Butter (Hudson Mohawke album)

In 2009, Hudson Mohawke signed to Warp 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 his 2006 Hudson's Heeters mixtape.[7] Butter is his debut album and second release on Warp following the 2008 Polyfolk Dance EP.[8] The album’s artwork was designed by Birchard’s friend Tom Scholefield (a.k.a. Konx-Om-Pax), with both working from a folder of influences they wanted to incorporate,[9] including "the '80s t-shirts Ross and Dom [Flannigan] liked with wolves and bad airbrush animal art."[10] The album features collaborations with Dâm-Funk, Nadsroic, and Olivier Daysoul, the latter an American singer who contributes to two tracks.[11]

Birchard described his recording setup as "very simple," explaining "I’m more interested in the equipment being usable and immediate, rather than spending loads of time tweaking things."[10] Most of the album was made in the audio program FruityLoops using free plug-ins.[10] Mohawke also used hardware such as an Ensoniq VFX and Roland W30 "for lots of vintage dancey sounds" as well as a Korg M50, and sampled his own MIDI programming.[11] He premiered the material at LA's Low End Theory, where it was received positively,[11] although some feedback from the more purist hip-hop DJs was less positive.[10]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	80/100[6]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
BBC Music	favorable[13]
Clash	7/10[14]
Drowned in Sound	8/10[5]
The Guardian	[15]
NME	7/10[16]
Pitchfork	6.7/10[17]
PopMatters	8/10[4]
Q	[6]
Resident Advisor	3.5/5[8]

At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Butter received an average score of 80, based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[6]

AllMusic called it "A fearless scrap heap mutation that incorporates icebox IDM crunch, DayGlo synthesizer funk and, most notably, late-'80s/early-'90s R&B flourishes."[12] AJ Ramirez of PopMatters gave the album 8 stars out of 10, commenting that "While Butter's fascination with chaotic beats and sonic experimentalism fit right into the Warp aesthetic, the album is remarkably accessible, liable to inspire head-bobbing motions of approval."[4] The Guardian wrote that "listening to Butter can feel like eavesdropping on the future," adding that "It's like eating candyfloss and helium on a speeding rollercoaster: exhilarating and discombobulating in equal measure."[15]

In retrospect, DJ Jake Jenkins called the album "one of the most iconic releases in the LET / beat-scene paradigm. There is a peculiar technicolour to the album that was unlike the other instrumental hip-hop coming out of LA at the time."[10] Birchard stated that within five or six years of release, he began hearing about the influence of the album on other artists, but "what I was doing was just doing shit for fun basically and wearing the influences of it on my sleeve, and it wasn’t done with the intention of anything else [...] If I was going to do it all over again, I would do it exactly the same."[10] In 2020, Clash named it among the 20 best Scottish albums of the 21st century.[18]

Credits adapted from liner notes.[19]

• Hudson Mohawke – production, writing
• Olivier Daysoul – vocals, writing (tracks 3, 11)
• Dâm-Funk – vocals, writing (track 14)
• Nadsroic – vocals, writing (track 14)
• Naweed – mastering
• Sun Rab – effects
• Wednesday Nite – mbira (track 9)
• Sir Anthony Chopkins – samples
• Tweeter Cushing – tambourine
• Queefer Sutherland – trombone (track 6)
• Konx-Om-Pax – design
• Brian Sweeney – photography

• Jama, Zainab (1 December 2009). "XLR8R's Favorites of 2009: Hudson Mohawke". XLR8R.
• Martin, Felicity (14 July 2015). "Spotlight Special: Hudson Mohawke - Butter". Clash.

• Butter at Discogs (list of releases)