False

2007

M_nus




Fresh off the heels of his well-received Asa Breed full-length, Matthew Dear delivers yet another long player in what sounds like a studio-cut DJ set under his minimalist club moniker False. Titled 2007, Dear showcases that in addition to developing as a producer, musician and vocalist—that he still can attack the turntables and mixer in veteran fashion. In his first CD release for Richie Hawtin’s Minus imprint, Dear strips off the fuller sound that his recent releases under his own name and as Audion have offered up, opting to go into full lounge mode with a mellow but well timed record full of activity. There’s track titles thrown in for good measure, but the record plays all the way through without pause and flows effortlessly, which leads one to wonder why the titles exist and the set is broken up into 14 tracks. However, I’m sure its for the digital age of sampling an artist’s work, etc. and despite this, it doesn’t effect the overall playability of the record. Starting off with “Indy 3000,” the record starts silently and slowly builds in volume with the sound of engines blazing before the metronome kicks in for tempo allowing a solid and silent transition into “Meat Me In The Market,” which slowly begins to breathe life into the work. The metronomic rhythm turns to a blip-heavy beat before long with echoing synth sounds chiming in and out for a great evening starting track. It’s not so much anything that’s too dance floor-ready, but this would start to get people moving with ease. The record really picks up with “Timing,” the fourth track, about 10 minutes in, starting off in a much more blatant club fashion, before slowly changing to a rhythm heavy, aquatic sounding techno thumper with some sound samples looping in the background. As the track turns into “Alright Liar,” kicks and claps usher in and the track is momentarily overflowing with sound before subtly fading into a more synth-heavy work, accentuating Dear’s layering abilities. “Face The Rain” and “Fed On Youth,” two tracks that were featured on a 12” single earlier in the year also make appearances here, with the former standing alone as a piece for only a couple minutes; and the latter as part of a medley later in the record accompanied by “HLM” and “DLG” for one of the disc’s longer and most danceable works complete with foghorn synthesizer tones, phased out arpeggios and a hyperactive tapping beat. “Stomachs/Anklebiter” is the longest section of work here, coming in at almost nine minutes of experimental techno, starting with what sounds like xylophone tones for melody getting trampled down by an electronic hi-hat beat before getting targeted with what sounds like the firing sound from the Lazer Tag knock-off Photon gun, delayed and reverbed out that rushes around in the background. Its probably the most active and entertaining of “tracks” here, and an ample one to hold for later in a set. The closing remarks if you will come in the form of “Forgetting,” which starts on the actual audio samples that are manipulated throughout the end of “Anklebiter,” some sort of dialogue from what sounds like an old cult movie, but it’s hard to decipher as the beat rushes in and the sample itself is hazed out with effects. But it is clear that some of it says “signing off,” which puts a unique playful spin on the artist’s finale/exit. It ends on a waterlogged, eerie sounding note of almost horror movie-score qualities as the dialogue ventures back into the sound-frame. It’s almost as if Dear is toying around as the sound clip says “You heard it live folks” before ending with a minute of ringing silence. 2007 is a solid hour’s worth of music that is an easy listen that could appeal to more folks than the techno heads who eagerly awaited this release. In addition to being a headphone wonder, 2007 could easily adopt the role of a social record that does well in the car or as background music. Although not as much of a banger as some of Dear’s other efforts, this one is not meant to be, but rather a solid representation of Dear’s many schools of thought nonetheless.


M_nus
Matthew Dear