After the widely-acclaimed Asa Breed, Matthew Dear has taken his melding of cutting-edge electronic production and pop in a darker direction with a distinctly noirish new album, Black City.
It’s every inch the sequel to Asa Breed, but that album’s romantic wonder and bleary-eyed self-inspection has given way to an altogether more worldly, knowing and even paranoid sensibility. Doubtless Dear’s relocation New York has begun to leave its mark on his art. But despite the album’s palpable darkness, Dear displays a typical lightness of touch throughout – gothic, jazz-tinged opener ‘Honey’ sounds like a more limbre, luminous Tuxedomoon; ‘I Can’t Feel’ and ‘You Put A Smell On Me’ offset harsh industrial elements with a kind wriggly funk derived from Talking Heads, Arto Lindsay et al.
Sublime pop moments abound – twilight electro cut ‘Slowdance’ and the beatless ballad ‘Gem’ are particuarly ravishing – but what’s truly remarkable about Black City is its uncompromising weirdness and its depth. This is the sound of an artist resolutely not resting on his laurels, endeavouring to create something that will surprise and challenge not just his audience, but also himself. In an era where the genuinely adventurous and self-possessed pop artist feels like an endangered species, if not outright extinct, Matthew Dear and his Black City ought to be held up and cherished.
FACT interrupted Dear’s vacation in West Texas to find out more about what’s inspired his latest work, his secret desire to make a wall of noise record, and the difficulties of rehearsing in a heatwave.
“I guess I’m taking a bit more time to breathe and think about emotion…”
The new album’s called Black City, it’s got a black painted portrait of you on the sleeve and a darker sound than anything you’ve released as Matthew Dear before. Would it be fair to say you were experiencing some pretty dark emotions during the making of the album?
“Definitely more than I have in the past. I’m never in a totally dark state, but I think just the move to New York City and just experimenting a bit more with open space and sound rather than keeping things really upbeat. I noticed on the last album things are a bit fast and still up in tempo in contrast to Black City. I guess I’m taking a bit more time to breathe and think about emotion.”
It’s been three years since Asa Breed, does that mean a lot of material was discarded during the recording of Black City. What was your criterion for inclusion on the album – what were you looking for in tracks?
“There was definitely a lot of material since the last album. I think in that sense the new album shifted up and down a bit, you know it would always kind of change, depending on which songs were included. Yeah, there was a lot of material out there and I think it kind of started directing itself into a certain direction at some point to become what it became.”
“I’m just trying to do what I’ve always done since I was a 15-year old kid messing around with music in my basement.”
In terms of your working methods, have you done anything particularly different with this album compared to earlier albums?
“I think a lot of it has stayed the same, but I was getting more equipment: I borrowed some more synthesisers, was using different microphones and recording techniques with my voice, but primarily the song creation of just me sitting in the studio and working by myself in my room coming up with the music and then adding the lyrics, that stayed the same. I didn’t do any drastic location shifts or go to any studios to record anything, so in that sense the music stayed the same, but I think just learning a bit more and pushing my own sense of production to a different direction within itself has definitely changed.”
Black City seems even less tailored to the dancefloor than Asa Breed which is probably less tailored to the dancefloor than the first two albums. With the stuff you record as Matthew Dear are you consciously trying to attract an audience that maybe has never even heard of Audion, or False or Jabberjaw?
“It’s not an intentional choice to try to break into different genres or attract different people. I’ve always been doing this kind of music since day one, you know, and I’ve realised that my first records, they were dance-oriented and they were techno-based because that’s where I was at the time and that’s where I’m at now still – I mean I’m not saying that I won’t make club music any more, 12-inch vinyl-based dance music – it’s just there’s only so much you can release at one time.
“I’d love to have it all out all the time – the dance stuff, the pop stuff – but in terms of just focusing attention and me touring and promoting an album you have to stick with one outlet within the mall for one time. So right now I’m just focusing on that vocal-based stuff. I’m not really trying to get a different audience into it, I’m just trying to do what I’ve always done since I was a 15-year old kid messing around with music in my basement. Just trying to get out all the stuff that I can make, not just one side.”
Pages: 1 2
Pingback: Win a vinyl copy of Matthew Dear’s Black City – FACT magazine: music and art