HooksArthur's 'Hundred Hand Hooks Vol.2' Is a Masterclass in Crate-Digging Production
HooksArthur lists himself on Bandcamp simply as “Emcee/Producer,” out of Middletown, New York, with no label attached. Hundred Hand Hooks Vol.2 is sixteen tracks in twenty-nine minutes, self-released, and it follows a first volume that a small group of people have been quietly insisting on for two years. Bandcamp Daily’s J. Edward Keyes, who treated the original as a high point, had the clearest read on the sequel: “Hooks is once again fully dialed-in — his approach to production is his ace in the hole.”
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: The drums here are deliberately underweighted. Rather than sitting a modern 808 under everything, Hooks lets the sampled source supply most of the bottom end, which means the low frequencies wobble and drift with the loop instead of anchoring it. It is the opposite of the current default, and it’s what gives the record its seasick forward motion.
The Spatial Dynamics: Keyes catalogued the sources — vintage Cambodian psych, Ethio-jazz, vaporwave-ish hold music — and the key observation is that all of it is given a blurred, wobbly focus. Nothing is cleaned up. Tape warble and pitch instability are left in as rhythmic information, so the stereo field breathes in and out rather than holding still.
Standout Performance
Hooks as an editor of his own voice. Keyes describes the rapping as free-wheeling, delivered in rushed, isolated bursts, and compares it to D.C.’s Ankhlejohn. The verses arrive, say their business and vanish, often leaving the loop alone for a bar or two. Restraint, from a rapper, is a performance choice.
Why It’s Certified
“The Task At Hand” was Keyes’s pick and it’s the clearest statement of method. Elsewhere the sequencing does a lot of work: “QuickCommercialBreak” and “Kumite Interlude” are palate-cleansers rather than filler, and “All We Got Is Us” is the emotional centre. Fair warning on the evidence — Bandcamp Daily is so far the only outlet to have written this up at length. We’re calling it early and we’re comfortable doing so. Certified great.