Matthew Dear has always stood a bit outside and above his peers. Whether producing pitch-black minimal techno as Audion (among other pseudonyms) or creating mutant funk-electro-pop hybrids under his birth name, Dear has retained a refined quality unique among Ghostly International labelmates, many of whom have generally gotten stuck in their own stale rut.
2010’s Black City seemed to be the album Dear wanted to make since his beginnings, simultaneously kicking the tongue-in-cheek club references and creating a true soundtrack noir. The album was full of eerie mutant-funk that channeled Talking Heads more than Ricardo Villalobos. Best of all though, it felt complete—a fully-realized and well-executed concept.
Beams’ apparent “brightness” serves as the perfect foil to Black City‘s, well, blackness. Dear’s vision is still as bleak as ever, but he’s starting to warm up. Lead single “Her Fantasy” asserts itself with a demented, kaleidoscopic carnival lilt: the timeless pump of early-90s acid house shuffles along with careless ease against Dear’s coolly delivered vocals. Those mutant disco tendencies bubble up again on “Up & Out” and “Do the Right Thing,” while elsewhere, Dear merely hones his bizarre production techniques. All in all, Beams is another fascinating chapter in Dear’s constantly shifting career.
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