- Henrik Jonsson makes an unexpectedly lucid return to the dance floor.
- Over the past few years, the music Henrik Jonsson has released as Porn Sword Tobacco has sipped towards the outer fringes of electronic music. Working solo and alongside collaborators like SVN and DJ Fett Burger, the Swedish producer has been following the contrails of dub and downtempo from his appropriately named Pstudion. And while those stoned experiments have been excellent, I'm sure I'm not alone in missing the guy who turned out one of 2015's catchiest house numbers. That's why Workshop 31 hits just right. Following up on Willow's excellent record last year, Jonsson's Workshop debut takes a similar dance floor tack. The EP features three of his crispest club tracks to date, alongside some of his usual tripped out hardware jams.
The record wiggles from the word go. Opener "Take One" lets loose with an infectious drum loop laid under a bassline that Jonsson EQs like he's squeezing the final bit of toothpaste from the tube. Across its 12-minute run time, it reaches anthem levels somewhere between the sci-fi exuberance of Dude Energy's "Renee Running" and the cerebral funk of DJ Sotofett's "Currents 82." If "Take One" channels Jonsson's housey side, "Open Air" (despite its summertime name) is his take on brooding techno, with a plucked bassline and echoey claps brooding under the chirping synths. "Clouds In Paradise" has some modular short-circuiting clouding the frequencies, but it still has a bouncy Balearic groove that keeps it floor-focused.
The remainder of the album meanders closer to the type of material he's been perfecting on his Live At Pstudion series. Of this bunch, "Tati" is particularly memorable—the fuzzy big band melody is like an I Love Lucy signal picked up from a spaceship. That said, that these more experimental tracks feel tossed-off compared to the three dance floor tunes. They aren't bad, not by a longshot, but for all the bleeps and blops on the album, the highlights are watching Jonsson return to house and techno with a vengeance.
Tracklist01. Take One
02. Choices In Paradise
03. Limbic Soirée
04. Open Air
05. Tati
06. Enantiodromia (Summer Of 2020 Mix)