Education of the Modern Doctor: Marcus Welby vs. House 
Matthew Dear
Black City
(Ghostly international)
8.2
Goes well with: Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, Audion
Hailed by audiences as one of the world’s foremost minimal techno producers, Matthew Dear, through four musical aliases—Audion, False and Jabberjaw being the others—has taken listeners on copious auditory journeys during the past decade. This year, however, Dear’s tone appears to have changed.
Taking a cue from LCD Soundsystem’s latest disco-pop and funk-rock sounds, Black City pulses with a glitchy, minimal beat on “You Put a Smell on Me”—a track whose climax could easily induce spontaneous, sweaty, dancefloor make-out sessions—and revels in glittery, roller-rink synth on the nineminute anthem “Little People (Black City).” But departing from the driving techno beats of his last album, 2007’s Asa Breed, Dear delves into significantly darker territory here, with the lush wall of throaty vocals and creeping, mellow beat of “Honey” and the eerie, tangled, electronic web of “More Surgery.”
While praised by some as a brave new chapter in Dear’s musical career, the dark path he follows on Black City risks making him less accessible to first-time listeners. Though, for people who’ve followed Dear through the various stages of his musical past—from his days DJing at underground raves in Detroit to his recent mind-blowing work producing remixes for Hot Chip, Chemical Brothers and The xx—this album defines the next natural step in the evolution of his beat-based creativity.
—Justin Roberts
Endless Boogie
Full House Head
(No Quarter)
7.9
Goes well with: John Lee Hooker, ZZ Top, Faces, The Rolling Stones
It’s doubtful that another band in rock ’n’ roll is as appropriately named as Endless Boogie. Apparently formed by rare-record dealer Paul “Top Dollar” Major as a way of getting out of the house, the four band members have a combined age somewhere around 170 and have likely been kicking out badass jams in other bands since you were a mere gleam in your daddy’s eye.
Full House Head is eight songs and nearly 80 minutes long, filled with nonstop gritty blues licks (yes, licks) and no room for subtle touches like wellconsidered lyrics, experimental interludes or orchestral accompaniment.
This is as unpolished and blue-collar as they come—music designed for standing around a charcoal grill all afternoon, chain smoking and getting toasted on endless cans of Coors Light.
When there are vocals, they’re piled on thick. On “Tarmac City,” Major doles out gems like “Motorin’ now / Yeah, I can fly / Settin’ me free / From all the crap you piled high in my head,” and it’s hard to tell if he’s blackout drunk or just fucking around. Maybe it’s both. Then again, Full House Head isn’t about insight; it’s just tapping into the simple joy that can still be derived from raw blues-rock riffs when they’re delivered with the right touches of tongue-in-cheek humor.
—Todd Kroviak
Fabulous Diamonds
Fabulous Diamonds II
(Siltbreeze)
8.1
Goes well with: Cluster, Harmonia, Silver Apples, Blues Control
Whenever people refer to “drone” music as a genre unto itself, I cringe a little bit. It conjures images of kids in their early to mid 20s huddled on the floor in front of 20 Boss effects pedals trying to do their best impression of a Black Dice album that came out five years ago. Needless to say, not very interesting.
But when it’s done right, this style of music can be entrancing. In the case of Fabulous Diamonds—the Melbourne, Australia, duo of Jarrod Zlatic and Nisa Venerosa—they create an entire universe out of drums, synthesizer and vapor trails. That is to say, the entire album is drenched in echo and reverb, and it makes the proceedings feel humid and claustrophobic, like being caught in a psychotropic fever dream.
Fabulous Diamonds II is designed for zoning out, as drum patterns are incessantly repeated with little variation and synth washes slowly morph into different combinations. There are no song titles, and close attention isn’t necessarily rewarded, but it’s therapeutic in its own way. Just don’t fight it. Let your brain take a little vacation and drift along with the otherworldly vibes, and all of what ails you will be alleviated in due time.
—Todd Kroviak
