Matmos, the duo of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, have shared new single “Steel Tongues,” taken from their upcoming album Metallic Life Review, out June 20th. The track’s loping bassline is constructed from a metallic salad bowl, gently propelling the piece as layers of glockenspiel and steel tongue drum dance in sweet melodies atop before grinding towards a scraping conclusion.
Matmos’ Drew Daniel elaborates on the themes and construction of the piece:
“This song has a kind of buried allegory about capitalism inside it: the rhythm is partially made out of clinking a handful of American quarters, and some of the beat is made by sampling one of those “executive desk toys” called a “Newton’s cradle” that you used to see on the desks of people in the 1980s, the one with the swinging metal balls. But the last sound of the song is the distorted noise made by the gates of a cemetery. There is a buried (not to pun) mortality theme on this album, and this song has a kind of easy, gentle beat made out of money that leads the listener straight to the grave. So there is a dark humor behind the assemblage that might not be apparent to a casual listener but is a kind of inner joke for us, or an Easter egg.”
Matmos’ singular compositional approach resembles the creation of sculpture. The incredibly detailed pieces that make up each album are created with carefully selected sounds that adhere to a specific conceptual framework. The duo makes music that defies both category and expectation, shattering notions of what electronic music is by questioning what else it could be. In the case of Metallic Life Review, what may be possible with the sound that metal objects make? By ignoring the categorical genre constraints associated with terms like found sound, music concrète, techno, glitch and, yes, “metal” and pushing into new territory, Matmos’s approach answers this question with gleeful abandon.
A “life review” is a phrase used to describe the psychological phenomena reported by people who have survived near death experiences: the sense captured in the phrase “my life flashed before my eyes.” Metallic Life Review is a kind of compressed fast-forward of Matmos’ career with a sonic parade of the metallic objects from their lives. The sounds on the album were captured over the entire length of the existence of Matmos as a band, including everyday pots and pans from each member’s childhood, door scrapes recorded decades ago on a European tour, and metal “take up reels” used at the INA/GRM studios in Paris on the tape decks used to make the classic musique-concrete recordings.
Matmos are actively touring in support of the album, finishing their UK/EU tour this week and kicking off their US tour with an album release show at Knockdown Center in New York.
Matmos tour dates
Jun. 12 – Vienna, AT – Flucc
Jun. 14 – London, UK – Rio Cinema
Jun. 21 – New York City, NY – Knockdown Center
Jun. 25 – Philadelphia, PA – Solar Myth
Jun. 29 – Chicago, IL – Constellation
Jul. 3 – Louisville, KY – Art Sanctuary
Jul. 4 – Pittsburgh, PA – The Government Center
Jul. 8 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
Jul. 11 – Los Angeles, CA – 2220 Arts
Jul. 16 – Portland, OR – Holocene
Aug. 30 – Washington, DC – Black Cat
Nov. 22-28 – Santa Cruz de Tenerife, ES – Espacio Cultural el Tanque / Keroxen Festival
