Matt Black is not just the Detroit producer better known as Peace To Mateo, he’s also the founder of the record label Young Heavy Souls. While the label has been releasing albums at a steady pace, with recent efforts from Norty and Vapor Eyes, Peace To Mateo has been taking his time to get this album right. Now the time if finally here for Some Strange Reason.
Over the last two years, he’s abandoned his past style of sample-based production and worked up his first album of completely original productions, meaning that there is a lot of live instrumentation (from a lot of different artists), and then manipulation thereof. In doing so, Mateo has really developed each song into a fully formed composition that takes you on a journey and made an album that gives you a really complex listening experience as an instrumental album. There is an overall downtempo feel to the album, but the album is never just one thing. At one point, he might be working on a trip hop vibe, but then he might switch things up with some jungle or drum-and-bass elements, or maybe throw in some glitchy beats. The point is that Mateo is not just settling into one comfortable groove but working in multiple styles and bringing them all together in his own unique way. My personal favorite is “Court the Void,” which falls into this dubby Tommy Guerrero-esque guitar driven groove, played against a piano melody and saxophone counter melody for this really inviting groove that keeps cycling and developing at a steady pace, so that you never get comfortable to the point where you’re not paying attention.

Instrumental albums are difficult to pull off, because they take a lot of work to become more than beat tapes you can just nod your head to. Peace To Mateo clearly knows this by how much time he took to let his compositions grow and mature into these songs with depth and substance that keep you on your toes with your ears perked. Some Strange Reason was well worth the effort.