Matthew Dear (US)

Matthew Dear is a shapeshifter, oscillating seamlessly between DJ, dance-music producer, and experimental pop auteur. He is a founding artist on both Ghostly International and its dancefloor offshoot, Spectral Sound. He writes, produces, and mixes all of his work. He straddles multiple musical worlds and belongs to none, now nearly 20 years into his kaleidoscopic career, with five albums and two dozen EPs plus millions of miles in the rearview of his biography. Dear kicked off 2017 as a selector, DJing regularly and contributing a deeply considered and personal mix to !K7 Records’ long established DJ-Kicks series. This was bookended by a number of releases through his techno guise Audion. Dear hadn’t shared material under his own name since his 2012 LP, the multi-colored Beams, which was preceded by the critically acclaimed avant-pop albums Black City, Asa Breed, and Leave Luck To Heaven. This return to his artistic id, apart from his other projects’ egos, makes “Modafinil Blues” momentous, a prodigal shift inward to a dark and playful psyche.