For weeks you’ve been wondering one question; how the hell did Jonus Eric make his latest EP Pentagon Palette? Don’t worry, Happy’s got you covered.
It’s a well-worn cliche in music journalism to say that a song or record takes the listener on a journey. However, in the case of Jonus Eric’s latest EP, the artist transports you to another dimension, whether you want to or not. Pentagon Palette is a crystallised universe of jungle tones, echoing in rich house-flavours.
Lush, dense, and completely unexpected, the Australian producer’s work is nothing short of visionary. Fresh off the release, we caught up with Eric himself to break down the world created in Pentagon Palette, track by track for your convenience.
The Cult
The Cult had an interesting production cycle to it. For the original demo, I started off by producing a simple loop that was unintentionally hip-hop orientated, which was very different to anything related to the final track. I worked on that idea for a few days and found that I was no longer interested in pursuing that direction. I then decided to repurpose it into a new piece that was closer to filter house, in terms of sound. I was also listening heavily to Four Tet and Burial during the production process and felt like their sound made a small impression into the ideas that seeped into the final track. The best elements from the old demo, however, did make an appearance in the final version, which gave the track an overall experimental sound.
Collect
When production on Collect started, I had just purchased a field recorder. I really wanted to try and experiment with it and see how I could incorporate it into my productions. Close to 90% of the percussion-based elements used in the track are micro cuts of recordings using items I had in my home (hitting wood planks, tapping pots, beeps from household items, etc.). To give those elements a bit more backbone, they were tagged alongside a few drum machine elements. My original plan was to create a piece that was more on the gentle and ambient side of the spectrum from start to finish, but I found myself experimenting way more than I anticipated. The second half of the track evolves into something that’s more chaotic and in your face.
Mirrors
Around the time that the idea of Mirrors came up, I was experimenting with recording short vocal harmonies of myself and wanted to build an idea off of that. I was listening to a lot of Washed Out, so a lot of the vocal experimentation and the overall sound of the track was lightly inspired by his work. I found it was very difficult for me to create a structure for this track. I had originally created a simple loop of the original idea, I was so used to hearing it as a loop that I couldn’t imagine it as a full-fledged track. I then took a full month break from the idea, which allowed me to look at it from a different perspective. After that break, I found building a structure for it was much easier to pull off.
Emulator
The idea behind Emulator came about during a time when I was watching an unhealthy amount of Boiler Room TV [laughs]. This inspired me to create a track that not only had high energy but also had a club-like atmosphere built into it. I remember the original demo was just a basic loop of a simple drum sequence that I programmed with a bass melody and micro chopped vocal samples. However, the process of creating a stable structure for this track was incredibly tricky at first. So much so, that I made four different alternate structures for it. For the final version of Emulator, I took all the best elements and sections from the four versions that I had created and managed to build a track around them. The track itself has a lot of great variety packed into it, which is something that I’ve always liked about it.
Waterfalls
In late 2019, I DIY’ed a five-second loop cassette tape over one weekend for fun. I originally intended to create and record a short ambient five-second piece so it would non-stop loop over and over again for my own enjoyment [laughs].
However, once I started putting down notes, it eventually got to the point that I expanded into a full track idea instead of a simple piece for a tape loop experiment. The original version of the track included a small 808-style drum section after the ocean waves breakdown to add more rhythm after the midsection, but I decided it would be best to just keep it all melodic. I do however hope to release that alternate version in the near future.
YR Mind [Bonus Track]
YR Mind came together extremely quickly, the whole track was conceived in less than two hours. At the time, I had the urge to make something darker and industrial in terms of sound. The vocal phrase in the song is my voice down pitched: “I want to know what it feels like, to be inside your mind.” It was purposely recorded using a cheap microphone to give the song an even harsher growl.
I wasn’t taking myself too seriously whilst I was producing it as well, so a lot of non-traditional production methods were used during the process to make it sound more broken and raw.
Grab your copy of Pentagon Palette here.
