Ross Matthew Birchard (born 11 February 1986), better known by the stage nameHudson Mohawke, is a Scottishproducer, composer, andDJ fromGlasgow.[6][7] He is known for his work in 21st centuryhip-hop andelectronic music. A founding member of the UK based record labelLuckyMe,[8] his fractured take on hip-hop made him a leading figure in the late-2000swonky scene.[1] He released his debut albumButter in 2009 onWarp Records. He has followed with the solo albumsLantern (2015) andCry Sugar (2022), both on Warp.
Ross Matthew Birchard was born on 11 February 1986, and was raised inGlasgow, Scotland. He is the son of American actor and singerPaul Birchard.[9][10]
At the age of 15, Birchard (under the name DJ Itchy) was the youngest UKDMC finalist.[11][12] His earliest gigs as a club DJ were with Glasgow University'sSubcity Radio[13][14][15] where he first appeared as part of the culture city kids show and later as part of other shows including Turntable Science with Pro Vinylist Karim and Cloudo's Happy Hardcore show, under the alias DJ Mayhem.[16] During this period, Birchard formed theLuckyMe collective with childhood friends. He adopted the stage name "Hudson Mohawke" after seeing the name engraved on a statue in the hallway of his accommodation.[17][18] In 2007, Birchard applied to theRed Bull Music Academy and was invited to attend the event inToronto,[19][20] where he first met Steve Beckett ofWarp Records, who was giving a lecture there,[21] and was to sign Hudson Mohawke two years later.[22]
In addition to his solo work, Hudson Mohawke collaborated with Mike Slott as Heralds of Change, releasing a series of 12" EPs includingShow You (2006),Sittin' on the Side (2007),Puzzles (2007) andSecrets (2007) on All City Records. Hudson Mo was also DJ/Producer for the now defunct hip hop group Surface Emp alongside MC's Dom Sum and sometimes 2 Can Dan.[23] Surface Empire released theLuckyMe EP in 2005 on Far Cut Records.
In 2009, Hudson Mohawke signed toWarp Records, despite a very limited track record of official releases; in fact, the bulk of his releases were unofficial tracks and DJ mixes circulated on the Internet, as well as the 2006 mixtapeHudson's Heeters Vol. 1.[1] His first official release to get major notice was entitled "Spotted" on the Rush Hour beat compilationBeat Dimensions Vol 1. In 2008 his 12" EPOoops! on LuckyMe/Wireblock became an underground sensation, particularly once word spread of his recording contract with Warp.[24] In 2009, Hudson Mohawke released his first studio album,Butter.[25] In that year, he contributed a cover of aJimi Tenor song, titled "Paint the Stars", to theWarp20 (Recreated) compilation.[26] He would follow with several EPs, including 2011'sSatin Panthers. He produced the debut EP for UK bandEgyptian Hip Hop at Club Ralph Studios in London, which was released in August 2010.[27] One of his songs, "100hm", has been featured as a track on the video gameGrand Theft Auto V, while "Fuse" was featured inSleeping Dogs andDirt 3.
Birchard met Canadian producerLunice during the firstLuckyMe Records tour of North America in 2008, with Hudson Mohawke performing at thePop Montreal festival and Lunice playing support.[28] Following a successful performance headliningWarp Records' 2012SXSW showcase, the duo's collaborative projectTNGHT debuted theirTNGHT EP, released via Warp X LuckyMe on 23 July 2012.[29][30][31] TNGHT has performed at multiple venues internationally, includingThe Opera House,[32] theCoachella music festival[33] and Brooklyn'sMusic Hall of Williamsburg, which featured an appearance by rapper/producerKanye West during a remix of West's "Cold".[34]
In 2012, Hudson Mohawke began a series of collaborations withKanye West, resulting in production credits on theGOOD Music label albumCruel Summer. On 17 January 2013, it was announced that Mohawke had officially signed with GOOD Music as a producer, whilst remaining with Warp and LuckyMe as a recording artist.[35] TNGHT announced their hiatus on 27 December 2013.[36] Mohawke co-produced two tracks on West's 2013 albumYeezus ("I Am a God" and "Blood on the Leaves")[1] and contributed to West's 2016 follow-upThe Life of Pablo, in addition to working with various otherhip hop andpop artists, includingDrake,Pusha T, andFuture.[37] In 2015, he released his second studio album,Lantern. In 2016, he collaborated with singerAnohni on her 2016 albumHopelessness. Mohawke announced on 26 October 2016 viaTwitter that he was creating the original soundtrack for the 2016 video gameWatch Dogs 2 titled "Ded Sec" and thatWarp Records would release it on 11 November 2016.[38]
2017–2022:3PAC mixtapes,Cry Sugar and "Cbat" virality
In 2017, Birchard made a brief TV appearance inTwin Peaks: The Return as aroadhouse performer.[39] In 2019, Birchard and Lunice reconvened for a second TNGHT EP titledII. In 2020, Birchard released three mixtapes of unreleased archival material dating to his earliest days:B.B.H.E.,Poom Gems, andAirborn Lard,[40] which were also collected as the compilation3PAC.[41] In 2021, he collaborated onDanny L Harle's albumHarlecore.
In August 2022, Birchard released his third studio album as Hudson Mohawke, the Warp releaseCry Sugar.[40]
In September 2022, Birchard's song "Cbat", from his 2011 EPSatin Panthers,went viral on multiple websites after aReddit user made a post about how the song's inclusion on his "sex playlist" ruined his relationship.[42][43][44]
On 1 December 2023, Birchard released the collaborative debut albumL'Ecstasy withTiga[45] under their moniker Love Minus Communications.[46]
In 2015,Exclaim! wrote that Birchards's music has developed over the course of his career "from a glitch-y,turntablist jitter to a euphoric, multicoloredtrap-hop pound and everywhere in between."[4] He has received praise for his "genre-smashing" production approach, in which styles of music are "incorporated, manipulated and bounced against each other."[47][48] In 2009, during Birchard's debutEssential Mix, DJPete Tong proclaimed "Hudson Mohawke is doing forhip-hop what theAphex Twin did fortechno".[49] In 2011,The Guardian characterized his trademark sound as "a vivid, psychedelic melange ofJ Dilla-esque instrumental hip hop, space-ageR&B,bass boom andoldskool rave euphoria, garnished with effervescent FX from unexpected sources."[11][50] Following the formation of TNGHT, Birchard and partner Lunice attempted to strip down their production styles and avoid tracks that were "all over the place".[51] They pioneered the rave subgenre oftrap, a style which Birchard called "a kind of parody genre" but which unexpectedly became popular atEDM festivals.[52]
