monday moods: mathew jonson

tonight i suddenly got in a mathew jonson mood. if you don't know, you should: mathew jonson is from vancouver, canada and has been making some of the best 'minimal techno' in the world for about ten years. his tracks have dropped on labels like itiswhatitis, wagon repair (which he helps run) and probably most notably minus. using just a few percussive elements and an endlessly-looped melody or two, his tracks just keep going and going and going...

he plays an intense live set as well, according to my one experience seeing him jam out barely a dozen tracks over the course of three hours... enough jibber-jabber. a bunch of his music is on youtube, so i've selected a few of my own personal favorites. five tracks, 50 minutes:

'freedom engine' a nice relaxed jam to start off this survey. the other side of the vinyl is 'she is he,' also an excellent track that's sadly not on youtube. easily one of my all-time favorite records...

'marionette' classic - maybe his most well-known track. i'm pretty sure when i saw him play live, he let this one go for about twenty minutes.


'love letter to the enemy' this one is all about rapid-fire synth stabs and those deliciously blissed-out chords...


'symphony for the apocalypse' dark and dripping with psychedelia. incorrectly named on youtube - oh well.


'ball of light' i conclude with this, a particularly bright and shiny vision of the future.



there's plenty more of mathew jonson's material on youtube to check out. if you don't know, or even of you do know, do it to it!

monday night news/food for thought

i just enjoyed some soup and toast, and i've been reading some of this stuff:

sonar chicago
chicago heads, here's more information on this september's chicago version of spain's barcelona festival. looks like the main day events will go on at the chicago cultural center downtown. i'm really excited to learn more about the "experimental slant" of the weekend. smilecoldanatomy will secretly hope for a few favorites to make an appearance. *cough*monolake*shed*vladislav delay*cough*

juno plus interviews ben klock
check out this conversation with berghain/ostgut ton superman ben klock. very cool to see where he came from and where he's trying to go. this writer looks forward to ostgut's upcoming 5-year compilation, as well as klock's berghain 04 mix... and is still trying to forget about his heartbreaking detroit shut-down (more on that later).

FACT talks with regis
turn on a few sandwell district tracks and cozy up to this lengthy chat with karl o'connor, aka regis. the man has been making dark, visceral tracks for more than 15 years, and lately has helped grow sandwell district into one of the best techno labels in the world... his 'variance iv' is a punishingly cerebral work of art. worth your time, this one!

mathew jonson discusses his new album
read this interview with the wagon repair leader, on the heels of his solo album debut, agents of time. jonson sounds like a pretty groovy guru here, which makes sense given the trance-inducing nature of his music. from this chat, it sounds like he has a good grasp on how to work with the long-player format; i'm hoping for good things when i finally give agents of time a thorough listen.


and because i'm a huge fan of all things cosmic, i've been intrigued by these literary pieces of outer-space goodness:

hubble catches planet being devoured by its star

hints of life found on saturn moon

quantum teleportation achieved over 10 miles of free space

and in some final news for now, to any chicago north-siders out there: i'll be dj'ing at the morseland here in rogers park this wednesday night. i'm opening and only playing an hour or so but i have some fresh records to play out so i'll try to keep it deep. cheers!

mathew jonson to release debut LP in june!

one of the decade's shining stars in experimental electronic music, mathew jonson is set to release his debut LP, agents of time, on june 7!

jonson has made a BUNCH of music over the past ten years. starting primarily with records on the itiswhatitis label, the canadian producer has dropped bombs on labels like perlon and m-nus, before settling on wagon repair, which he co-founded. his style has focused on long tracks with hypnotic, slowly-evolving melodies. jonson's emphasis on repetition and subtlety was demonstrated when he came to town with his monstrous, hardware-heavy live set at smartbar earlier this year that pummeled the chicago crowd for nearly three hours.

for his first full-length effort, resident advisor is reporting that jonson will incorporate a variety of tempos and moods for agents of time, so this album will presumably have dance-floor bangers as well as more introspective headphone productions.

jonson's group collaboration on wagon repair, cobblestone jazz, has received a pretty average review on RA, but i am very, very excited to here what the man will unleash upon the world in a few months with agents of time.

for a sneak-peak, here's the only track already released from the album:

what's going on this week?

let's take a look at some live music that will be warming up our snowy city this week:

monday - 'rebel rave tour' @ boom boom room, green dolphin
some of the guys from the crosstown rebels label will be making a monday appearance here, after fellow rebel seth troxler's excellent showing last weekend. guests for what should be an intriguing night at green dolphin will be label boss damian lazarus and jamie jones. check the facebook event page for more info.

tuesday - daedelus & nosaj thing @ lincoln hall
an intriguing group of los angeles-based producers. expect daedelus to deliver nostalgic acoustic samples and frenetic drum loops via a monome and fancy suit, while nosaj thing should drop some slow, bass-heavy hip hop. fellow LA producer jogger and dj's from the local abstract science collective will also be making appearances. lincoln hall is a relatively new venue in lincoln park trying to build up some steam with lineups like this. more information at their website, and check out the event flyer here.

wednesday - 'heartbeat - palpitations' @ morseland
come check out my first dj appearance ever! i'll be workin' an opening set for slowerson, m50, and lokua, a group of dj's who run this weekly event at morseland, a small club here in rogers park. no cover and chill environs for some sophisticated dance music. i'm still not sure what i'll be spinning, but it will probably be something on the slower, sexier side of things to get rid of the post-valentines day blues...

friday - four tet & nathan fake @ empty bottle
a pair of UK producers touring the states together... four tet will be playing in support of his new LP; his set should be a slower, more melodic work of electronica, compared to nathan fake's more up-tempo dance-floor beats. the pair will be playing both an early and late show, so maybe you can make the trek afterward to see...

friday - mathew jonson (live) @ smartbar
mathew jonson has compiled an intriguing output of music over the past decade, producing tracks for perlon, m_nus, and wagon repair (his own label), among others, and he has a knack for getting the most out of repetitive yet slowly-evolving melodies and progressions. check out this recent track on wagon repair:

this friday, the smartbar soundsystem shall boom with the experimental stylings of mathew's live set, with local dj sassmouth supporting. reduced early admission, including a $5 holler before 11pm with smartbar's text message special. looking forward to this one!

saturday - klectik + souvenir birthday party @ vision
a bunch of dj's representing local label klectik as well as party people souvenir will take over vision's penthouse room in celebration of a few birthdays. manning the decks will be jason patrick & frederick zahm, birthday boys hernan sanchez and phil stone, and max jacobson. check this flyer for more information. it's a saturday night event at vision, so expect the music to go past 4am.

stay rested and fed, as we dance in hopes of warmer temperatures soon!