Hudson Mohawke has spent his quarantined 2020 like so many of us, using the time to reflect. But instead of spring cleaning and a rotation of washing dishes, the UK electronic artist turned to his production library. The result, B.B.H.E., is a new album made up of now fan favorite deep cuts, and songs that have sat in his library at home. Why not let everyone enjoy it, instead of letting it collect figurative dust at home?
B.B.H.E. follows Hudson Mohawke’s brand of genius creativity throughout its journey. Listening to the album front to back has its hills and valleys in energy, with highs like “Spruce Illest Bumper” and “100HM” fueled by beats that are hard to decipher if they’re meant for hip-hop, or if hip-hop is meant for them. But it’s those moments in the middle like “Herberts” and “Pushin The Levels” where he finds his sweet spot, keeping an engaging flow of twists and turns throughout each song that keep us at full attention.
It’s enough entertainment alone to try to identify where each of these tracks comes from within Hudson Mohawke’s career. Some of the songs date back to the early 2000’s, before he made his debut on Warp Records in 2009, and yet with the evolution he’s seen over his career, there is a flow. “There’s enough distance between this music now,” he says. “At some point you have to set it free.”
B.B.H.E. should be bundled with the recent EPs dropped on Bandcamp, Heart of the Night and Black Cherry, released just last month. Though those tracks didn’t make it to all streaming platforms (presumably due to licensing hurdles: the tracks feature samples from Beyoncé and Christina Milian among others), together, the project makes sense.
B.B.H.E. is available via Warp Records on all digital streaming platforms.
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