Album Review: Beams - Matthew Dear

Beams continues the divergent course started by Matthew Dear's last two albums. His approach to musical production (seemingly try anything once) and his lyrical stream-of-consciousness style calls to mind Brian Eno's warm and complex electronic experiments.

Compared to Black City this feels like an even more experimental album. Where the last album was knitted together in Dear's exploration of a defined concept - nighttime urban sprawl and adventures within it - Beams is defined by no such boundaries. Each track feels like it is of its own moment, born solely through Dear's requirement to create.

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​Beams - Matthew Dear

The album opens with the dense and progressive 'Her Fantasy' and it immediately feels like a transformation - more complex, uplifting and intense than anything we have heard from Dear before. Each track inhabits its own, so on the other end of the spectrum is 'Shake Me', a cavernous, introspective song with slow, layered drum beats and partially obscured piano.

It isn't just the music that shifts on this record either. Where Black City's lyrics were autobiographical through a lens of the creator's own construction - see the twisted dark heart of 'You Put A Smell On Me' - Beams is true stream of consciousness stuff. At times it is as though feelings were felt and immediately laid down in vocal form without passing through consciousness.

There are slightly more coherent moments - 'Fighting Is Futile' is a documentary of Dear's own (hell, everyone's?) tendency to fall head over heels with a single other person at the expense of anything else. But on 'Headcage' pinning any meaning down seems impossible, just fragments of ideas ("I don't want a new life", ”Your momma won't care if you stay out tonight") that seem to praise some hedonistic ideal.

Matthew Dear's music has never been about lyrical depth, though one suspects there is a significant cryptic meaning behind much of what is here, so the opaque nature of the lyrics isn't a significant barrier to enjoyment. Beams sustains most of the disparate themes thrown at it without letting the listener question too much. The only downside is that there is nothing quite as transparent and touching as Black City's 'Gem' or Asa Breed's 'Don & Sherri'.

Ultimately Dear as a music maker is as strong as ever - the chugging rock rhythms and distorted vocal chorus of 'Earthforms' and the complex drum patterns and creative sample based melodies of 'Ahead of Myself' showcase some of his best work. Fans of electronic music have much here to love and Matthew Dear remains an captivating inventor of sound.

Beams is out now through Ghostly International, available from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affiliate links].​

EP Review: DRM PT 2 - Merveille & Crosson

​DRM PT 2 follows up on last year's DRM on this vinyl only sampler of Merveille & Crosson's forthcoming album. I hadn't heard DRM prior to this and whilst Visionquest, the label behind this release, undoubtedly have one of the best track records around at present I was still a little floored by this release.

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​DRM PT2 - Merveille & Crosson

The EP is made up of three tracks but there is little direct connection between them aside from their relative proximity on this EP. 'Again & Again' starts as an experimental IDM track - a rounded, bumpy bassline and snatches of clattering background noise gently coalesce, but it is the random shafts of freeform jazz, courtesy of Greg Paulus on trumpet, and vocal snippets that transform this track. Things move towards impossible-to-dance-to and then, fairly rapidly, back again. It's an infectious eight-minutes precisely because of it's intelligence - there is just such a freshness in the noise.

'At The Seams' still feels like jazz music, but now mostly of the modern-piano variety. Soft electronic keys form a delicious background melody to harsh, intense analogue ones. Female vocals come from Banana Lazuli provides vocals, hidden and bruised, that dance in and out of melodies that seemingly extrapolate their course in front of our eyes. There is no beat here and more is one needed.

Final track 'Pending' is the most percussive here, layer upon layer of melody, white noise and drum beat building, turning and gradually falling out of range. A piano, played by Kate Simko, once again marks out the foreground melody but there is as much behind the scenes to enjoy. The non-linear progressions feel distinctly Eastern in origin and the jazz styling remain.

DRM PT 2 is clearly aimed at the high-brow and that will alienate some, but if it's an EP of jazz and electronic music that impresses if you give it the space. A fantastic introduction to Mervielle & Crosson's forthcoming album.

DRM PT2 is released through Visionquest on 17 September.​

EP Review: Black Shoes White Socks - Freaks

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​Black Shoes White Socks - Freaks

​Freaks is the creation of Luke Solomon and Justin Harris and their creds pretty much read as a who's who list... They have remixed Pulp (yay!), Damon Albarn (good!) and Kasabian (hmmm...) and seen support from The Chemical Brothers, Damian Lazarus, Laurent Garnier and Ewan Pearson amongst others.

