Tag: MHUD

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: MHUD Performs “Ô Calypso” at Mastoid Studio

The mysterious Strasbourg-born, Paris–based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, publicly known as MHUD initially began his creative career as a painter before turning to music as a creative outlet relatively recently. And within a relatively short period of time, the Strasbourg-born, Paris-based artist quickly established a genre-defying approach to his music that thematically touches upon humankind’s spiritual, emotional and intellectual split from itself.

Released last year, the Strasbourg-born, Paris-based artist’s sophomore album was largely conceived in the morning and at home with co-writer Felipe Sierra (guitar, synth). The pair wrote with the album’s material with the common thread of giving all their musical influences a chance to shine. Thematically, the album touches on consciousness and the unconscious, the chaotic noise of information overload, the lack of nuance, the inability to find a quiet moment to think or to process anything, and how easy it is to lose the thin thread of time that seems to barely hold everything to together. 

NONO features the previously released, bruising “Toucher le sol,” and its latest single “Ô Calypso.” “Ô Calypso” is a shuffling and furiously unhinged bit of Bossa Nova that simultaneously seems to draw from Osees, Population II and VICTIME, Thematically, the song asks a deeply existential question: Will the 21st century man attain happiness or merely a nauseating madness?

The accompanying live footage, filmed at Mastoïd Studio by Nicolas Giraldo sees MHUD with a backing band featuring Felipa Sierra, Pedro Barrios (percussion), Biscuit (saxophone), Thomas Chalindar (drums) and Paul Dussaux (bass, modular synth).

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Artist MHUD Releases a Gritty and Brooding, Garage Rock-like Single

Initially beginning his creative career as a painter, the mysterious Strasbourg-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, electronic music artist and electronic music producer professionally known as MHUD got into music as a creative outlet relatively recently. And within a very short period of time, the Strasbourg-born, Paris-based artist quickly established genre-defying work that thematically touches upon man’s spiritual, emotional and intellectually split from himself.

MHUD’s full-length debut was released last March, and as you may recall, the album featured the slickly produced, “Cheval de Bataille,” a track that meshed elements of trip hop, electroclash, electro pop and arena rock. The French artist’s latest single, the slow-burning and brooding “Il ne s’évapore pas” further cements his growing reputation for a genre-defying sound and approach — with the song finding MHUD adopting a fuzzy and distorted power chord driven garage rock sound. Unlike his previously released material, “Il ne s’évapore pas” possesses a raw, on-the-fly, improvised vibe, which gives the song a gritty air.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Genre-Defying French Artist MHUD Releases a Bloody Commentary on Violence and Toxic Masculinity

Initially beginning his creative career as a painter, the mysterious Strasbourg-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, electronic music artist and electronic music producer MHUD got into music as a creative outlet relatively recently. And in short period of time, the Strasbourg-born, Paris-based artist has developed a reputation for material that thematically focuses on man’s spiritual, emotional and intellectual split from himself — paired with a sound that’s genre defying. 

The mysterious Strasbourg-born, Paris-based artist’s full-length debut is slated for a March 2020 release, and the album’s latest single “Cheval de Bataille” is a slickly produced track that possesses elements of trip hop, electroclash, electro pop and arena rock as its centered around tweeter and woofer rocking beats, buzzing, distortion pedal-fueled guitar lines, a motorik-like groove, expressive blasts of horn and arpeggiated synths. Sonically speaking, the song — to my ears, at least — reminds me a bit of synthesis of fellow countrymen Black Strobe, Dystopico-era Kriget, Third-era Portishead, Evil Heat-era Primal Scream and The Deltahorse.  

Produced by David Garnacho and Nicolas Bouf, the recently released video for “Cheval de Bataille” follows the violent fantasies of a nerdy and relentlessly bullied office drone, who gets his revenge at a team-building paintball game. In the face of psychological violence in relation to economic and societal pressures, some people feel as though the only response they have is to respond with physical violence, the Strasbourg-born, Paris-based artist says of the video treatment. The directors and the artist went with a hyper realistic take on violence — so that the impact it has on people can’t be trivialized or glorified. But on another level. it points out how toxic masculinity can lead to increasing amounts of brutal and senseless violence.