Music reviews: Hudson Mohawke, Everything Everything, The Orb
While Kanye West attempts to back up his grand bragging as “the greatest living rock star on the planet” by butchering Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody on stage at Glastonbury, Yeezus collaborator Hudson Mohawke, aka unassuming Scottish DJ/producer Ross Birchard, took time from producing West’s upcoming album to release his own work, Lantern.
As with all big-time EDM producers, the follow up to 2009’s Butter arrives buzzing with plenty of hype, ambitious ideas and a slew of high-profile guest vocalists. On Very First Breath, Breakbot collaborator Irfane lays vocals over a synth bed of busy beats and boom-claps, before the soul sampling Ryderz attacks the ears with a rattling thump. R&B singer Jhené Aiko appears on the shimmering Resistance, while on Deepspace, singer Miguel lets rip over what sounds like a load of dustbin lids being carefully chucked down the stairs.
Surprisingly for an artist known for making banging beats sparkle, the production sounds rather flat and soulless, and with the crazy amount of ideas being thrown around, stylistically it suffers from a lack of flow.
Hudson Mohawke Lantern (Warp Records)