Mood Hut is a Canadian label who have never been ones to march to the beat of anyone else’s drum but their own. In a world where everyone is trying to one up each other, this band of far out Vancouver natives are doing it however they like. They first came to my attention last year with their boiler room set at Dekmantel festival. Their most recent release is a sleepy three track record courtesy of Slow Riffs. This record is one part HNNY one part John Martyn’s “Small Hours” and one strong helping of whatever these guys have cooking in Vancouver. Mood Hut often features artists like Pender street steppers, Jack J and Hashman Deejay.
Starting things off on this record is “Gong bath” a sleepy bed time or waking up song. Samples of running water, light African drumming and some soft and soothing chords. This is the ind of thing you could imagine being played during meditation sessions, a far cry from the 4/4 conveyor belt of music that we have become so numb to these days. This is a refreshing cut of something miles west of center. Dreamy and slow moving this is what Sunday mornings should sound like.
On the flip side is “Virgo Dub” and “Peace Arch”. Virgo dub is my personal favorite on this record. Much of the same as gong bath but with some light samples of bird whistling and and deeper melodic range, I found this one to suit my mood a bit better. What seems like more field recordings of water begins to sound like waves breaking ever so softly on a sandy shore line. There is so much nature packed into this record it is a beautiful demonstration of the constant natural rhythm that surrounds our daily lives but is so sadly blocked out by our own sense of self importance.
Lastly comes “Peace Arch”, sadly I was not very taken by this track at all. While the melody is in keeping with the ambient feeling of the record there is an unfortunate drum line that is anything but ambient or dreamy. Sporadic and random, the drumming on this is completely random and lacks any type of actual rhythm. Maybe this is the artists attempt to wake you from the meditative state that was so skillfully induced by the first two tracks. This does not take away from the stand out quality of the rest of the record, but I was quite disappointed by the closer. Maybe this is just too left field for me and I just don’t “get it”. Whatever the case I await whatever the Mood Hut crew have to offer with open arms. With more labels like this in the scene I feel like the music that I know and love can only grow and evolve to new heights. MH 010 is out now and you can grab it HERE.