“Latern” shows Hudson Mohawke experimenting and feeling a little playful, and as a result, itap all over the map.
, somewhat fresh off name-elevating work with TNGHT and on “Yeezus,” seems to have gone into making his second record thinking “catch me if you can.” If the Scottish producer wanted to set a new standard for himself on “Lantern,” he succeeded, shifting away from his recent work and moving around so much that no one could hope to pin him down.
For one thing, he could have called in a host of collaborators, but he resisted. There are vocals on just five of the 14 songs. “Warriors” is one of them — a surprisingly poppy ballad featuring Ruckazoid and Deveaux. “Deepspace” does the same, but with a darker edge, and with irrepressibly seductive voice of Miguel. Otherwise, tracks on “Lantern” are largely, diversely instrumental. Songs like ”System” or the album opening, ostensibly tone-setting title track, are industrial and dark. The pretty, grand “Kettles” and itap traditional-sounding instrumentation leads you seamlessly into “Scud Books,” which is more like a trap symphony, then we get Antony softly singing over production thatap largely wordless backing vocals and a pulse, and that ends with a half-minute of harsh noise. “Lil Dijembe,” with itap pseudo-marimba chiming over a deep rumbling, is shapeless and only vaguely suggests a melody. “Shadows” is an 8-bit fantasy.
“Latern” shows HudMo experimenting and feeling a little playful, and as a result, itap all over the map. He’s moving away from hip-hop-oriented production, but those songs are still his strongest. “Ryderz” speeds up a soul sample and sets it to the heavy rat-a-tat of a drum machine and swelling synth strings for a deliciously dramatic trap banger. It was the first single for good reason. It makes you want more. But you can’t begrudge him his experimentation. Even if it feels like he’s trying to outrun you or even himself, itap fun trying to keep up.
