Long a go-to guy for some of music’s most maverick talents, Jason “Gonzales” Beck has ties to everyone from Juno sweeper Feist to electronica gods Daft Punk. No shrinking violet himself, over the past decade Gonzales has been an indie rocker in Toronto, a Jewish-Canadian hip-hop MC in Berlin, and a master of mellow in France, his current country of residence. Things have gotten even smoother with the vanguard pop and dance tracks on his new album, Soft Power, released by Arts & Crafts. Here, in honour of Gonzales’ overdue reintroduction to hometown listeners, a circle game of the rarefied company he keeps.