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Matthew Dear Comes Of Age

Matthew Dear, under the guise of Audion, has created one the year's biggest dancefloor destroyers.

Once in a blue moon, clubland is set on fire by a simple, yet effective dancefloor destroyer whose success is a shock, even for the producer that created it.

Audion's 'Mouth To Mouth' is one such tune, a sublime 13-minute funky techno assault of the senses that is currently causing dancefloor carnage around the world, much to the surprise of its Detroit-based producer Matthew Dear.

Like Gabriel Ananda's Ibiza 2006 anthem 'Doppelwhipper', the success of 'Mouth To Mouth' goes beyond conventional reasoning – it just rocks. End of.

"It's hard to explain how I make my music," Dear told DJmag.com.

"I made the song soon after a summer trip to Berlin.

"I was in high spirits back in Detroit and wanted to make something that represented my time there.

"It was also about a week before the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and I made about eight songs in three days.


I just wanted to make music that would assault people's senses


Audion aka Matthew Herbert

"I just wanted to make music that would assault people's senses.

"The song is 13 minutes long because I couldn't quite break myself out of my state of mind as I was creating it."

Matthew Dear started the Audion project so he could make harder and more aggressive music.

Tension-Filled

This epic track is a never-ending, tension-filled thriller that builds and builds like ancient Egypt on speed.

It's a cataclysmic mugging of the mind, yet at its very heart is a simple minimal groove.

"When I first played the track I saw a different reaction in the clubs to what I was used to," revealed the techno boffin.

"There is a core simplicity to the song, but at the same time it has some very intense moments.

"Perhaps it is this combination of ideas and styles that attracts people to the song.

"Your mind is locked in a groove, but your body is assaulted by the swelling synths."

Shadows

Like many underground techno producers, Matthew Dear has rarely found himself in the limelight, choosing to exist in the shadows of Detroit experimentalism and electronic conceptualism.

But with 'Mouth To Mouth' Dear's head is well above the parapet, and Audion may be the project that finally cements his reputation as one of the world's best producers.

Like many dance music artists, Dear's war is between the conflicting forces of credibility and mainstream success, but this is one battle he has most definitely won.