- Porn Sword Tobacco makes music far more serious than his name would suggest. After first appearing as Stress Assassin and Swayze Dub at the beginning of the '00s, the Swedish producer, real name Henrik Jonsson, debuted his current nom de guerre with a string of experimental albums for City Centre Offices, a now shuttered Manchester label co-founded by Shlom Sviri of Boomkat and Modern Love. Since 2009 or so, Jonsson's been crafting lean and spacey club cuts on his own and with others, namely SUED label boss SVN or Joel Alter as Jonsson/Alter. Magnifik Botanik, his latest double-pack on Aniara, is the most thorough exploration yet of his elegant and understated techno.
Magnifik Botanik collects five tracks recorded between 2009 and 2014. We get a rare glimpse of Jonsson in party mode on "Kristallisering," a soaring bit of piano house with a snappy electro beat. But this is the exception rather than the norm: the other four productions are long, subtle and evocative, each one painting its own shadowy landscape. "Magnifik Botanik" races along at 129 BPM, but with a hushed, soothing quality, as if coasting through a fog at night. "Enkel Disko För Hand" has a misty atmosphere as well, lit ever so slightly by the flickering glow of an organ. "Vildvuxen Galax," a collaboration with SVN, is armed with thick dub techno chords and kick drums like carved marble, but still maintains the record's dreamy mood. Only "Jobbet," a somber bit of a Detroit-style deep house, starts to feel a bit drawn out over the course of its nine minutes, though it, too, conjures a vivid space that pulls you in.
TracklistA1 Magnifik Botanik
B1 Vildvuxen Galax
C1 Jobbet
D1 Kristallisering
D2 Enkel Disko För Hand