Matmos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Matmos | ||
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 M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel of Matmos; photograph by LissaIvy Tiegel
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| Background information | ||
| Origin | San Francisco, USA | |
| Genre(s) | Electronic music Glitch ambient techno experimental techno post-rock |
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| Years active | 1995 to Present | |
| Label(s) | Matador | |
| Associated acts |
Björk The Soft Pink Truth |
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| Website | Official Site | |
| Members | ||
| M.C. Schmidt Drew Daniel |
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Matmos is an experimental electronica duo from San Francisco on the Matador Records label. M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances, including notably J Lesser. Much of their work could be classified as a pop version of the musique concrète genre.
In 1998, Matmos remixed the Björk single Alarm Call. Subsequently, Matmos worked with Björk on her albums Vespertine (2001) and Medúlla (2004), as well as her Vespertine and Greatest Hits tours. In November of 2004, Matmos spent 97 hours in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as artists in residence, performing music with friends, musical guests and onlookers. The live album Work, Work, Work, essentially a "best of" collection of the session, was released as a free download from their website.
Schmidt busies himself working in the New Genres Department at the San Francisco Art Institute. Daniel is working on his dissertation on the literary cult of Melancholy, and a personal dance music project, The Soft Pink Truth. He is also a contributing writer to the online music magazine Pitchfork Media. Both Schmidt and Daniel appeared in the Sagan music DVD filmed by Ryan Junell.
In their recordings and live performances over the last nine years, Matmos have used the sounds of: amplified crayfish nerve tissue, the pages of bibles turning, a bowed five string banjo, slowed down whistles and kisses, water hitting copper plates, the runout groove of a vinyl record, a $5.00 electric guitar, liposuction surgery, cameras and VCRs, chin implant surgery, contact microphones on human hair, violins, rat cages, tanks of helium, violas, human skulls, cellos, peck horns, tubas, cards shuffling, field recordings of conversations in hot tubs, frequency response tests for defective hearing aids, a steel guitar recorded in a sewer, electrical interference generated by laser eye surgery, whoopee cushions and balloons, latex fetish clothing, rhinestones on a dinner plate, Polish trains, insects, ukelele, aspirin tablets hitting a drum kit from across the room, dogs barking, people reading aloud, life support systems and inflatable blankets, records chosen by the roll of dice, an acupuncture point detector conducting electrical current through human skin, rock salt crunching underfoot, solid gold coins spinning on bars of solid silver, the sound of a frozen stream thawing in the sun, a five gallon bucket of oatmeal and the vagina, uterus, and reproductive tract of a cow, among other things.
The name Matmos refers to the seething lake of evil slime beneath the city Sogo in the 1968 film Barbarella. Matmos' private record label Vague Terrain is a reference to the publishing company and bookstore in Paris that originally distributed the comic book upon which the film was based.
Contents |
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Matmos (1998, OLE-380)
- Quasi-Objects (1998, OLE-381)
- The West (1999)
- A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (2001 Mar 13, OLE-489)
- The Civil War (2003)
- The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast (2006, OLE-677)
[edit] EPs
- Full On Night Split Disc with Rachel's (2000, Quarterstick)
- California Rhinoplasty (2001 Feb 12, OLE-501)
- Rat Relocation Program (2004)
- For Alan Turing (2006)
[edit] Limited Edition
- Matmos Live with J Lesser (2002)
