Black City＜Colored Vinyl＞

Black City is Matthew Dear at his least penetrable and most alluring. If the David Bowie comparisons were to continue, the album would place him somewhere in Lodger territory. The dominance of inscrutable lyrics, peculiar characters and subjects, and alien rhythms makes the album more akin to the likes of Lodger's "African Night Flight," "Yassassin," and "Repetition" than the relatively straightforward "Boys Keep Swinging." Like Asa Breed, Dear's previous full-length, Black City is best described as avant pop, but there is an absence of lucidity, and no song sticks as quickly as "Don and Sherri" or "Deserter." It's all slippery, sleazy, murky sound-substance -- knotted rhythms with irregular gaits made all the more surreal by Dear's generally vague, suggestive lyrics and wordless, droning background vocals. Depending on your taste, this will likely be instantly off-putting or progressively pleasurable. Either way, it will probably make you feel like you could use a shower. That Black City is Dear's most creative and individual album is not, however, up for debate. ~ Andy Kellman

マシュー・ディアといえば、名曲“Mouse To Mouse”でお馴染みなオーディオン名義でのテクノ最前線を書き換えるような刺激的サウンド、ファルス名義でのディープなクリック・ハウスなど、さまざまな顔を持つ掛け値なしの天才である。一方、本名では一貫してアンニュイなエレクトロ・ポップを提供していて、3年ぶりとなるこの新作でも、マシュー自身による高橋幸宏を粘着度20％増しにしたようなヴォーカル中心のアンニュイぶりは不変だ。ただ、今回はベースラインやリズムなどが最小フレーズのループで構成された、ミニマル的な構成が耳を惹く。その低空飛行ぶりも含めて、ゆらゆら帝国の金字塔『空洞です』へのテクノ側からの解答＋YMO的なエレポップ時々ファンクという境地に達した感あり。
bounce (C)石田靖博