Featuring all the excitement and groove of an early
Madlib beat tape, Hud Dreems is the full-length instrumental debut from experimental hip-hop producer Glenn Boothe, aka
Knxwledge. The 2015 album was released during a banner year for the producer, as his work landed on
Kendrick Lamar's landmark album
To Pimp a Butterfly, but with its brittle breaks, its love of the hallucinatory, and its kinetic flow, Hud Dreems has found a proper home on the underground tastemaker haven Stones Throw. Very little here runs past the two-minute mark, as beats are presented in a style for MCs to sample rather than being twisted into bloated instrumentals. The three-minute "Trsh" and the two-and-a-half-minute "demskreets.fekts" come off as epic in this environment, and both are head-bobbing highlights that deserve the extra space, but
Knxwledge is skilled at twisting a beautiful melody just far enough so that it doesn't break. As he does so repeatedly, the album gains its cohesive feel. Scratchy soul and swooning funk are plentiful, plus the LP is skillfully sequenced like a DJ mix for underground hip-hop fans looking for that ultimate hang-out soundtrack, leaving the bizarre song names the only thing to complain about, as digitally tagging and typing "rightaftr[THK]" and "kometostai.aintreallynootherwaytoputitro" into the title field is quite difficult. ~ David Jeffries