Matmos
{{short description|American electronic music duo}}
{{for-multi|the fictional entity|Mathmos (fictional entity)|the album|Matmos (album){{!}}Matmos (album)}}
{{More citations needed|date=October 2012}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Matmos
| image = File:Matmos.jpg
| caption = M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel at the 2006 Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago
| image_size =
| background = group_or_band
| alias =
| origin = San Francisco, U.S.
| instrument =
| genre = {{flatlist|
}}
| occupation =
| years_active = 1995–present
| label = {{flatlist|
}}
| associated_acts = {{flatlist|
}}
| website = [https://web.archive.org/web/20040401140835/http://www.brainwashed.com/matmos/ Official Site]
| current_members = M.C. Schmidt
Drew Daniel
| past_members =
}}
Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo formed in San Francisco and based in Baltimore. M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances notably including J Lesser. Apart from releasing twelve full-length studio albums and numerous collaborative works, Matmos is also well known for their collaboration with Icelandic singer and musician Björk, both on studio recordings and live tours. After being signed to Matador Records for nine years, Matmos signed with Thrill Jockey in 2012.[http://vague-terrain.com/2012/matmos-plays-shows-changes-teams/ announcement] on the official website (July 20, 2012) The name Matmos refers to the seething lake of evil slime beneath the city Sogo in the 1968 film Barbarella.{{Cite web|date=2013-10-11|title=Album: Matmos|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-matmos-87610.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-matmos-87610.html |archive-date=2022-05-12 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2021-10-17|website=The Independent|language=en}}
Notable work
In 1998, Matmos remixed the Björk single "Alarm Call". Then the duo worked with Björk on her albums Vespertine (2001) and Medúlla (2004), as well as the Vespertine and Greatest Hits tours. In November 2004, Matmos spent 97 hours in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as artists-in-residence, performing music with friends, musical guests and onlookers. The live album Work, Work, Work, essentially a "best of" collection of the session, was released as a free download on their website.
Matmos gained notoriety for their use of unconventional samples including "freshly cut hair" and "the amplified neural activity of crayfish" on their first albumCooper, Sean (2008). [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p224164/biography|pure_url=yes}} "Matmos"], AllMusicGuide.com and "recorded the snips, clicks, snaps, and squelches of various surgical procedures, then nipped and tucked them into seven remarkably accessible, melodic pieces of experimental techno" for their album A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure.Phares, Heather (2008). [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r523131|pure_url=yes}} "A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure"], AllMusicGuide.com. In 2011, Matmos participated in a programmed evening of events with the visual arts organisation Auto Italia South East. The event was produced in collaboration with record label [http://www.upsettherhythm.co.uk/ Upset The Rhythm] and included contributions from experimental electronic musicians Jon Wiese and Birds of Delay. Matmos have since collaborated with a large number of visual artists and arts organisations, including Cafe Oto and [http://www.metalculture.com/ Metal].{{cite web|url=https://www.thewire.co.uk/video/matmos-live-at-auto-italia|title=Matmos Live At Auto Italia - The Wire|first=Nathan|last=Budzinski|website=The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music|access-date=18 August 2015}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jun/16/digital-park-netpark-southend|title=Digital park delivers talking trees and a fishy monster in the pond|first=Nicola|last=Davis|newspaper=The Observer |date=16 June 2015|via=www.theguardian.com|access-date=18 August 2015}}
In 2015, Matmos appeared in Soundhunters, a documentary directed by Beryl Koltz and broadcast on the Franco-German channel arte as well as on many channels abroad.{{Citation|title=Soundhunters|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4458220/|access-date=2019-07-17}} In September 2023, the duo announced their album Return to Archive would be released marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Smithsonian Folkways label, with a three-hour free concert at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. in which they remixed field recordings from the label's catalogue in octophonic sound.{{Cite web |title=Matmos Plays the Sounds of Folkways Records |url=https://hirshhorn.si.edu/event/matmos-plays-the-sounds-of-folkways-records/ |access-date=2023-09-10 |website=Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden {{!}} Smithsonian |language=en}}
=Hit Em=
{{Tweet
| name = DREW DANIEL
| username = DDDrewDaniel
| replyto =
| text = had a dream I was at a rave talking to a girl and she told me about a genre called “hit em” that is in 5/4 time at 212 bpm with super crunched out sounds thank you dream girl
| date = Jul 29, 2024
| ID = 1817910903557570569
}}
In 2024, Daniel tweeted about a new musical genre called "Hit Em" which he claims to have learned about during a dream while he was asleep; in the tweet he described the genre to be fixed at 212 BPM and {{music|time|5|4}} time signature.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefader.com/2024/08/01/hit-em-crunchy-new-genre-sound|title=Hit 'em is the summer's crunchiest and most unlikely new genre|website=The FADER}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/aug/02/hit-em-matmos-drew-daniel-dreamed-the-summer-weirdest-club-sound|title=Hit em: how a dream about raves, graves and slime led Matmos's Drew Daniel to a new music genre|first=Daniel Dylan|last=Wray|date=August 2, 2024|newspaper=The Guardian}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.musicradar.com/news/hit-em-viral-tweet-genre|title="It's in 5/4 time at 212 bpm with super crunched out sounds": Producers respond with real tracks following viral tweet about made-up genre discovered in dream|first=Matt|last=Mullenpublished|date=July 31, 2024|website=MusicRadar}} The post went viral, with electronic music producers attempting to create examples of the fictional genre.
