Hudson Mohawke will release his new album, Cry Sugar on August 12th, the news arrives alongside a new pair of singles in “Cry Sugar (Megamix)” and “Bicstan” plus an accompanying kingcon2k11-directed Megamix visualizer, in 2022, Hudson Mohawke cries sugar. On “Cry Sugar (Megamix)” Hudson takes various parts from the full album to offer a window into the project’s full sonic palette ahead of release, while “Bicstan” dabs elements of Roland TB-303 flecked acid and driving gabber alongside floating, effervescent vocals and Kerri Chandler-esque house chords.

Recently, a day in the life of Hudson Mohawke often involves a 7am grill out session in an abandoned lot across the street from the club—coals blazing as the skeletal sound of cavernous bass echoes out from empty warehouses in morning twilight. These early dawn cookouts have become crucial post-rave rituals for Mohawke to stave off exhaustion and ennui. Mohawke has been “focusing on his health,” taking cues from his new home in LA by trying out juice cleanses, meditation sessions, and stationary bike exercises. While smoke rises from the western Californian horizon, Mohawke flips grillables and offers sustenance to the last early morning ravers and revelers—a way to prioritize health and “give back” to sloshed club goers who made it far enough to see the morning light. Recently, he has also been participating in a series of Bob Ross-style still life and landscape painting classes for producers—where club producers and DJs meet up, paint together, and use the medium as a way of informing their own musical approach. Together electronic music enthusiasts paint everything from the busted Teslas parked outside the studio to trash heaps, scenes of the LA Observatory on fire, or the Santa Monica Pier sinking into the surf. Finding solace in such hobbyist activities imbues his recent work with a kind of optimism. Therein lies the possibility that we can continue finding meaning in our daily lives despite the multiple crises that 2022 leaves in its wake.

Mohawke has also been conducting his own “anti-irony” clinics since before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, pioneering a motivational 12-step program that attempts to audit how culture juxtaposes traditionally highbrow or “serious” styles of music with uncool or overtly commercial tropes. The result has been a production style able to integrate elements of jazz fusion, prog rock, happy hardcore, chiptune, and more with formal educations in rave, hip-hop, soul, IDM, and glitch.

Cry Sugar, serves as Hudson Mohawke’s first work deeply informed by apocalyptic film scores and soundtracks by everyone from the late Vangelis to the goofy major-chord pomp of 90s John Williams. Cry Sugar also serves as Mohawke’s own demented OST to score the twilight of our cultural meltdown. As the album’s artwork (by Wayne horse Willehad Eilers) depicts—we are arm-in-arm with the Ghostbusters marshmallow man, returning home while swinging a bottle of Jack only to gaze out at the gray tempest of a coming catastrophe.

Pre-order Cry Sugar by Hudson Mohawke HERE