Many years ago, before participation trophies were a thing, my high school had a horrible caste system in place that divided pupils according to their mathematics aptitudes: regular joes ended up taking the subject at ‘Standard Grade,’ jocks and other primates landed up in ‘lower grade’ and finally, the Elon Musks of the future (he and I were at the same school, BTW) went to ‘Higher Grade.’ As barbaric as the system sounds in contemporary terms, it did give me a useful descriptor for intellectually engaging and technically inspiring artistic and creative practices, however – and K6999ROMA:EP, the latest record from avant-popster Nick Hudson is one hundred percent Higher Grade music. A quick look at “The Ballad of K69996 Roma” and its accompanying video (where Hudson and co-conspirator Kian...