Maas
Ewan Pearson returns to the Soma label with "Small Change", a collection of his finest remix work as Maas and World Of Apples. On this album we are treated to the sonic spectrum of his production skills, from the chilled-out bliss of "Christian Zimmerman Presents: Diary of a Lost Girl" to the fantastic rework of Aaron Carl's "Crucified" and his dancefloor interpretation of Leftfield's "Dub Gusset".
Midlands-born Ewan Pearson has been making records since 1995. Following two breakbeat singles for Lee Fisher's Birmingham indie Bosting, ("Motorcade" as Villa America and Dirtbox's "The Reason") Ewan's love of house and techno saw him hook up with one of his favourite labels Soma, for his first critically-acclaimed Maas EP. By then Ewan had moved to London to read a Masters degree in philosophy and cultural studies. When this was completed it was back to music — a second EP (including the deep techno fave "Juan Is The Teacher"), followed by an album "Latitude", which yielded two more singles, the downbeat lushness of "Look At Me Now, Falling" (which featured two mixes from France's I:cube) and "Another Saturday Night" — a piece of funky disco house with inspired remixes from Swag and Nail.
Following the release of "Latitude" Ewan developed Maas as a live act. With over forty club and festival gigs around the UK and Europe he played at nights such as Slam, Bugged Out, The End, Laurent Garnier's residency at The Rex in Paris (one of only a handful of acts ever to play at this legendary night), and Berlin's Tresor. He also played at the Sonar, Benecassim and Roskilde festivals.
After returning to college in 1997 for an abortive first year of a PhD (including a semester as a lecturer in popular music at the University of East London), Ewan divided his time between gigs, remixing and co-writing a book on dance music. "Discographies" was written with Jeremy Gilbert for academic press with Routledge and was published in July 1999. Although he released no new material on Soma in the next two years, a low-key downbeat release as World Of Apples for Ideal's Giant 45 label became something of a cult success. Tracks such as "Travis" and "Fifteen Months" from the Chroma EP were still being played two years after its release, and his World Of Apples mix of Christian Zimmerman's "Diary of a Lost Girl" (also on Giant 45) was lauded by the likes of Phil Mison and Mixmaster Morris as "a modern chill-out classic". The second World Of Apples EP, "The Days Are Just Packed", was released to further acclaim in June 2000 with several press articles allying World Of Apples with the new wave of British chill-out acts such as Bent, Zero7 and Kinobe.
He also spent much of 1999 co-producing an album for singer-songwriter Jeb Loy Nichols. Born in Missouri but now resident in London, Jeb achieved critical if not commercial success in the U.S. in 1997 for his Capitol album "Lover's Knot". Only available in the U.K. on import, it nevertheless caught the attention of Geoff Travis who signed Jeb for a follow-up on the newly re-formed Rough Trade label. Recorded in the UK and Jamaica, "Just What Time It Is" was released in August 2000. The first single to be taken from the record, "Say Goodbye To Christopher", was co-written by Ewan and the Maas Disco Remix is featured on his remix compilation, "Small Change".
1999 also saw the first new Maas single for two years, "Powers of Ten", a tough piece of Chi-town dancefloor gear written specially for a live appearance at Barcelona's Merce festival. Backed up with a remix from labelmate Funk D'Void, Powers of Ten was played by DJ's such as Ralph Lawson, Jon Marsh, Ashley Beedle, DiY and Josh Wink.
Since the release of "Latitude" Ewan has also completed some 19 remixes for labels such as Sony, Beau Monde, F-Com, Sirkus, Versatile, and Grand Central amongst others. Soma's forthcoming compilation "Small Change" gathers together eleven of the best of these mixes on one CD, including tracks by Leftfield, Aaron Carl, Chaser and Count Zero.
January 2001 saw the release of Ewan's second Soma album, "Small Change". Bringing together some of the varied styles and sounds of his career so far, the album will also feature the first vocal tracks he's released, with some exciting collaborations.
