Asa Breed
Matthew Dear's Asa Breed finds the Detroit-based electronic artist achieving new artistic heights. It's more robust, more accessible, and yet still undeniably Matthew Dear. Incorporating his uniquely crafted textures alongside international rhythmic influences, plus a lyrical storytelling element from his Texas upbringing, Asa Breed is a completely unique musical experience. Since his debut at the decade's beginning, Matthew Dear has been championed as North America's brightest new electronic talent. His 2003 debut, Leave Luck To Heaven, garnered unequivocal praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Spin and Entertainment Weekly, and in the period since, Dear has conquered the international techno scene under the alias of Audion. But when it came time to return to his roots, there was only one path to take. With each track on this album, Dear tells a unique story about life and human relationships with his rich baritone voice and fusion of live and electronic instruments. In sum, Asa Breed represents a new feeling and a more expansive look into the psyche of an artist coming into his own.
Techno star's latest album further explores pop accessibility, bringing a new sense of songform to his shapeshifting production work and drawing comparisons to LCD Soundsystem, Beck, and Caribou.
Matthew Dear made his name as a techno artist when few Americans under 35 could be said to have a name in electronic music of any kind. It helped that he lived near Detroit, where techno's creation story starts, and it didn't hurt, around 2003, that he happened to be a strapping lad with something other than a shaved…
Asa Breed furthers a seemingly happenstance shift to electronics-based indie pop that began on 2003's Leave Luck to Heaven and continued on 2004's Backstroke.
For those of you who've ever heard an Audion track, the tenor of Matthew Dear's virtuosic reincarnation might come as something of a surprise.