- A jazz-tinged EP with a strange allure.
- A "third space" refers to a fusion of physical and remote spaces where people can "hang out" virtually—think message boards or online multiplayer games. The latest EP on Mood Hut was inspired by a digital painting of a house, which evoked similar ideas. Third Space comes with a link to an actual third space, Casa De Haiku, based on the painting and environments where the EP was recorded, where you can walk around, play with instruments and interact with furniture. (The single's artwork is also displayed as a rug on the floor.) The house is clean and vaguely modern, with a structure that blurs the boundaries between rooms and floors, comfortable and slightly trippy. This style informs the duo's second EP as People Plus, a 32-minute 12-inch of smooth jazz fusion, trip-hop and house that's as uncanny as the duo's virtual studio.
Veering from ambling house ("Ascension") to downtempo jazz ("Journey To Being"), People Plus borrow ideas from Canada's rich history of synth-drenched jazz fusion, such as Dale Jacobs' Cobra, a 1978 LP from Vancouver that helped inform the Mood Hut sound. "O.S.C. 1" features cool-blue electric piano and complex chord changes, while the nine-minute "Jungle Room" sounds like a bar band in James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual universe. Letting the EP wash over you is a bit like exploring the virtual Casa De Haiku for a little too long: absorbing, alluring and oddly pleasant.
TracklistA1 Third Space
A2 Ascension
B1 Jungle Room
B2 O.S.C. 1
B3 Journey To Being