Matthew Dear Live Mixes October 2006

Matthew Dear, Live at Fabric (London) 7th Anniversary party October 21, 2006 (YSI link) (Sendspace link)

Matthew Dear and Ryan Elliot, Live at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) opening October 26, 2006 (YSI link) (Sendspace link)

There's been a change of plans. I think we may have to call this Michigan week, since Matthew Dear and the Ghostly International label call Ann Arbor home. I had a map of the state drawn for me on a napkin recently and so I'm positive these two aren't the same place. Plus, the whole week thing is kinda out of the water, since it's been like 10 days since I started looking at the the city's music. Since these posts were dedicated to JH-B and she isn't from Detroit proper, this makes it work a little better. Let's just call it a Detroit Fortnight and be done with it, semantics be damned!

Honestly though, I see Dear and crew has a part of Detroit's music history. It's hard to not think that Ghostly has picked up the Detroit techno ball the past 5 years and run it down the field. Dear, in particular, has been a one-man wrecking crew, dropping two new albums in 2007 under two aliases (Matthew Dear's Asa Breed & False's 2007), while his third one, Audion, killed it on the remix front. The man is also a pretty damn good DJ, someone who is able to walk the line between minimal techno and dancefloor accessibility.

Above are two live mixes, one from Dear (more than likely under the guise of Audion) and the other from Dear and fellow Ghostly Internationalist Ryan Elliott. Both come from October 2006. The solo Dear one comes from the 7th Anniversary party at legendary megaclub Fabric in London, a pretty good sign that the dude has made it big. The second one might be even cooler, as it was recorded at the opening night for the Musuem of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD). I know that MOCAD was a huge bright spot for the city in the midst of a lot of darkness, nice to see local stars kick things off.

These two mixes are great intros into Dear's different sounds. The MOCAD mix is the more accessible of the two, a funky house and techno mix, with some vocals tracks. It doesn't have the pop sensibility of his recent album by any means, but there's lots of rhythm, big basslines and jackin' drums to get you moving. The Fabric mix is a different story, an exploration of minimal techno. This means 90 minutes of bleeps and shuffles that slowly unfold; there's no big hooks or vocals or crazy synth freakouts. Don't be scurred, though. There's definitely a pulse to this that will keep you moving, Dear is not a minimal purist by any means. This may sound like one boring song, but give it a chance. Those little bleeps morph and move, my ears took two listens to adjust to the different sense of time. I hope that you will give it a chance, I think you may be surprised.