BnB Review: Matthew Dear - Black City

Written by Youri Jozee

DJ/producer and co-founder of the Ghostly International and Spectral Sound labels Matthew Dear presents Black City, his fourth album. Again, the NYC-based multitalent further expands his musical playground but the big question here of course is if Dear’s experiments are worth your time, money and attention.

Praiseworthy as it may seem, countless artists who turn to covering a wide variety of personal favorite genres more than once end up releasing, well, crap. Pretentiousness or just incapability, if we had  a nickel for every time we heard a tune produced by an artist who thought it 'would be an artistic challenge to take things to another level' we could have spend the rest of our lives wiping our asses with 100 dollar bills. However, some artist do have the Midas Touch, and Matt’s definitely one of them. He has released countless amazing tunes under a variety of monikers such as Audion (minimal house, best known for the anthemic Mouth To Mouth), and False, whilst his own productions are generally much more eclectic and experimental. 

2010 a.d. Black City is Matthew’s fourth artist album and has become a release on which the artist continues to push the envelope in terms of blending genres and the art of experimenting. Generally, the album can be labeled as a dark, atmospheric and somewhat strange mix of nu-disco, jazz, (electro)pop and psychedelic er…  dubpoprock, by lack of a better definition. Be warned though: this is not an easy album to listen to. Although Matthew never made music for the masses, the album as a whole may sound very sloppy, unbalanced and incomprehensive at first, but a closer study will eventually reveal the album's merit in the form of thought out song structures, nifty effecting and musical fusing. Opening track Honey is a mellow yet hauntingly moody, sort of jazzy tune with dubby vocals and deep analog bass, while I Can’t Feel is best described as a very odd electronic dub reggae tune along the lines of Jay Haze and Damian Lazarus most experimental productions.

Little People (Black City) is a shameless take on glam disco of which the rhythm is rough and rocky while the synths –balancing on the thin line between cheesy and acceptable - add a nice melodic twist. The second half of this one is the business, as the tune transforms into an awesome club track shrouded in hazy fx.
Although each tune seems to contain vocal contributions from just one vocalist, the album as a whole keeps on sounding very diverse and dynamic throughout its entire duration. The slow moving You Put A Smell On Me –an album highlight- merges industrial synthesizers to looped drums and chilled vocals, adding a very dirty electro twist to the overall. Even on the most experimental tunes on the album such as Monkey, Matthew stays firmly in control and manages to squeeze out the one intriguing idea after the other.

Our verdict:
Black City’s sound has already been described as ‘the shadowy side of urban life’, which indeed is a fitting definition for this album. Its concept is that catching the vibe of a metropolitan city around midnight when alley cats of all kinds roam the streets in search of adventure and sin. This mindset is extracted, reworked and transformed, resulting in a daring mix of dirty, dark, and very unorthodox content. As said before the album is not easy on the ears but if you’re up for a bumpy ride then this LP’s atmosphere, overall production and continuous shape shifting will get under your skin in no time.

Rating: 8.5/10
Label: Ghostly International
Release date: August 16th, 2010

Tracklist:
1. Honey
2. I Can’t Feel
3. Little People (Black City)
4. Slowdance
5. Soil To Seed
6. You Put A Spell On Me
7. Shortwave
8. Monkey
9. More Surgery
10. Gem

 

Matthew Dear - Black City Teaser from Ghostly International on Vimeo.

← Trax Records House Classics Get The Edit		Podcast: My Favorite Robot →

Tweet