Mathew Johnson – automation

Honourary Rebel Mathew Jonson will soon be unleashing his long-awaited second artist album on Crosstown Rebels but first a slice of the Canadian minimal house pioneer’s inimitable style with two tracks of distinct tonal contrast both with the unique stamp of a Jonson production.

Killer A-side ‘Automaton’ is a powerful trip with a solid yet nuanced drive, intricate tribal beats with an almost syncopated African influence combined with gnarled bass sequences in a never-ending groove.

B-side ‘In The Stars’ enters a more abstract realm, with celestial synth melodies melting into a sound bed of futuristic bleeps and a soporific groove of percussion and a heavy bass beat.  In the breaks, vague jazzy chords fuse with an echoing voice descending from space.

The Mathew Jonson sound is instantly recognizable. Rhythmically complex and with a truly timeless fluid style, Jonson has a propensity for epic, dark and dynamic sound scapes that leave a dancefloor helplessly enthralled. Canadian born but residing in Berlin for the past decade, Jonson is widely considered a figurehead in the minimal house and techno surge of the early 2000s. Also part of the ground-breaking live techno project Cobblestone Jazz, Jonson is part- founder of the illustrious Wagon Repair imprint as well as his own Itiswhatisis  Recordings and has appeared on heavyweight labels such as M_nus and Perlon. ‘Automaton’, Jonson’s second release on Crosstown Rebels after the runaway success of ‘Dayz’ in 2012, is a precursor to the hotly anticipated forthcoming album ‘Her Blurry Pictures’ – due on the label in June 2013.

 more info:

soundcloud/mathew-jonson

Crosstown Rebels