textura

Albums
17 Pygmies
Ælab
Aeroc
Adrian Aniol
Aleph
Artificial Memory Trace
B. Schizophonic / Onodera
Blue Fields
The Boats
Canyons of Static
Celer
drog_A_tek
Fennesz + Sakamoto
Marcus Fischer
Les Fragments de la Nuit
Daniel Thomas Freeman
From the Mouth of the Sun
Goth-Trad
Karol Gwózdz
Mark Harris
Inverz
Kingbastard
Tatsuro Kojima
Robert Lippok
Maps and Diagrams
Merzouga
Message To Bears
mpld
The New Law
Nuojuva
Octave One
Petrels
Puresque
Refractor
Lasse-Marc Riek
Jim Rivers
Dennis Rollins
Scuba
Shigeto
Susurrus
Jason Urick
VVV
Williamette
Windy & Carl
Zomes

Compilations / Mixes
DJ-Kicks: The Exclusives
Future Disco Volume 5
King Deluxe Year One
Phonography Meeting
Pop Ambient 2012

EPs
Blixaboy
Matthew Dear
Fovea Hex
Jacksonville
Kurzwellen 0
Phasen
Pascal Savy

Matthew Dear: Headcage
Ghostly International

Stasis equals death—that would seem to be Matthew Dear's credo. A year on from 2010's Black City album, the four-track EP Headcage suggests that the NY-based producer has already moved on, something we'll more clearly know when his upcoming Beams full-length arrives. The EP's material finds Dear understandably distancing himself not only from the work he's issued under the Audion and False aliases but also the material he's released under his birth name. In short, Headcage is far removed from the clubby melodic techno style documented on 2003's long-ago Leave Luck to Heaven and hook-heavy cuts like “Dog Days,” and that's as it should be, as he presumably sees little point in repeating himself. Listening to Dear's music, I can't help but hear “When I have nothing to say, my lips are sealed / Say something once, why say it again?” from Talking Heads' “Psycho Killer” echoing in my head.

Co-produced by Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid (a Swedish partnership known for their work on Blonde Redhead's Penny Sparkle and Fever Ray's self-titled disc, among others), the title cut provides a trippy way into the release, with whispered clusters of Dear's voice acting as arresting scenery for the lead vocal's low-pitched croak (of course, the line “Let's go have fun tonight” can't help but call to mind—like it or not—Wang Chung's 1986 hit “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”). Dear's openness to new directions is most fully exemplified by “In The Middle (I Met You There),” a slinky slice of neon-lit electro-pop that undergirds a lead vocal by Jonny Pierce (of Brooklyn outfit The Drums) with Dear's familiar baritone, while “Street Song” opts for woozy reverie and an equally liquified vocal treatment. Oddly enough, the new tracks suggest that the Heads' one-time svengali Brian Eno might be an inspired production partner for some future Dear project, especially when the EP's voodoo-tinged final track, the diseased incantation “Around A Fountain,” doesn't sound all that different from the kind of thing Eno himself might create were he so inclined.

February 2012