Maya Jane Coles: Focus Now - 20:20 Vision

The Words of Terry Matthews @ 5 Magazine

It's pretty fashionable to slag on female DJs and producers (if you're denying this, you're either living under a rock or in a state of denial). You often hear snickering speculation about who it is that really makes their tracks and apocryphal stories about dull needles and bad sets. I don't know what it is, but no other subject can make bullet-headed record nerds titter like gossiping hags at a koffee klatch.

Maya Jane Coles has released several serious records on some equally serious labels, and 20:20 Vision is hardly a slouch, either. All she's done is release more good records by the age of 23 than many of her estrogenically-challenged peers have in twice the time, and the title track of this four song EP is another. Not as hooky as last year's "What They Say," it's still loaded for play with an addictive little synth sequence that loops with subtle variations over some extremely nontraditional (but danceable) percussion lines.

"Little One" is a gorgeous mini-masterpiece - a take on modern Deep House that really shows a sense of (yeah, seriously) songwriting you rarely hear in instrumental tracks anymore. It goes somewhere. I might even say it aspires to take you somewhere. And I'd conclude that unlike many tracks, it actually does.

"The High Life" wraps Focus Now with a curiously high-energy/slow-tempo vibe - the vocal snippets are packed with emotion, but overall it's decidedly for more of a chill-out time of night.

[ - Review by Terry Matthew / June 2011 - ]

Available: Released on May 16, 2011 on vinyl; available digitally worldwide on June 13, 2011 from Juno Download and iTunes.

Focus Now:

Little One:

Senseless:

The High Life: