2017s first DJ-Kicks compilation comes from DJ, producer, vocalist and instrumentalist Matthew Dear.

A man of many musical hats, Texas-born, Detroit-raised Dear has a wide-reaching discography that takes in techno as Jabberjaw, dark avant-pop under his own name and intricate minimal as Audion. Often with a gothic slant and full of curiousness, his pensive but playful music is an intoxicating distillation of many different influences, often with his own stylised vocals at the centre.

There are snippets of friends and family strewn throughout the mix. A lot of the vocal interludes you hear are from a portable recorder I’ve carried with me over the years.”

As co-founder of both Ghostly International and Spectral Sound, Dear has also been responsible for some of the scene’s most exciting new music, plenty of which appears here. Now more than 15 years, five albums and 20 EPs into his career, Dear is exactly the sort ofcharacter that makes the very personal DJ-Kicks series so special.

Included along the way are three brand new and exclusive cuts from Dear himself, one under his own name and two as Audion. They are typically weird and intriguing cuts that tie the whole unhinged and freaky mix together. Also helping to add to the left-of-centre afterparty vibe are inclusions by artists as diverse as Thatmanmonkz and Matrixxmann, ItaloJohnson and Pearson Sound, Randomer and Simian Mobile Disco.

I always have a lot of unreleased music laying around, those I included on here seemed to fit. A mix like this is always a good place to showcase my own productions, but I didn’t want to oversaturate it with my own stuff.”

I wanted to create a mix that could be listened to anywhere, and reflect a little bit of everything that I play. Whether you’re in your car, preparing to open the club, or having a bottle of wine with friends at home, this mix is for you.”

Tracklisting:

01. Nils Frahm “Ode”
02. Matthew Dear “Wrong With Us” (DJ-Kicks)
03. Mahal “Ongaku” (HVL Remix)
04. Monsieur Georget “Double Lune” (Third Child Boomer Mix)
05. Kreon “Silo Sol”
06. Caserta “Ricky” (Thatmanmonkz Remix)
07. Gwilym Gold x Doc Daneeka “Lust For Sale” (MGF Mix)
08. Smoke “Nuutri”
09. Decius “Bread & Butter”
10. Italojohnson “ITJ10B1”
11. Vin Sol “Instinct” (Matrixxman Remix)
12. Groovesh “Glowing”
13. Duff Disco “Feed The Horse”
14. Dudley Strangeways “Hallam”
15. Alex & Digby “Angolan Rumble”
16. Gary Sloan & Clone “Harmonitalk” (Alex & Digby Edit)
17. Randomer “Rendell Pips”
18. Markus Enochson “Hot Juice Box”
19. Simian Mobile Disco “Staring At All This Handle”
20. Pearson Sound “XLB”
21. Soulphiction “Sky So High”
22. Audion “Live Breakdown”
23. Audion “Starfucker”
24. Audion “Brines”
25. DJ Khalab & Baba Sissoko “Kumu”

Matthew Dear DJKicks is scheduled for January 27 release.