- Vancouver's Mood Hut crew have proven themselves to be highly dependable purveyors of good vibes. Theirs is a house music suffused with warmth and contentment, a fact amply demonstrated by Pender Street Steppers, perhaps the collective's finest export. The latest Mood Hut single sees one half of that duo, Jack Jutson, strike out on his own. It's not his first solo outing—back in the label's cassette-only days he released a pair of blissful ambient anthologies titled Mother Official, showing a knack for the sort of cloudlike textures that will turn any room into an oasis of calm. His latest, though, is much more animated, rummaging through the dance music canon for inspiration.
Jutson turns out to be a consummate rummager. Opener "Looking Forward To You" is a thick soup of vintage-dance reference points. Its mooching bassline and roomy drums recall the early '80s disco-punk of James White And The Blacks; its sensuous low-budget monologue could be cribbed from early house music; the sun-dappled guitar licks are pure yacht rock. The combination is utterly irresistible. "Take It 2 The Edge" is a little punchier, but any roughness is leavened by the muffled background chat, which sounds as if a mic has been left on in the studio and Jack is happily humming along. The B-side is given over to "Something (On My Mind)," a breezy deep house number that rolls on and on for ten-odd minutes. A bit of languid sax here, a brief breakdown there—hardly anything happens, but the cumulative effect is extremely therapeutic. Jutson might not be making ambient music any more, but his goals don't seem to have changed a jot.
TracklistA1 Looking Forward To You
A2 Take It To The Edge
B2 Something (On My Mind)