Matmos – Ultimate Care II (Thrill Jockey Records)
LP / CD
19 February 2016
8.5 / 10
Experimental electronic duo release their new album.
If listening to the sound of a washing machine cycle for thirty-eight
minutes isn’t your thing, then maybe you don’ t have the imagination and
curiosity to listen to the new Matmos album.
From the basement of their Baltimore home, Messrs Drew Daniel and M.C.
Schmidt have shown their true creativity by taking the sounds made by a
Whirlpool Ultimate Care II washing machine and creating a truly mind-blowing
album.
If you’ve ever stood next to an electrical appliance, found yourself
mesmerised by its sound and discovered that you are actually tapping a finger or
shuffling a foot to its noises then you’ll completely understand where Matmos
have borne their ideas. Beginning with the
trickle of running water into the machine drum and slowly building up to repetitive
cacophony of noises the album is a refreshing delight.
No strangers to the unconventional, Daniel and Schmidt and have in their
twenty-year existence played ‘music’ on the uterus and reproductive tract of a
cow, a collection of conch shells belonging to John Cage and canisters of helium.
With guest appearances from members of Horse Lords, Half Japanese and
Needle Gun popping along to help with the laundry and then proceeding to bang
the machine like a drum or process sounds via samplers. Spin cycle hums, rinse cycle splashes and any
number of clunks and clanks are joined by manufactured blips and bleeps to make
it all sound extremely palatable.
Sometimes sounding like drone, sometimes like krautrock, there are even movements
that could have come straight from a traditional Malian background. Segments which can be mistaken as horns,
drums and xylophones are actually samples from the sound of the machine which have
been manipulated and re-fed into the mix.
Some would argue that Ultimate Care II isn’t music, and some would be
wrong. What it is is a joining of two
very imaginative minds into one very entertaining end result and whilst the concept
of it will have its detractors, there will be an equal amount who find it absolutely
compelling listening.
Links
Thrill Jockey Records
Matmos website
Drew Daniel on Twitter
M.C. Schmidt on Twitter
Matmos on Facebook
Matmos on hiapop Blog
Published on Louder Than War 16/02/16 - here
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