Electronic Sound July 2015 (Regular Edition) | Page 17

to deliver a real statement.

HUDSON
MOHAWKE
Lantern
WARP

Hotly tipped Scottish producer Ross
Birchard returns six years on from
his thrilling debut
Hudson Mohawke’s debut album, ‘Butter’,
was a triumph of rubbery day-glo beats.
Released in 2009, it stood as an early
marker for what writer Simon Reynolds
has termed “digital maximalism”. The
trend towards excess perhaps found its
most confident form in ‘Glass Swords’,
the 2011 set from fellow Glaswegian and
Warp signee Rustie, but Hud Mo, aka
Ross Birchard, has also continued to play
around with the template in interesting
ways.
‘Lantern’ is only Birchard’s second
Hudson Mohawke album, though his
profile has risen significantly in the
interim. Most prominently, he teamed
up with Lunice to form TNGHT, a side
project that ended up playing to massive
festival crowds on the back o f the
Stateside EDM explosion. Birchard has
also become a genuinely huge force in
hip hop, earning the coveted title of
Kanye West’s go-to producer. And with
last year’s ‘Chimes’ soundtracking an
Apple advert, he seems perfectly placed

Fittingly then, ‘Lantern’ is an expansive
and expensive sounding album, with
Hud Mo’s trademark glossy synth
melodies given extra layers of polish.
Birchard is clearly no longer the skewed
beatmaster responsible for ‘Butter’, let
alone his pre-Warp material. The tracks
themselves are lean and considered,
with elements working together rather
than busily fighting for supremacy. While
there’s still not a lot of empty space
here, it’s a move away from kitchen sink
maximalism towards a more assured,
pop-oriented approach. Often this works
very well – the R&B song ‘Deepspace’
being a good example – but occasionally
it feels rather anaemic, like a bland copy
of his previous work.
Rather than doubling down on what he
considers his essential sound, Hud Mo
uses ‘Lantern’ as a platform to showcase
a variety of styles. Perhaps he wanted to
avoid taking the easy route – he could
have turned out an album of TNGHTstyle bangers without much trouble – but
instead of displaying his range, it just
feels like Birchard doesn’t have a clear
sense of what he wants to achieve. As an
album, ‘Lantern’ isn’t remotely coherent.
Not enough attention has been paid to
the flow of the tracks and momentum is
too often dissipated by poor sequencing.

The best moments come when Birchard
keeps things simple – and thankfully the
highlights are a real draw. Chief among
these is the stunningly effective ‘Ryderz’,
a fusillade of snares deployed at precisely
the right time over a pitch-shifted soul
sample. Birchard clearly understands
the strength of his source material – DJ
Rogers’ ‘Watch Out For The Riders’ from
1973 – as it’s given plenty of space to
breathe before the percussion barrage.
It comes to a climax with squiggly synth
curlicues like butterflies tracing loops
overhead. Ultimately, ‘Ryderz’ derives its
power from the tension between restraint
and abandon. Safe to say it’s got summer
anthem status firmly locked down.
Birchard has been billing ‘Lantern’ as a
classic, or at least a classic for him and
his friends. But when Hudson Mohawke
is remembered in the future – and
given his immense talent, this seems
more than likely – it won’t be for this.
If you carved it up, you could assemble
a brilliant EP, but as an album it feels
scattershot and unfocused. While it’s
certainly no mere retread of familiar
ground, it lacks the giddy invention of
‘Butter’ and overall registers as a slight
disappointment, despite a handful of very
strong tracks.
COSMO GODFREE

Pic: Tim Saccenti