CLUBS

One mystery venue plus one clubland star has made up The Breakfast Club’s menu these last 12 months. Adam Anonymous journeys into the unknown.

The anarchic spirit of clubbing days gone by lives on in The Breakfast Club’s modus operandi: concocting parties at intimate venues only announced on the day, with guests far larger than such confines have any right to host. It all adds an extra spark of excitement to proceedings, though none should really be required for their latest instalment of early-hours fun: the headline draw is Matthew Dear.

Currently based in New York City, it was his previous base, Detroit, that most informed the Texas-born Dear's work, with techno influences slashed into avant-pop with genre-defying results. His recorded CV is mountainous in its peaks, including remixes for The xx, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hot Chip and The Chemical Brothers. He also rocks more aliases than the average espionage agent, chiefly Audion (an alias he assumed for number 27 in Fabric's famed mix compilation series), False and Jabberjaw.

Nodding towards his musical hero Brian Eno's work with David Bowie more and more, Dear has been unafraid to rush headlong toward conceptual territory in his latter-day output. Last year's 'Black City' LP represented the apex of that approach, detailing a sleepless futuristic metropolis full of seedy, seductive tales and the dark, paranoid, skittering shadows of warped pop songs. Next month sees Dear close the book on 'Black City', with the release of its final associated single 'Slowdance'.

Even if Dear's back catalogue were incinerated tomorrow, however, his legacy would be guaranteed by his label of love Ghostly International and dancefloor offshoot Spectral Sound, both co-founded with pal Sam Valenti IV. The spectrum-spanning dual attack has seen releases from groundbreaking producer Dabrye, one-man party machine Seth Troxler, plus recent curios from Gold Panda to School Of Seven Bells, the sole connecting thread being fearless diversity.

The only additional info The Breakfast Club want you to know for now: they have never used the secret venue in question before, capacity is limited and there is zero guest list, so blaggers can jog on (advance tickets are recommended as the last three such nights have sold out) – oh, and Waifs & Strays and Ed Karney also keep the party ticking over. If you want to experience the full live Matthew Dear experience too, he's in Bristol supporting Interpol at the Colston Hall prior to tearing it up DJ style across town. Beyond that, bring yourselves and a sense of expectation.

THE BREAKFAST CLUB WAS ON SAT 19 MAR. FFI: WWW.MATTHEWDEAR.COM
 

Copyright Adam Anonymous 2011

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