(MATADOR RECORDS)
What the�?
San Francisco-based eccentrics Drew Daniel and M C Schmidt sure do share the craziest of musical visions I ever did hear, and should you hear this yourself you'll find it nigh impossible not to agree that their Matmos project is indeed 'way out there' as far as bizarre experimental music is concerned.
Essentially a demented concept album of nine tracks that range in length from short 2 or 3-minute wonders to the two 9-minute epics of 'Reconstruction' and 'Yield To Total Elation,' you can't help but be compelled by their overblown fusion of musical styles that means almost every single instrument known to man and under the sun has actually physically been used in the recording of this under-stated masterpiece of Prog-Everything!
This is contemporary, mind-bending and cutting edge ambience music with a breathtakingly original twist - and quite possibly heralds a new brand of complex creativity. UK singer-songwriter Daniel Patrick Quinn treads a vaguely similar path as these guys (who are, incidentally, joined throughout the album by a busload of multi-instrumentalist friends, a la The Polyphonic Spree's set-up in all its glory) with his brooding Celtic-flavoured music. One fundamental difference though, and that is Matmos don't have any lyrics whatsoever - and yet The Civil War's 45 minutes still fail to drag through being so original.
Most of the tracks are chaotically complex, fleshed to the max by sounds being emitted from samplers, sequencers, emergency alarm systems and genuinely weeping violins, the latter instruments of which produce a sound reminiscent to Canadian's visionary electric violin-player Oliver Schloer's.
'For The Trees (Return)' is the highlight and is underpinned by a subtly lilting, Jazz-lubed tune.
Away from such brief shards of melody, this release is not for the faint-hearted or hard of hearing. In a word (or two), the fantastically forward-thinking music of Matmos - and beyond - is utterly perplexing. 5/5 (Steve Rudd)