That's an impressive list... if lists are your thing. It's also pretty varied, so it's perhaps not too surprising that Freaks' new single, 'Black Shoes White Socks', is just a little bit difficult to pigeon hole. There is a definite Arabian flavour to the swaying melodies and catchy bassline but the extroverted keys and overall production are more than just a little bit disco. Purring vocals tell a tale of music and bands and... Waiting for something. But it all seems a bit too much to me - rather like the actual fashion statement of black shoes with white socks, there is just too much going on.

As if to compensate for this we have a total of four remixes... Enough that surely one should stick. Only sadly none do. Darius Syrossian layers the vocal in heavy drums and a tough four-four bass but it comes off lacking, the vocals not meshing with the sound. The wAFF mix is more successful, a distillation of the original that feels more focused. Even Cajmere, pseudonym of bonkers techno genius Green Velvet, struggles with the material. He settles on a single loop bass line and chopped vocals - the highlight being the use of the Arabian flute as a solo.

Curiously the digital release features a dub from Freaks themselves and stripped of the vocal it suddenly makes more sense - Indian summers, piña coladas - a clash of styles, an Eastern summer disco record with that nice Arabian Flute.

It's a misstep for Hot Creations then, a label usually synonymous with a little more.

Black Shoes White Socks is released tomorrow through Hot Creations.​

EP Review: Lunatic Fringe - Lee Curtis

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Lunatic Fringe - Lee Curtis​

Curtis' new release on Visionquest is due for release next week and on it he embraces his sleazy side, creating a selection of three tracks that at times push hard against the boundaries of taste and decency. But that's probably the point... Just be warned that if you don't like pussy you may want to give this one a miss.

A-side 'Body Twitch' is the source of a lot of male libido but when Curtis isn't threatening to make your lady-parts twitch or "working like we're making kids" the track itself is a sweaty, heavy work horse. The deep vocals are almost a distraction from the booming synthesiser that wobbles with acid and lustful ambition whilst a simple drum pattern caps it off. It feels like Curtis is going for crossover appeal here - the lyrics are slightly obvious but the track is carved out of pop gold, as influenced by hip-hop as house or techno.

'Freaks' is a bit less intense on the lyrics front and a little more conventional in its production style. There is still a vocal in place, the sound of deranged dance floor desperation, but it is less overtly confrontational. The music is less immediate - electronic sound waves rush forward whenever the song picks out the melodies that signify the break but there is still a dirty sounding beat-orientated sound to the whole track.

Final track 'Haters' is reminiscent of Curtis' brilliant 'Candy' from last year. The track layers big synthesisers to create giant swaths of ambient noise and gradually building distortion. It isn't as outwardly optimistic as 'Candy' however, infected by the darkly distorted worldview peddled by the rest of Lumatic Fringe to make a swirling whirlwind of mildly psychedelic techno.

Lunatic Fringe is released on 10 September through Visionquest​

EP Review: Werewolf EP - Rework

​Five years have passed since Rework's last release but this new EP for Parisian label Meant sees them pick up more or less where they left off. They are probably best remembered for their releases through Playhouse that straddled the divide between electro-cool and techno exemplified on 2007's 'Love Love Love Yeah'.

Rework's return is slinky and effortlessly cool. Like a high class sordid Euro techno road trip on spring break, this is an EP with its sights set of the dark arts of seduction - warm, analogue bass and clipped drum patterns create an intensely close experience.

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Werewolf - Rework​

The EP's title track starts with a slow build that takes more than half the track's duration to reach a climatic acid crescendo and it is from here that the track proper begins. A mélange of Electroclash style unaffected vocals and a bassline with a swagger 'Werewolf' oozes cool. An impressive feat after five years off. Magda turns in a remix that may not quite have the same punch but creates a sharp edge with a throbbing bassline strumming away in the background and plenty of reverb. 

'Touch Yourself' retains the chic European vibe but whilst the looping vocals echo around your head it is the electro inspired bassline that proves irresistible, providing the foundation to a series of shuffling layers of beat foreplay. The Remain remix feels like a much loser, dub-influenced take - crisp hand clap and fuzzy chords provide a sharp contrast to that bassline. It's a druggy trip and the headstrong intensity marks it out as a highlight on this release.

The digital release also comes backed with bonus track 'That I Like'. In comparison to the two main tracks that make up the release it is a less glamorous and ultimately less exciting offering, a mishmash of vocal cuts and looped beats. That slight unnecessary misstep to one side The Werewolf is hard to resist.

The Werewolf EP is released on 10th September on 12" and MP3, both through Meant. You can pre-order the digital release on Amazon here [affiliate link].