Pressed on marbled pink vinyl. Canada's Mathew Jonson has become one of the pre-eminent producers in electronic music today, creating some of the most influential tracks of the past few years both as a solo artist and as a founding member of the peerless musical trio, Cobblestone Jazz. This, his fifth solo release on his own label Wagon Repair, continues in the tradition of enterprise and experiment that we should expect from his Vancouver studio. This EP presents a series of firsts, with Mathew trying his hand at electro-pop for the first time, arranging a track for the first time on computer, and it sees his unaffected voice feature for the first time on a track. Opener 'Stop' offers the first of the firsts. This dreamy electro-pop odyssey is a half written, half improvised jam, recorded live while singing, playing the vocoder and mixing the track simultaneously. Synthesized rainfall descends on a squelched funk bassline, as free vocoded passages meander between phased percussion in a wondrously woven workout. The B-side 'Real Dreams' signals both the first time Mathew has arranged a track on a computer, and the first time his pure vocal has made it onto tape. A downtempo arrangement mixed live to stereo track, this murky and cathartic exploration was borne of realizing things about a past relationship, as descending harmonized melodies pulse contemplatively to a defiantly progressive beat. The shift of the creative process from live, physical creation to reflective computer editing is significant, and fitting to the prevalent mood of evaluation and reassessment. In combining these elements with Mathew's unsynthetic vocal, we present an intimate and explorative new dimension to his already enthralling repertoire.
