Young Montana?

Whilst passenger of a car driving through Oxford at 3am after a great set from DJ Synamatix, my friend Dave made the excellent point that the goddess Mary Anne Hobbs was currently on air, something which had shamefully slipped my mind. During the show there were brilliant tracks from established artists such as Flying Lotus and Alex B, but the highlight came surprisingly in the form of a mix produced by the unknown Young Montana?.

The mix was incredible, I wasn't sure if it was a substantial amount of Red Bull which had given me a kick into instantly liking the stuff, but the repeat in the morning assured me this was top quality music. Montana is an unsigned artist currently (surely not for too much longer after this mix), and Hobbs couldn't praise him enough, labelling Montana as her "favourite unsigned artist of 2010". You can listen to this mix at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wqb7, and if you're a fan of dubstep and electronica Mary Anne Hobbs experimental electronic show is a must, even if you have to stay up until 4am on a Thursday morning (2-4 am), she is bloody fantastic.

You can find 19 year old Jon Pritchard's tracks at both his myspace and soundcloud pages (http://www.myspace.com/youngmontanamusic, and http://soundcloud.com/young-montana). Look out in particular for the tracks, 'Sacre Cool', 'Bad.day' and 'Hot Heathrr, which are my favourites from the tracks he has produced as of yet. His sound is a mash-up of electronica and hip-hop, drawing slight comparisons with artists such as Hudson Mohawke and Bullion who are doing similar things in their work at present. Influences on his work include Madlib and the seemingly ever-present shadow of J Dilla, with the signature repetitive mashed beats and looped vocals a feature present throughout much of Montana's work to date.