Black City (Ghostly 25 Year Anniversary Edition) -

On the occasion of Ghostly's 25th Anniversary and Black City's15th Anniversary, Ghostly and Matthew Dear present a specialTransparent Silver vinyl repressing.Released in 2010, nearly a decade into his craft, Black City was awatershed moment for Matthew Dear. A steely noir set thatstraddled electronic dance and indie rock classification, earninghim Best New Music from Pitchfork and a worldwide tour with abesuited band, the album unlocked Dear's darkest and mostengrossing ideas to date. The love-obsessed songwriter of 2007'sAsa Breed had given way to a more existentially paranoid entity.Creeping disco tempos, cavernous atmospherics, and strangedistortions brought his signature avant-pop sound to a moodierplace. Black City wasn't to be found on any map. It was acomposite, an imaginary metropolis peopled by desperatecases, lovelorn souls, and amoral motives, with flashes ofsweetness and hope.In Black City, nothing is at it seems: leadoff single "Little People(Black City)" is a nine-and-a-half minute disco odyssey,subverting it's gleaming electronic lead with eerily giddybacking vocals and cryptic, ominous lyrics ("a frozen wastedheart / has died", "love me like a clown"); "You Put a Smell on Me"is a sordid sex romp set to hysterically chattering percussion anda serrated synth line that will set your teeth on edge; "MoreSurgery" at first recalls the barely-there Krautrock of Harmoniain it's burbling minimalism, until Dear's chanted chorus of "Altergenetics / to make my body glow / I need more surgery / there'sso much more to know" sends the track hurtling into adystopian future.And yet, for all the foreboding moods on Black City, it's thealbum's sweeter moments that illustrate Matthew Dear'sgrowing maturity as a songwriter. "Slowdance" is a futuristiclullaby in which Dear articulates a lover's helplessness ("I can'tbe the one to tell you everything's wrong") over breathy, ArthurRussell-esque cello swishes; the album-closing "Gem" is anachingly simple, reverb-drenched piano ballad that ends with along, slow fade.