Peter Matson is a Brooklyn-based deejay/producer/multi-instrumentalist best known for his work with the group Underground System. In 2019, he stepped out as a solo artist to drop Short Trips EP on Bastard Jazz. Now he’s making his return to the label with another EP, The Right Way.

For this EP, Matson is taking us back to the early ‘80s, finding that sweet spot when disco was giving way to electro-boogie, house, and more. For the opening track, “Call and Answer,” Matson enlists the help of British Afro-funk group Ibibio Sound Machine, and the result is just a fantastic and engrossing dance track that will have you up out of your seat and dancing before you realize it. The combination of synths, drum machines, live horns, and vocals just provide such a perfect mix of elements where everything meets to serve the groove. As with any good dance track, Matson knows how to establish a great hypnotic groove, but he also knows that the key is to then keep your elements always in motion, evolving slowly so that it’s not always drawing your attention, but enough that your ears never grow tired of the groove. This particular track is strong enough as a single that Matson is able to sequence the EP to immediately follow it up with a remix, and then add the instrumental version of the remix as the last track, and it somehow doesn’t end up feeling like filler, and the flow maintains over the course of all six tracks. On the title track, Matson moves slightly in the direction of synth pop and house, channeling a bit of Giorgio Moroder in the process, again making for a song that just sounds like a sweaty dance floor. To round things out, we go further in the electro-boogie direction with “PB (Ça Va),” with this wide open, fat groove providing the foundation of the track, and then letting these synths and vocal samples swirl above your head.

It’s a short project on paper, but The Right Way is such a compelling and hypnotic dance project, with long, developed compositions, you’ll be too busy dancing to notice the length until it’s over. Matson demonstrates himself to be a really talented dance producer with this project, and if you didn’t already know it, now you have no excuse.