Matthew Dear shares “Earthforms” from Beams. Matthew Dear North American tour dates

Unlock “Earthforms”

Watch The Beams Album Trailer:

A thick-fingered electric bass gallops in atop a driving backbeat as Dear sneers, “It’s alright to be someone else sometimes.” It may be odd to hear former techno-wunderkind Matthew Dear playing rock music, but the manic punk pulse of “Earthforms” is just one facet of Beams’ kaleidoscopic journey. “Earthforms” is the third single taken from Beams. Stream “Earthforms”:

Matthew Dear and his band have also announced the first North American tour in support of his new album which includes a slew of dates including support from Light Asylum.

Beams is available August 27th (Worldwide) & 28th (North America).

TOUR DATES (ALL LIVE BAND DATES)
Sept 29 Seattle, WA – Decibel Festival ^
Oct 13 San Francisco, CA – Treasure Island Music Festival
Oct 17 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
Oct 18 New Orleans, LA – Maison
Oct 22 Houston, TX – House of Blues
Oct 23 Dallas, TX – House of Blues
Oct 24 Austin, TX – Mohawk
Oct 26 Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre #
Oct 27 San Diego, CA – Casbah #
Oct 29 Phoenix, AZ – Rhythm Room #
Nov 02 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge #
Nov 06 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall #
Nov 07 Ann Arbor, MI – The Blind Pig #
Nov 08 Buffalo, NY – Soundlab #
Nov 09 Toronto, ON – The Hoxton #
Nov 10 Montreal, QC – Il Motore #
Nov 11 Quebec, QC – Le Cercle #
Nov 14 Boston, MA – Paradise #
Nov 15 Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall #
Nov 16 Philadelphia, PA – Voyeur #
Nov 17 New York, NY – Webster Hall #

# w/ Light Asylum
^ w/ Lusine + Tycho

ABOUT BEAMS
Our last look at Matthew Dear’s creative cycle was the fathoms-deep starkness of his 2010 album, Black City. A triumph of slowly imploding romanticism, Black City was ultimately just another step in Dear’s creative evolution from his breakthrough Asa Breed (2007) .

Beams release date is coming shortly. Matthew Dear has some DJ dates this summer before prepping the band for live dates. Matthew Dear, the relentless songwriter, producer and collaborator, offered an early taste of what to expect from Beams with the well-received EP, Headcage, in January of this year. The highlights were working with other producers (Van Rivers & The Subliminal Kid) and vocalists (Johnny from The Drums) which lent Headcage an openness and poise.

Recorded in Dear’s home studio and mixed at Nicolas Vernhes’ Rare Book Room studios in Brooklyn, Beams evokes a day-lit dreamworld at once strange and familiar. While the album’s dancefloor-ready tempos, major keys, and sun-warmed synths signal Beams as the lighter, brighter response to its predecessor, closer inspection reveals a squirming mass of oddball details. Dear’s latest productions creak and groan like anxious organisms, with slivers of guitar, electric bass, and drum kit darting in and out among the synths and samples.

Early on in Matthew Dear’s Beams— the New York-based artist’s fourth full-length, his first since 2010’s shadowy masterpiece Black City— something strange happens. A thick-fingered electric bass gallops in atop a driving backbeat as Dear sneers, “It’s alright to be someone else sometimes.” It may be odd to hear former techno-wunderkind Matthew Dear playing rock music, but the manic punk pulse of “Earthforms” is just one facet of Beams’ kaleidoscopic journey. Shot through with equal parts optimism and uneasiness, Beams is the latest transmission from one of pop music’s most fascinating creative minds.

Beams’ lyrics, meanwhile, are deeply personal, expressing vulnerability and confusion in startlingly immediate ways. “Do I feel love like all of the others or is this feeling only mine?” Dear sings on the strutting lead-off single “Her Fantasy”, later wondering “Am I one heartbeat away from receiving a damaging shock to my life?” Dear has grown into his songwriting voice, and he wears his current lyrical perspective—that of a man with something to lose—with an impressive grace.

When all is said and done, the central tension in Matthew Dear’s Beams— musical mischief vs. lyrical maturity—may not be a tension at all. After all, growing up involves learning to integrate all of one’s disparate selves. “I’m about 4 to 5 different people at any given time,” Dear says. “By allowing all of those different personalities to exist – the most pure and direct self can come through in the music. [The songs] may still be cryptic, and full of contradictions—but in my opinion, that is pure, unadulterated thought in musical form. They are direct lines to the center.”

In other words, Beams.

BEAMS TRACKLIST:

01. Her Fantasy
02. Earthforms
03. Headcage
04. Fighting Is Futile
05. Up & Out
06. Overtime
07. Get The Rhyme Right
08. Ahead of Myself
09. Do The Right Thing
10. Shake Me
11. Temptation