Tracks
Audion: "Instant In You"
(2009)
By David Abravanel | 17 October 2009
In a review of the album 2007, released under the False moniker, Stylus’ Nate De Young suggested that Matthew Dear had reached a point where he was “capable of shitting gold.” It’s an oddly fitting metaphor to use for the Hecatomb series of singles that Dear has been releasing as Audion. A bit calmer and more seductive where initial Audion tracks were raw and sexual (with titles like “Titty Fuck” and “Uvular” to boot), cuts like “It’s Full of Blinding Light” sound elegantly tossed off. The general formula is an air-tight beat filled with bouncy analog percussion, some shuffling hi-hats, and a massive siren that ebbs and flows to mark the progression in these minimal soundscapes.
“Instant In You” is yet another step inward. There’s no aggressive wad of synthesis or sound effects to stab through the rhythm. The beat is certainly infectious, and, like most Audion tracks, this would act as a drug if played at loud volumes during the wee-hours of a minimal set. The menace and mystery are there. If there’s one thing amiss, then, it’s that a deeper dive doesn’t necessarily reveal as much as it normally does with Audion. Glitchy vocal clips and synth percussion enter the fray, but this is all addition and subtraction, without a clear crescendo. Compared to an Audion classic, in which the noisy intrusion of a siren synth both jars the listener and gets everyone’s hands up, there’s nothing terribly out of place here. “Instant In You” isn’t bad—it definitely meets the high self-set standards of quality for Dear’s productions—but it’s one of the few Audion tracks that would work better as a segue than a grabbing floor-filler.