Matthew Dear – Black City

Matthew Dear isn’t the kind of guy who revels in the daytime. Steeped in nocturnal atmospherics, the Texan-born producer cum avant-garde electro maverick’s fifth studio LP, Black City, is his portrayal of the urban underbelly at night, where black mist intermingles with salacious neon lighting. Seedy to the core, the album’s gyration of bass and effects is forced down deviant pathways by Dear’s baritone. The result is as uncomfortable as it sounds.

By juxtaposing the likes of the kaleidoscopic Soil To The Seed with the staccato electroclash of You Put a Spell on Me, Dear has produced an intentionally disorientating trip. I Can’t Feel is the undoubted high, jaywalking to a mix of Funk and austere 80s synth. Yet the over-indulgent clutters of Monkey and More Surgery soil the grinding libido that runs through the record's vein. Maybe after this bleak, sometimes exhilarating affair, Mr Dear could do with a little sunshine. [Billy Hamilton]