- Partners both inside and outside the studio, Matthew Burton and Kate Rathod have been collaborating for a couple of years now; they first joined forces on record in 2010, with a cut for Jay Shepheard's Retrofit label, and in the interim, they recorded a podcast for RA and a single for Organic Art Movement. Their new EP for Visionquest is their fullest offering yet. It's tempting to say that you can hear Visionquest's influence on the record: lush and buoyant, it's dreamier than anything the duo (or Burton solo) has recorded before, very much in keeping with the sun-kissed aesthetic of Visionquest tracks like Dinky's "Teka" and Merveille & Crosson's "Orca."
Last year, the couple told RA that Burton tends to focus on grooves and Rathod on the harmonic and melodic dimension, and you can hear that division of labor on "Warehouse Fool," where a dry machine rhythm bumps along beneath airy pads and Rathod's distant voice, wrapped in reverb; chirping oscillators and dubby effects fill in the space between the two planes. It's a remarkably simple track, sketching a voluminous shape with the barest of materials. "New Funk" is tougher, with a jacking, rolling machine groove and a hint of a funk bassline, but floating pads and nimble bleeps keep it feeling headily ethereal. "Flip Reverse Girl" comes closest to Burton's solo work, with his heavily reverbed voice muttering sleazy nothings over a relaxed electro groove. It's the least substantial of the record's cuts, but it still displays the duo's facility with sneaky, wriggly grooves and tones that are at once sensual and slightly unsettling.
Tracklist A Warehouse Fool
B1 New Funk
B2 Flip Reverse Girl