Matmos is an experimental abstract music duo based in Baltimore, made up of M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel who frequently host collaborators on their projects. Each project is highly conceptual, with Martin and Drew alternating who decides on the concept, with the latest release ‘The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form’ taking on 99 different collaborators, all being told that they can play any instrument they like, as long as it is 99 bpm. The result is one unified group effort, a fast paced but very long (almost 3 hours) of tracks that really well encapsulates what they’re all about.
The album that originally caught my eye was ‘The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form’ it was just weird enough to intrigue me but also still adhering to enough standards of music to be entertaining. However after learning more about Matmos, and beginning to explore a few more of their projects, I found the sound, and the concept around ‘Plastic Anniversary’ to be far more alluring, as the bandcamp description for the album puts it “Plastic Anniversary is… derived from a single sound source: plastic.”. Having heard the whole thing without knowing this beforehand it only made me love it more, there is a small, squeaky, ‘tangy’ quality to the tracks that are sampled so well, keeping the soul of the object whilst also reusing them for artistic, almost saving the soul of it, a kind of spiritual recycling. The early tracks are bouncy and cute, bringing to mind the parade scene from paprika. However as the album progresses the tracks become darker, this is well encapsulated with ‘collapse of the fourth kingdom’, as plastic was originally described as ‘the fourth kingdom’ after animal vegetable and mineral. It emulates and reflects the collapse of the planet, the destruction of this planet thanks to this material that fills our oceans and lands.
This use of sampling is so interesting to me it takes the object/objects and utilises their qualities extremely effectively, it’s inspiring the sense of space they are able to create, with a decent pair of headphones you are transported into the realm of plastic, it manages to create a 3d space only in stereo, with certain elements feeling as if they are placed very specifically above me, while others sit just in front of me it is totally immersive and makes me really reflect my own sound design for my podcast, I often try my best to create spaces that are truly effective in immersing the listener, to varying degrees of success. And so I’m truly awed by Matmos’ ability to place sounds all around yout, while still keeping each sample a part of the one, cohesive, composition