Audion

Audion is a side project of Texan Matthew Dear, whose releases under such monikers as Jabberjaw and False (as well as his birth name) established him as one of North America’s foremost producers of minimal techno. Audion is a stylistic departure for Dear, as the tracks veer off into harder techno terrain than previous endeavors, particularly the vocal-driven electro-pop he records under his given name. Audion’s first release was the Kisses EP in 2004; it immediately caught the ears and eyes of the techno elite with its punishing compositions, suggestive song titles, and hypnotic record sleeve. Months later, two EPs — The Pong and Just Fucking — followed on Spectral Sound (the club-focused sublabel of Ghostly International). A collection of songs from these EPs, as well as several new tunes, were compiled on the full-length CD Suckfish in October of 2005. In 2006, Audion curated a mix CD for the esteemed Fabric series and later that summer collaborated with Ellen Allien on a split single. Dear continued to issue Audion singles (mostly on Spectral Sound) on a regular basis, collecting many of them on the 2013 digital compilation Audion X. He collaborated with Tiga for two singles (“Let’s Go Dancing” and “Fever”) on the Montreal-based producer’s Turbo label, and issued the solo single “Dem Howl” on Kompakt. In 2016, he released Mouth to Mouth 10, a tenth anniversary remix album of his “Mouth to Mouth” single. This was followed by Alpha, the first Audion full-length in 11 years, issued by !K7. The Nightclub EP, another collaboration with Tiga, arrived in April 2017. ~ Rob Theakston