Mathew Jonson’s EPs don’t contain tracks so much as the blueprint for an evolving arrangement, one that’s only completed once it’s de/re-constructed in his own scorching live sets. He’s one of the few “producers” who, like the blues greats, have to be seen live to be understood properly. If his earlier work blissed out or brooded away on its own beautiful arpeggiating melodies, recent EPs have seen him return to the low-end party with bells on. “Automatic,” very much like “Zombie Bikers” before it, sounds like Zapp and Roger on mushrooms in the sunshine, or maybe Jonson hallucinating about seeing Zapp and Roger in the sunshine, while on mushrooms (ahem). It’s the B side that deserves your hard earned fungi though; it’s a massive expanse (a veritable Jonsonscape) of swirling drums and revolving grooves, turning and turning in and out of itself for nearly twelve minutes, only exhausting itself right toward the very end as it dissipates into the past, like the clouded memories of a hedonistic weekend.

Wagon Repair / WAG 016
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[Peter Chambers]