Matthew Dear
23rd March
Scala

MATTHEW DEAR is a man of many different guises, whether creating and remixing under his own name, or one of his alter-egos – Jabberjaw, False, and Audion. Depending on who you ask, Matthew Dear is a DJ, a dance-music producer, an experimental pop artist, a bandleader.

He co-founded both Ghostly International and its dancefloor offshoot, Spectral Sound. He’s had remixes commissioned by The XX, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Spoon, Hot Chip, The Postal Service, and Chemical Brothers; he’s made mixes for the Fabric mix series and Get Physical’s Body Language.

Matthew Dear’s new album, ‘Black City’, is an album centred around the Black City that Matthew Dear has created. The Black City can’t be found on any map. It’s a composite, an imaginary metropolis peopled by desperate cases, lovelorn souls, and amoral motives. Like most literary Gothams, Black City is a place to love and hate, as seedy as a nightclub’s back room and as seductive as the promise of power. Matthew Dear, the musician, may live in New York City, but the Matthew Dear of Black City inhabits a sound-world unlike any other: a monument to the shadowy side of urban life that bumps and creaks, shudders and wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. Black City is Matthew Dear’s third album on Ghostly International, and it’s his darkest and most engrossing work to date. He straddles multiple musical worlds and belongs to none—and he’s just hitting his stride.

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Her talent not only reveals itself in the variety of the instruments she masters, but also in her beautiful labyrinthine songwriting and mesmerizing solo performances. Ólöf’s voice has been singled out for high praise as “otherworldly” by The New York Times, “stunning” by SPIN, “remarkable” by the NME, “ethereal” by Vanity Fair and “impossibly lovely” by Paste.

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Lucky Shiner’s the piece that completes the picture. Originating in crystal clear vision, the nuance and frenetic cadence of life and the mind’s constant disequilibrium means its final realisation stands as a product that’ll provoke thought as much as enjoyment; pathos as much as praise. “Lots of factors affected the way it came together.“ Gold Panda explains, “touring, mixing, moving house and splitting with a girlfriend. Family, friends and lovers related, places I‘ve never been”.

Having been discovered at the tender age of 16 by the legendary John Peel, DELS continued to make music whilst developing his natural artistic ability as a graphic design student. Now, DELS’ music is fast gaining recognition amongst music heads the world over, earning him a place on a European tour with Hip Hop eccentrics Yo! Majesty, as well as gigs at festivals including Glastonbury, Transmusicales and Big Chill. Having featured heavily on the acclaimed ‘Kwesachu’ mixtape by production wunderkinds Micachu and Kwes, DELS is currently adding the finishing touches to his own debut EP, which will be released on the appropriately genre-defying Greco-Roman label in early 2010.

Core AHAAH duo of Jeremy Barnes (accordion, percussion) and Heather Trost (violin) have intrepidly explored their love of Eastern European musics, including recording in remote Romanian villages and basing themselves in Budapest (where they put together allstar Hungarian folk group The Hun Hangár Ensemble for a limited-edition EP and tour), as well as touring the world finely balancing raucous shows at folk clubs and Turkish restaurants with grand blow-outs alongside Wilco, Portishead and Beirut among others.