Personal lives
Schmidt and Daniel are a couple.{{Cite web|url=https://buttmagazine.com/interviews/matmos/|title=Matmos|website=Butt}} Daniel received a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley with a dissertation on the literary cult of melancholy directed by Janet Adelman. He is an associate professor in the English department at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.{{cite web |url=http://english.jhu.edu/directory/drew-daniel/ |title=Drew Daniel |website=English, Johns Hopkins University|date=3 August 2015 }} That had the band moving from San Francisco to Baltimore in August 2007. Daniel also has a personal dance music project, the Soft Pink Truth. He is a contributing writer to Pitchfork, an online magazine, and he wrote the 33 1/3 book about Throbbing Gristle's 1979 album 20 Jazz Funk Greats in addition to two books of literary criticism.
Schmidt formerly worked as a teacher in the New Genres Department at the San Francisco Art Institute, and is a professor of music technology at Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Institute and the president of the High Zero Foundation, which organizes Baltimore's annual High Zero festival of improvised music.{{Cite web |title=Faculty: Martin Schmidt |url=https://peabody.jhu.edu/faculty/martin-schmidt/ |access-date=2023-11-29 |website=Peabody Institute |language=en-US}} Both Schmidt and Daniel appeared in the Sagan music short Unseen Forces by Ryan Junell.
Discography
=Albums=
=EPs=
- Full On Night Split Disc with Rachel's (2000, Quarterstick)
- California Rhinoplasty (2001 Feb 12, OLE-501)
- Rat Relocation Program (2004)
- For Alan Turing (2006)
- The Ganzfeld EP (2012, on Thrill Jockey 315){{cite AV media |url=https://vimeo.com/51230173|title=Matmos - Very Large Green Triangles|work=Thrill Jockey Records|date=11 October 2012|via=Vimeo}}{{Cite web |url=https://boingboing.net/2012/11/05/matmoss-ganzfeld-ep-electro.html |title=Matmos's Ganzfeld EP: electronica meets ESP |website=Boing Boing |date=5 November 2012 |language=en-US |access-date=2019-03-15}}
=Limited edition=
- Matmos Live with J Lesser (2002)
- A Viable Alternative to Actual Sexual Contact, as Vague Terrain Recordings (2002, Piehead Records)
- "A Paradise of Dainty Devices: interludes, micromedia & sound edits" (limited edition of 100, for their "Wet Hot EuroAmerican Summer Tour", 2007)
- Polychords : Promo Single released on Matador
- I Want Snowden/Sheremetyevo Breakdown Blues, split single with the Disco Yahtzee Empire (2013){{cite web|url=https://music.metason.net/artistinfo?name=Matmos|title=Matmos|last=Metason|website=ArtistInfo}}{{cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/Matmos-The-Disco-Yahtzee-Empire-I-Want-Snowden-Sheremetyevo-Breakdown-Blues/release/5264240|title=Matmos & The Disco Yahtzee Empire - I Want Snowden / Sheremetyevo Breakdown Blues|website=Discogs|date=July 2013 }}
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
{{refbegin}}
- {{Cite web |last1=Doyle |first1=Tom |title=Matmos: The Art of Cut & Paste |work=Sound on Sound |date=May 2004 |url=https://www.soundonsound.com/people/matmos |language=en |access-date=2024-11-10 |df=mdy-all }}
{{refend}}
External links
{{commons category}}
- {{official website}}
- [http://www.matadorrecords.com/matmos/ Matmos page at Matador Records]
- [http://www.myspace.com/matmos1 Matmos at Myspace]
- [http://www.furious.com/perfect/matmos.html Matmos at furious.com]
{{Matmos|state=expanded}}
{{The Soft Pink Truth}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Electronic music groups from California
Category:Intelligent dance musicians
Category:American electronic music duos
Category:American male musical duos
Category:LGBTQ-themed musical groups
Category:American LGBTQ musicians
Category:Musical groups established in 1995
Category:1995 establishments in California
Category:Thrill Jockey artists