I first heard about the Glasgow-hailing producer, Hudson Mohawke via one of my favorite BBC1 radio DJs, Benji B. Save perhaps Rich Medina and Gilles Peterson, Benji B is the best at mixing soul, funk, electronica, r&b, hip-hop and jazz selections into a seamless continuum of pure goodness. Before he played Mohawke’s track, “Overnight,” he warned the listeners, “This guy is so good, but his songs are so short, so I’m going to have to loop it back to back.” He was right. What followed was a terse cut that sounded like a Timbaland-esque, stutter-step beat spliced with Atari-style electronic blips, and the kind of melodic, syncopated, bass chops that made the Neptunes and J. Dilla household names. It was an instrumental that felt as if it was rising to some kind of head-busting crescendo, but that sweet release never came – instead it steadied to a frothy, simmering tableau … and just like that, it ended. DJ Benji B was right, it would be an unforgivable sonic travesty not to give this joint an immediate encore.
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