Matmos

Biography

Recognising a shared obsession with texture and rhythm, Drew Daniel and MC Martin Schmidt began recording together in 1995 after a honeymoon period of art-noise cassette swapping. Sound sources on the San Francisco, USA-based duo’s Matmos included a ‘$5 electric guitar’, ‘amplified hair, breathing, bowls of water’ and ‘bass sounds sampled from the amplified synapse of crayfish neural tissue’. On the follow-up, Quasi Objects, also released on their own Vague Terrain label, Matmos credit ‘sounds generated by manipulating a stretched wet latex T-shirt’, ‘source material gathered entirely from the human body’, and ‘a single sample of a phonograph needle skipping on the run-out groove of a vinyl LP whose name can’t be revealed for legal reasons.’ The use of such samples may strike as a gimmick but Matmos’ manipulation of sound transcends novelty. Their recordings are innovative and engrossing,...

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