new matthew dear

Since the excellent and track-y Backstroke EP in 2004, Texan-by-birth, Ann Arboran-by-choice Matthew Dear has been sticking pretty much exclusively to his Audion alter ego, tackling acid house and hard techno with a fervor justified by his enormous European fanbase. Here in the States, Dear is one of the few American electronic stars, and yet he has been unfairly ghetto-ized within the DJ culture when his actual appeal is much, much broader. “Deserter,” the first single from Dear’s loooooooong awaited second full-length, will fix all of that. (You can — and should — stream the song here.)

In 2004 or 2005, Dear’s live performances shifted from spinning records to vamping and crooning alone at a microphone, with a DJ and sometimes guitar accompaniment. The shows — I caught maybe three or four, most of them excellent — brilliantly recast Dear as a glam-rock star, his good looks and strong voice overcoming his obvious discomfort standing front and center (by the last time I saw him do this, that discomfort had, of course, disappeared).

Even with his incredible 2003 debut, Leave Luck to Heaven, it was obvious that Dear’s aspirations were broader than just dance music. “Dog Days” still ranks as one of my favorite dance tracks, and yet it’s really reheated Prince, though no less great for it. “Dog Days” is so much more than a dance track; it’s an honest-to-God great song, and, for me at least, it established Matthew Dear as a potential songwriter, someone driven by the principles of song structure, melody, etc. This is far from an original quality of course, but within the minimalist techno world that he travels, the drive and ability to write a genuine pop song is atypical.

After Backstroke, Dear started writing songs on the acoustic guitar, rather than as programmed beats and hooks. He began to clearly differentiate between two different personas: Audion the dude who could concoct a perfect slice of acid house like “Kissing” and spin it in front of tens of thousands, Dear the dude who was moody and introspective, searching for the right lyric/mood/tone. Both are perfectly valid artists, and I honestly love them both equally. But I also dearly want him to succeed, and so I couldn’t be happier with the gloomy pop of “Deserter.”

It sounds a bit like TV on the Radio: similar vocal phrasing and tone. Beyond that I’m having a hard time really pinning it down, but as Joe mentioned as we were listening to this song this morning, what Matthew Dear has always needed is contextualization. Within the dance world he is a borderline star. Outside of that, he’s little more than the token DJ dude you might check out at the dance tent of a summer festival. But Dear has so much to offer, and I’m crossing my fingers that “Deserter” means people will start recognizing it.

UPDATE: The CD single just arrived here at the office, and the Four Tet remix is SPECTACULAR — this glittering, twinkling thing — and the other new song, “You Know What I Would Do,” is also just wonderful. Man, this record is going to be incredible.