Earlier this month, Cyphon Recordings continued their run of form with a mini LP from Ewan Jansen—with six tracks of crisp, colourful, groove-heavy house and techno. Originating from Perth, Australia, Jansen cut his teeth in the early ’90s producing hardware-saturated house music using an Amiga 500 that his parents bought him for school assignments. Since 1997, he’s been curating Red Ember Records, a label that developed its own timeless signature deep house style with releases from Andrew Carpenter, Justin Zerbst, and Jansen himself. Jansen’s own sound is influenced by Detroit techno, dreamy house and melodic electronica, and he’s also put out records on Butter Sessions, Hardworksoftdrink, Going Good, and Freerange, while touring a live set. In 2020, he released Island Diary, his first album in 16 years. On Chroma Sea, his latest outing, and his much anticipated XLR8R podcast, recorded last month, he has delivered more of the same deep and heady club grooves.

01. What have you been up to recently?
For the last few months, I’ve been preoccupied with shedding possessions, paring down my studio, and shredding history as I prepare to move cities. After a European tour last year, I’ve been preparing some new live sets and made a bunch of music too. Lots of macro scheming and dreaming.

02. What have you been listening to?
A lot of ’90s techno and ambient and old organic trancey/electronica stuff. I’m kinda going back and discovering things that at the time I totally missed because I was only scraping the surface and frankly fixated with deep house. It has given me inspiration to get proper knob-twiddling again.

03. You’ve just put out a new EP. What can you tell us about it?
It’s kind of a rag-tag gang of tracks thrust together by random happenstance. Each one was written in a different alleyway of time, so it’s got a lot of different characters and Jimpster made a great selection. It’s my minimal take on agua-futurism, a moist but comfy dystopia for the dancefloor.

04. Where and when did you record this mix and what setup did you use?
It was recorded in the box recently in January on a home set.

05. How did you choose the tracks you’ve included?
I decided to mostly go for things I’m listening to right now. I recently crowd-sourced a collection of tracks with friends online and I call it the “Ambient Ambulance.” It’s been my Lynus blanket playlist for when I got overly anxious last year. So most of it is from there, interspersed with stuff from the EP.

06. Where do you imagine it being listened to?
You can listen to it ridin’. You can listen to it drivin’. Or, you can listen to it doin’ nothin’ at all.

07. What’s next on your horizon?
Well, I’ll be landing in Melbourne soon. Light on my feet, with two fresh live sets ready to go and keen to start a new life keeping music focussed centre. Tour planning for a July-August Europe trip has just started so I’ll be prepping for that, drinking lots of coffee, and making music with new friends.

XLR8R Subscribers can download the podcast below. If you’re not an XLR8R subscriber, you can read more about it and subscribe here.

Tracklisting

01. Quadrant “Synthetic Chord Battle” (Planet E)
02. P’Taah “Apricot” (Ubiquity)
03. Carl Craig “Suspiria” (Buzz)
04. Future Former “Orange Sphere” (Magnatune)
05. Wonderkind “Destiny Change” (Boxcar_s Kings-X Mix) (Festival Records)
06. Numbat “Amalgamate” (Baffling Noize)
07. S.T. “I Met a Girl With Butterfly Wings” (Monotonik)
08. Ewan Jansen “Surabaya” (Cyphon)
09. Shaolin Wooden Men “Rainy Taxi” (Psy-Harmonics)
10. Redeye “Ride With Aracknid” (after 6 am)
11. Ewan Jansen “Hydronexus” (Cyphon)
12. Ewan Jansen “Brinewave” (Cyphon)
13. Sandoz “Dark Continent” (Touch)
14. Sensorama “Kondens” (Ladomat 2000)
15. Ewan Jansen “Salt Circuit” (Cyphon)
16. Heavy Water “Anoesis” (D*Fusion Records)
17. FSOM “Welcome” (Candyline Records)
18. Subsurfing “The Number Readers” (Apollo)
19. Ewan Jansen “Cybercanisco” (Cyphon)
20. Ewan Jansen “Faulty Gelfling (Cyphon)