserve peoples support. I love my Montreal team, and would just like to extend a little shoutout to everyone that came, was involved, performed, rocked out, had a great time, or hated it... we couldn't have had such an amazing time with music without everyone that came.

LP:  This year’s St. Jean-Baptiste Bridge Burner Party, which you threw in conjunction with Khiasma and Poirier, was insane! How did the original Bridge Burner come about and how did this year’s compare?

SR: Megasoid did the first bridge burner a few years back, with just a PA in a Van, rocking out until the cops came. It was awesome. I mean, personally, I always prefer renegade events over sanctioned ones (Olivier's loft parties, Scott's rooftop, Our Pop After hours party were really my favorite events in this city)... but Bridge Burner has really become an amazing event, mostly because it has received support from a good diverse group of people... with great promoters getting on deck, Pop Montreal, RedBull, Mike D, Khiasma, Ghislain and a lot of heavyweight local volunteers. This years was the biggest, and most visible, and most successful, but truthfully, the first one will always hold the space in my heart.

LP:  Your design firm, Weaponshouse, is a Montreal cultural institution with work spread out over just about every creative discipline. Could you explain what it is you do at Weaponshouse and what drives you to do it?

SR: I have always considered myself a visual artist and designer first and foremost, but somewhere along the line, I got lucky with music and started paying my rent off it and it in turn got priority. I like to travel, like the interactions but mostly like performing for people, in both a DJ and musicians context.

Weaponshouse is a work for hire  creative house that does high end production work of all sorts... everything from graphic design to industrial design to custom jewelry and clothing for friends. I will soon be setting up a digital label and licensing house attached to it, and will be doing some textile work as well, in case anyone is seriously interested, the site has been stripped down to a bare bones resume, but will be back up with a new site soon. Megasoid's website should be up in a couple days as well.

Yes, there will be a visual component, but this ain't the dorky light show your weird 4th grade teacher with the harelip made you go on a field trip for. The MegaHurtz A/V experience is an unprecedented foray into what can be done visually in a live setting - literally.

After hearing those tunes supplemented by those visuals, we dare you to try to hold back. Lunice, MTL's own Street Bass pioneer, knows how to handle the MegaHurtz. After and before his set, don't be surprised to see these moves on the dancefloor:

If you see him, just give the man his space and let him go! Lunice's Lazerremix Vol. 2 drops this Saturday September 26. Stay posted!