Matthew Dear unveils his second artist album. ‘Asa Breed’ will be released in June.

Dear takes a break from his dancefloor-oriented Audion material (anyone remember ‘Mouth to Mouth’?) to go back to his real name and the music he started with: electronic vocal pop. ‘Asa Breed’ was written and recorded in pieces in Detroit and in various cities in Dear’s home state of Texas over the period of two years. "On this record I found myself using techniques learned from my electronic music brought to a broader range of acoustic instruments,” says Dear. “I was trying to use repetition and rhythm in a new context."

‘Asa Breed’ promises to explore Dear’s love of African rhythms and albums like David Byrne & Brian Eno's 'My Life in The Bush of Ghosts', albeit with an emotional centre. “A lot of the record deals with abstractions of human relationships,” Dear told RA. “I didn't realize until afterwards that this was the theme of the record because when I write it's spontaneous and ideas come quickly - but it's very much a record about love.”

The first single from ‘Asa Breed’ is ‘Deserter’, which will be released in 10" format on May 8th, 2007. The single EP also contains a Four Tet remix of ‘Deserter’ as well as the non-album track ‘You Know What I Would Do.’ You can stream ‘Deserter’ here.

‘Asa Breed’ is Dear’s full-length follow up to ‘Leave Luck To Heaven’ [2003] and 'Backstroke' [2004].

‘Asa Breed’ tracklist

01. Fleece On Brain
02. Neighborhoods
03. Deserter
04. Shy
05. Elementary Lover
06. Don And Sherri
07. Will Gravity Win Tonight?
08. Pom Pom
09. Death To Feelers
10. Give Me More
11. Midnight Lovers
12. Good To Be Alive

‘Deserter’ 10" tracklist

A1. Deserter
A2. You Know What I Would Do
B1. Deserter (Four Tet Remix)

Dear will be touring under his Audion and False guises around America over the next month, including three dates at the WMC. He has also been working on a live act for his album project, and will debut his new three-piece band at two exclusive April gigs in Detroit and Chicago. The Matthew Dear Band will feature a live bass player and a drummer. The band will follow that will an extensive European tour, including a headlining slot at the Sonar Festival in Barcelona. Look out for a wider US tour in September.

Tour dates

16 March Foundation, Minneapolis, MN (as Audion)
17 March Mezzanine, San Francisco, CA (as Audion)
18 March Phoenix Landing, Boston, MA / (as Audion)
21 March Miami Beach Resort & Spa Hotel, WMC, Miami, FL (as Audion)
22 March Pawn Shop (Minus Party), WMC, Miami, FL (as False)
23 March Clinton Hotel, WMC, Miami, FL (as Audion)
31 March Lotus Sound Lounge, Vancouver, BC, Canada (as Audion)
20 April Magic Stick, Detroit, MI (with live band)
21 April Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL (with live band)
26-28 May DEMF, Detroit, MI (as Audion)
16 June Sonar Festival, Barcelona, Spain (with live band)

In other Matthew Dear news, Audion will release the single ‘Fred's Bell's/Noiser’ in May and it’s already getting support from the likes of Ellen Allien, Matthew Dear tells RA he has also just finished remixing French dark-disco lords Black Strobe. Release dates are yet to be confirmed.

‘Asa Breed’ will be released on Ghostly International on June 5, 2007. The album arrives on CD and 2x12”.

Leave Luck to Heaven was a great album, but I was a little let down with Backstroke. I look forward to hearing 'Asa Breed', Deserter has a nice vibe and sounds like a much more developed sound for him.

BTW:, what is an 'Asa Breed'?

Matthew Dear seems interested in Japanese "Leave Luck to Heaven" is a translation of "Nintendo" so probably "Asa" is Japanese too. It means "morning".

Interesting. I just googled "Asa Breed" and found that it's a character from a Kurt Vonnegut novel, "Cat's Cradle"
en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cat's_Cradle

I'm intrigued by the idea of the Japanese correlation. The wiki confirms the Nintendo connection.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leave_Luck_to_Heaven

maybe it's a pun? Morning breed sounds like a reference to afterhours clubbers too

Asa Breed is a character from "Cat's Cradle" but a word "Asa" has another meaning in Japanese and it means hemp.

a .thejass. re-view of matthew dear's new album:
“matthew dear’s ‘asa breed’ is new knowledge, the truth in dear’s voice in an authentic expression of the way we listen now, a modern day electronic folk singer songwriter who reflects a subculture influencing mass communication. ‘asa breed’ links dear’s valuable lyrics through a tectonic pop commodity, proving that the more matthew dear we have, the richer our ear’s become.”

'Deserter' is a great track.

awesome track and even better remix by four tet. asa breed is the shit. you'll see...

i did like the track also the fact that they put an exclusive track for the 10" and another exclusive on digi

I found a few videos from asa breed on blip tv here:
blip.tv/file/223230

Nice review Barry.

one of best albums of last 2 years,vacal is greate,lyrics are real and poetic,what about music -amazing ,guitars drums noises and everything is just very fresh.This album goes for 5 definitely not 4 not 4.5 this is real5.thanx Matthew Dear: and by the way(asa breed)Asa is the name of third king of Judah ,A breed is a domesticated subspecies or infrasubspecies of an animal.So everything is not so easy...

so what hes not a great singer ... hes ground breaking.. hes eperimenting with vocals and meshing music never before seen in electronic... i happen to like he fact that his voice isnt perfect

great album
deserter, nieghborhoods, pompom are my favs

i DEAR, ASA BREED, FALSE, Audion, Spectral, & Ghostly

its more into the LCD market of commerciality which isnt a bad thing. its good music.. just cant compare it with club stuff .... cause its not.

quote:

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Posted by min_te
its more into the LCD market of commerciality which isnt a bad thing. its good music.. just cant compare it with club stuff .... cause its not.

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electronic music can exist out side of he realm of club music...thats the beauty of ASA Breed .. it steps outside of the comfort zone into something deeper and more thought provoking

it's greate ................................man......................................................................

unbelivable album!! go dear go!

going into the songwriter / pop terrain leads to the basic questions of the song quality and the performance of the singer. the songs aren't very convincing, poor melodies, trying to reach the standard of this area, very seldom sucessfully. performance? there are a lot of singers that are not able to really perform with their voices. matthew dear is far away from them. no intonation, no musical attitude. just trying to hide his lack behind overdubbing and technical trash. anyway. i'm sure this just was a lost game and we will get better stuff by him

bring back the old Audion !!

I am very dissapointed with this album from Dear, I do like this type of electronica but not the way Dear did it :\

The vocals are .. weak.. and the rest of the album is same. If you want some true Downtempo / Leftfield work listen to Nathan Fake's Drowning in a Sea of Love. Incomparable !

WOW! I was i'll admit expecting something harsh and crazy like 'Suckfish' but upon listening was knocked for six and thought have I bought the right album?!

After a few listens start-to-end tho, I've fallen for the quirky, deep, some times light hearted and hypnotic rhythms he has created! I like the lyrics and think they work well. Very impressed and would recommed to anyone frankly.

My respect for him as an artist has grown immensely and can't wait to hear more.

October will see the "big Hands" touring the whole of the U.S. interested to hear what the live offering is all about.

One of my fav albums ... this one is amazing

I bought this album for Elementary Lover and Don & Sherri, and am blown away by how amazing the whole album is...from the first track to the last. It's become one of my favorite albums. Seriously. No. Lie.