Matmos – ‘Metallic Life Review’ album review: about as metal as it gets
THE SKINNY: It’s not like experimental electronic duo Matmos have ever been short of an idea. From making albums entirely out of washing machine noises to operating theatre sounds, and one generated entirely from ideas that were sent telepathically to test subjects, the Baltimore-based duo of Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt have pretty much covered all bases. However, given they made Plastic Anniversary, an album made of sounds created by plastic, in 2019, it was only a matter of time before a metallic album was made.
It’s a singular approach to sampling and field recording that has always set the duo apart from any of their peers, and Metallic Life Review is absolutely no different. With tightening wrenches, rustling nuts and bolts and creaking doors all being noises present on the album, it’s always fascinating to see just how far Matmos can stretch the parameters of what items can produce musically intriguing sounds, and their entirely metal soundscapes here are just as fresh as on past outings.
Sure, any sceptic might think you could just walk through a scrapyard bashing things and call it day, but this erases all of the painstaking effort that goes into finding the right field recordings, the composition and layering of samples afterwards, and how the duo creates new textures from things that aren’t usually considered musical in the slightest. If it doesn’t inspire you to have a rummage through your shed and hit everything just to see what sound it makes, then perhaps the album isn’t going to be to your taste, but if it does, then you’re beginning to think like Matmos do.
It’s not just non-instruments that have gone into the process, though, as there are plenty of guest musicians playing their metallic instruments of choice across the album, with Thor Harris of Swans and Water Damage on drums, Half Japanese’s Jason Willett on guitar, and Jeff Carey on bowed aluminium rods. It isn’t just untuned metallic abrasion throughout the duration of the record, but it is utterly chaotic.
From a point of musical ambition, all Matmos records are a glorious achievement, but when they continue to surprise listeners with how engaging they can make the smallest fragments of sound trigger an emotive response, that’s when it becomes all the more impressive. Nothing seems out of reach for the duo as they enter their fourth decade of working together, and if you’re secretly hoping that their wood album is coming soon, don’t worry, it’s probably somewhere in the pile of other zany ideas they’ve got up their sleeves.
For fans of: Coins, copper pipes, cutlery, and essentially anything you can put your hands on from that drawer in the hallway.
A concluding comment from a used car salesman: “I’ve always wondered what became of those two strange gentlemen who bought the 1958 Austin-Healey Sprite for ‘an experiment’. Hope they’re doing well.”
Metallic Life Review track by track:
Release Date: June 20th | Producer: Drew Daniel & MC Schmidt | Label: Thrill Jockey
‘Norway Doorway’: Who knew that creaking industrial doors could sound so great in the context of a dance track? With layers of gongs, bells and what sounds like a dying trumpet but probably isn’t, we’re immediately thrust into the metallic soundscape of the record with a dark, pulsating Gamelan-inspired groove. For how goofy all of their experiments sound on paper, let it be known that Matmos aren’t messing around. [4/5]
‘The Rust Belt’: Without wanting to reduce Daniel and Schmidt’s work to a faddish pseudoscientific trend, the opening to the second track sounds like it was taken directly from an ASMR video where the presenter is rifling through a toolbox. It then morphs into alien junkyard techno, though, and I won’t complain about that one bit. [3.5/5]
‘Changing States’: While the first two songs showcase the abrasive sounds that metal can make and generate disturbing soundscapes from their samples, ‘Changing States’ offers the reverse. With its twinkling xylophone melodies and softer palette, this is perhaps the prettiest moment on the record, and a loving tribute to pioneering pedal steel player Susan Alcorn, who passed during the album’s creation. [4.5/5]
‘Steel Tongues’: Opening with a rhythm that sounds like a tabla, although is likely to be a sheet of metal being bent, ‘Steel Tongues’ is another song that starts off on the gorgeous side of things but morphs into some jarring moments of outright cacophony. [4/5]
‘The Chrome Reflects Our Image’: With its reverberating guitar tone, this song is designed to mimic Julee Cruise and Angelo Badalamenti’s ‘Falling’, which was used as the theme for Twin Peaks. Again, a loving tribute to an icon in David Lynch, yet bizarrely, one of the least disorienting moments that the record has to offer. [4/5]
‘Metallic Life Review’: The final track takes up half of the record with its 20-minute runtime, and is unusual for Matmos in that it captures them performing live in their studio rather than piecing together elements. Technically and texturally, it’s a fascinating listen as sounds build up and then decay, but given how different it sounds from the first half, this closer almost feels like it would be easier to appreciate outside of the context of the rest of the record, and in its original live environment. [3.5/5]
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