Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Stuff!, June 20, 2006
A few years ago, I purchased "Leave Luck to Heaven" by Matthew Dear on the basis of a Rolling Stone review. It took a while to get used to Dear's unorthodox electronica music but I gradually learned to love the CD and I followed up by ordering "Backstroke," his subsequent CD. I enjoyed it too, but not as much as "Heaven." Recently, I wondered if this unusual and creative fellow had any new discs out. I put his name into the Amazon.com search, and I found Audion and the "Suckfish" CD. Matthew Dear in disguise, I guess. Anyway, it was certainly worth a listen and I purchased the disc.
Audion takes a while to get used to, and not everyone is going to like it. A friend, in fact, wonders how I could possibly listen to this type of unmitigated noise. She regards it as a musical jackhammer. Well, that's OK. I like it and like it a lot, but I had to learn to like it. Matthew Dear's earlier efforts had a light, playful, frolicking character. The Audion disc is heavier, darker, more intrusive and much more complex. The sonic range on this disc is quite remarkable. The lower sounds test my stereo system and the upper range tests my ears. Both come out fairly well, but I'd sure love to listen to this thing on a real good high-end stereo system at high volume. It would be awesome! One gripe I have is that Dear uses a lot of distortion, including voice distortions, and I prefer the cleaner, crisper sounds. OK, I can live with it. One blessing, is a general lack of vocals, quite unlike the other Matthew Dear discs.
The Audion CD has a Matthew Dear signature sound and method of composition. The music is quite different than that of Dear's earlier discs, but it is Mathew Dear music, without question. The first three tracks ("Vegetables," "Your Place of Mine," "T*tty F*ck") can only be described as brain numbing. Well, that's OK. It's like going to the dentist. One has to be "numbed up" before the serious work begins. And then follows such delights as "T. B." (featuring ultra-high sounds), "Wield," "Taut," "Rubber" and "Just F*ucking" (Where does Dear come up with such titles?). To me, the highlight of the album is "The Pong," a delightfully playful mélange of notes and rhythms. Wonderful stuff!
So what might I recommend? Well, this CD is not for the faint of heart. If you like complex electronica music, as I do, then you might find this CD a delight. But, don't give up easily. Give it a few listens and let it gradually settle in. It's worth the effort.
Gary Peterson
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hard, unadorned, minimal techno. Great music., April 2, 2008
I seem to fall into the typical Matthew Dear fan category - I loved "Leave Luck to Heaven," but I'm not a huge fan of his vocals and I've enjoyed his subsequent releases less and less. Thankfully he still does straight-up minimal techno as both Audion and False.
The music features some very carefully selected sounds that help maintain interest. The worst thing one could say about a minimal techno recording is that it is boring - certainly not the case here. While it's minimal, there is always something going on, however slight. It's not nearly as austere as some of Plastikman's work - there are even occasional melodies.
Aside from the compositional strength, the production is great. The beats are perfectly crisp filled with tiny sounds that seem to leap from the speakers like pin pricks. They're balanced nicely with deep bass leaving a lot of room in the middle of the mix for some reverb-drenched ambience, thus giving the music some real character.
The main reason that I'm giving this album four stars instead of five is that while it's very solid, I'm not yet sure it's an absolute classic. As good as Matthew Dear is these days, I think he's going to continue to mature and his work will just get better and better.
A couple of the tracks are a bit weak, to my ears anyway. I've been a fan of minimal techno for a long time and I have a number of characteristics that I look for. For instance, if you're going to ask the listener to stay invested in a ten-minute piece that features only the slightest of perceptible change, the sounds that *are* there must be perfect. I'm wary of this style of music because it would be easy for a composer to crank out a lot of brainless repetition. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet, but it's a danger. From that position, I become annoyed if I sense a piece is basically on autopilot. I'm not suggesting that Audion's music is boring, overly repetitive, or on "autopilot" - it's very strong, for the most part. Simply put, there are tracks that I tend to skip for lack of interest.
All this is making me sound a lot more critical of the album than I actually am. Although it doesn't reveal its secrets easily, repeat listenings are handsomely repaid. It's the sort of album you can listen to again and again, each time finding new details that are slow to emerge. I highly recommend this to fans of the style. For those new to techno, I would direct you to something more easily accessible. Perhaps Dear's own "Leave Luck to Heaven."
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the future of detroit techno, indeed.., October 6, 2005
matthew dear's audion guise gives us nasty, massive techno that scorches a path through the wires..i heard 'the pong' at a club last year and was hooked immediately..i promise youve never heard anything quite like this.
definitely recommended for fans of alter ego, t raumschmiere and the like, and worth it for 'kisses' and 'the pong' alone.
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