matmos

An ear-tingling work of manipulated field recordings that stretch back over the three decades that Matmos have been crafting their scintillating and boundary-pushing soundscapes - here they veer from gentle twinkles to industrial blasts, reinventing the notion of "heavy metal" in the process.

'Metallic Life Review' is the sound of two people who have collected field recordings of metal objects from around the world for years of their lives together, collaging their magpie hoard into rhythmic patterns, sometimes writing melodies and basslines, but sometimes just letting sound be sound. Patient gathering yields to ADHD editing. Painstakingly made but blink and you’ll miss it. Is it music or is it noise? It is without a doubt exceptionally beautiful music wrought from metal detritus. By employing the strong contrast between a harsh industrial clatter-fest and a sweeter melodic dimension that acts as a deliberate counterforce, Matmos created an album that is utterly delightful. 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.