David Matthew releases album

David Matthew – Inside Traffic
www.david-matthew.bandcamp.com

The island of Ireland has always punched above its weight when it comes to producing innovative, talented musicians.

And the latest musical phenomenon to come out of the emerald isle could well be David Matthew. This insanely talented composer and producer has delved into his musical past and come up with a majestic, ambitious and brilliant debut solo album.

‘Inside Traffic’ is the result of copious musical experimentation, rejigging, remixing, polishing and tweaking. It is an album that comes from the great tradition – dating back to the 90s – of European electronica.

In fact, ‘Inside Traffic’ can be put into a continuum that goes back to Leftfield (Matthew cites their seminal album ‘Leftism’ as a major influence), Massive Attack and another Irish electronic maverick David Holmes.

But ‘Inside Traffic’ is very much Matthew’s own creation. It has his unique sound and unique take on what music should be.

It is electonica, but Matthew has an unmistakeable ear for melody that lifts the best examples of the genre out of the mediocre. In many ways, ‘Inside Traffic’ is a soundscape rather than an album. The seeds of his more recent work can be clearly heard, and his effortless fusion of so many styles, from ambient to ethnic, trip-hop to classical, marks him as an artist of formidable ability.

Matthew talks about, literally, seeing music and you can hear what he means. ‘Inside Traffic’ is a portrait of a city and of urban life as much as it is a collection of fine tunes.

He says he wants to combine music-making with poetry, art and philosophy and it’s easy to understand why. Every listen to this record brings out more layers, more depth to Matthew’s music. For all its stylistic diversity, it displays an inner unity and coherency difficult not to admire.

The man may have aspirations to be a renaissance figure, but for now we should just be happy he is finally letting us enjoy his wonderful music.