Mark Hawkins - Whole New Internet Game MP3

Two years after his last incursion on the label, Mark Hawkins is back on Houndstooth with his latest release, ‘Whole New Internet Game (Feat. Donnell Knox)’.

Partially produced with Kalamazoo techno legend Donnell Knox aka D-Knox who is also featured on vocals on the title track, the release is a fitting tribute to the early 90s Detroit house sound, updated with a thicker, more contemporary sounding production aesthetic.

‘Whole New Internet Game’, and ‘Reprise’ are the result of a recording session late in December 2019, when Knox was visiting Hawkins in his studio in Berlin, the former with Knox waxing lyrical about the state of the modern age we live in, which in recent times strikes an even more relevant chord, and the latter, with Knox on co-production duties, being an exercise in making a whole track out of an intro, lush synth pads taking the focus away from the drums, at least for the first few minutes.

Emerald and Sixth reach back even further into Hawkins’ production history, both featuring swung house drums, and jazzed out chord structures produced using a borrowed Roland D-50 synthesizer, one of the classic digital synths of the late 90s, which has been featured on many a Swing or R&B cut of that period.

All four tracks galvanise Hawkins’ new steps forward as a production powerhouse who is not to be underestimated.