10/03/08
Text: Nik Mercer
A certain tension and stress must come with contributing to an established record label's impeccable series of mixes. The selected DJ or artist has to all at once not break out of the box completely and impress his intended audience with something thought-out and well-constructed.
So: we can imagine that Matthew Dear felt the hairs on his neck raise when he was asked by Berlin's Get Physical to compile the mega-label's seventh Body Language mix. The thing's not out until October 28, so at this point all we can do is reassure you that it's incredible.
Matthew Dear is one of today's great minimal innovators in the U.S., and his charismatic approach to choosing songs and putting them together is clear testament to his mad skills. With restraint, he slowly builds Body Language Vol. 7 up to an explosively... calm climax. We won't call the compilation "after hours" in aesthetic because it has too much energy, but it's certainly not made for those looking to fist pump and head bang the night away―and that's a good thing. Techno-geared mixes tend to too swiftly drift into the super-heavy and easily digestible, but for those of us who really know our techno, the genre's not all about fat beats and ethereal electronic washes.
Be sure to grab the twenty-track disc when it comes out. You won't be sorry. Oh, and the new and exclusive Matthew Dear tune, "Free To Ask," is rad.
