BRAIN - THE WORLD 2X12" (PLANET E)

Having made an undeniable contribution to the legacy of electronic music in Detroit over the last twenty years, MATTHEW DEAR arrives at Planet E with a new alias, simply known as Brain. The latest in a legacy of Dear's influential techno projects including False, Jabberjaw and Audion, The World EP finds the veteran producer still moving ever-forward. Originally debuting on Carl Craig’s acclaimed Detroit Love Vol.2 mix compilation in 2019, the introductory ‘Boss’ is a psychedelic tunnel that takes full advantage of Dear’s nous for detail, as a submissive vocal delivers a number of distinctive requests amid the lustrous texture of the Brain project, both hyper-detailed and deliciously minimal. This same sense of patience and space drives ‘Corrections’, a knotty, rolling masterpiece of digital distortion that unfolds into a valley of spacious breakbeats, before reconstructing itself back to visceral analogue pleasure. Getting deeper still as the record progresses, ‘Rafe’ takes place in the hinterland between full-throttle rave ecstasy and unadulterated deeperness, as if gasping and exhaling with pleasure and relief. ‘Snake Head’ operates in an upper echelon of tempo that speaks for another variation of electro from Detroit’s community, collapsing into a trancelike passage of outright oddness.