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 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Matmos - Ultimate Care II [Thrill Jockey - 2016]

I crossed paths with Matmos many years back, but truth be told, this is probably only the second album I’ve heard by them. I’m reviewing a digital copy, and I merely have the sounds and the album cover - not that I should need anything else. Ultimate Care II is one long track, just over 38 minutes long, and it concerns the workings of the common, household washing machine. For the uninitiated, Matmos are best known for taking recordings of non-musical objects or things, and then transforming these sounds into music - often ending up somewhere between danceable electronica and more austere electroacoustics. This curious little album follows a snaking, restless path through these two areas.

The album begins with the sound of a dial being twisted, before gurgling water fills the speakers, and a thudding, lurching beat appears. This rhythm is built on with metallic clangs and gong-like sounds, with screaming sounds - akin to synths - adding melodic touches. Then, after a short detour into a more abstract section (pushing, pulling and stretching sounds), a more thumping, overtly beat-orientated passage emerges - and really, thats a reasonable flavour of what the album does in its entirety. Ultimate Care II cleverly passes and flits through various sections, all quite different, but held together by masterful ‘organic’ transitions and development, as well as the restricted palette of sounds the washing machine provides. These sounds are established very quickly, in the beginnings that I outlined above: essentially metallic percussions and lengthier sounds drawn from processing. The metallic clangs are processed to various degrees, and deployed sometimes simply, sometimes in juddering, stuttering breaks and rhythms. The lengthier sounds are often more fun. I suspect a wet finger squeaked across a plastic surface, is the raw material for many of the shrieks and melodies to be heard on Ultimate Care II. These shrieks resemble elephant calls at points, whilst a section around the twenty-first minute mark creates rave stabs that sound like monkeys, over ominous bass notes. Approaching thirty minutes, there’s a long section - which in itself stands out, since the bulk of the album moves very quickly - where Matmos simply process a recording of the machine at work; filtering it, and producing a chug reminiscent of Conrad Schnitzler’s Zug. The album ends in a colourful burst of AFX-esque histrionics, all shattering beats and skittish rhythms.

This is a very clever album, without ever sounding smug or superior - and that’s important. Matmos very skilfully balance the more cerebral potential of their work, with nods to melodic electronica and, indeed, the dancefloor outright. Despite the undoubted ability of the duo, the sound palette does remains somewhat restricted (and percussive); but, in fairness, the listener rarely perceives this, with Matmos travelling through ideas concisely. The album is indeed a very ‘quick’ listen - the immersive piece motors by, never dragging for a second, and on several listens I was surprised when the ending suddenly appeared. To return to the ‘sound palette’, it raises interesting ideas about processing. This notion of transforming a simple, mundane object’s sound into something greater; is something that has always appealed to me - I’m a long time fan of Aube, for example. This approach always runs the risk of cleverness for cleverness’ sake; though, as I said above, Matmos avoid this. However, what is interesting - and this goes for many uses of transformed ‘found’ sounds - is the actual degree to which sounds are processed. With the level of technology available to the duo, they could very easily have created an album which bore no sonic resemblance at all to the bare sounds of a washing machine. Instead, they have left many sounds ‘raw’ or hardly processed. It’s almost a trick. The selling point of the album hinges around the notion of expanding the sonic potential of a non-musical object, yet many elements of the album sound precisely like said object. To be clear, this is no criticism of Matmos at all; beyond anything else, raw sounds are often more interesting and compelling without processing, and this may well have guided their decisions. I’m merely using them, and Ultimate Care II, to illustrate this general idea of making a piece of music from a source material, expanding on that source material, but regardless presenting a piece that still sounds like that source - possibly because otherwise some listeners might feel ‘cheated’ or short-changed in some way. It’s a curious thing, almost an act of overt showbusiness - not a bad thing at all, given the ‘cleverness’ issue. Anyway, I digress. This is a great, rich album; indelibly linked to a washing machine. The Aphex Twin, remixing Einstürzende Neubauten and Test Dept, doing his laundry in the background.

Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

Martin P
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