Mushroom Buttons: Pushing The Right Buttons

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  25 Nov 2011 in Detonate

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You might remember him as Phrozt from our 2008 Cool List but he’d rather have you forget his hip hop past. Jason Chee aka Mushroom Buttons belongs in the same category as another beatmaker with the same first name, Nosaj Thing – midi pad-armed and experimental without seeming pretentious.

Mushroom Buttons – You Would Never Ask Me Why by Mushroom Buttons

Musically informed by a whole taxonomy of alt-hip hop producers, from forgotten names like Prefuse 73, perennial favourite El-P to a slew of LA’s Low End Theory alumni, his music is difficult to pinpoint much like the rest of the beat scene. While Jason trades genre labelling for a sound that owes reverence to glitch hop, 808s, bass-heavy beats, garage, and just about every electronic sound in general, you’d be wrong to assume he’s forgotten his hip hop roots.

With a production oeuvre that includes indie hip hop acts like The Rebel Scum, Jin Hackman, Sayla and SSK, his name has gotten around town despite still being an unknown. Again, like the rest of the beat scene, there’s still fondness for hip hop despite the need to stray away from the genre.

New track ‘You Would Never Ask Me Why’ exemplifies this best with its garage-esque sound that has an unmistakably hip hop discipline to the drums. If we didn’t know any better, we would mistake him for an Alpha Pup signee instead of a Petaling Jaya cat.

Push the play button at soundcloud.com/mushroom-buttons.