Accomplished DJ, producer, vocalist and instrumentalist Matthew Dear gets tapped for the latest in the long running DJ-Kicks series! A man of many musical hats, Texas-born, Detroit-raised Dear has a wide-reaching discography that takes in techno as Jabberjaw, dark avant-pop under his own name and intricate minimal as Audion. Often with a gothic slant and full of curiousness, his pensive but playful music is an intoxicating distillation of many different influences, often with his own stylised vocals at the centre. As co-founder of both Ghostly International and Spectral Sound, Dear has also been responsible for some of the scene’s most exciting new music, plenty of which appears here. Now more than 15 years, five albums and 20 EPs into his career, Dear is exactly the sort of character that makes the very personal DJ-Kicks series so special. Included along the way are three brand new and exclusive cuts from Dear himself, one under his own name and two as Audion. They are typically weird and intriguing cuts that tie the whole unhinged and freaky mix together. Also helping to add to the left-of-centre afterparty vibe are inclusions by artists as diverse as Thatmanmonkz and Matrixxmann, ItaloJohnson and Pearson Sound, Randomer and Simian Mobile Disco. This pressing includes select tracks on unmixed double vinyl with mixed CD version included.

• unmixed double vinyl
• mixed CD version included
• gatefold sleeve
• music label: Studio !K7 2017

reviewed by Studio !K7 02/2017