birdspanker
The whole album is great, but my favorite Matmos is abstract Matmos. The title track grooves but has wonderful noisy ambient interludes.
Favorite track: Metallic Life Review.
netr0m22
Another great album from one of my favourite bands. It might require some further listenings in order to get fully familiar with the soundscapes.
Favorite track: The Rust Belt.
Matmos’ singular compositional approach resembles the creation of sculpture. The incredibly detailed pieces that make up each album are created with carefully selected sounds that adhere to a specific conceptual framework. The duo, composed of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, makes music that defies both category and expectation, shattering notions of what electronic music is by questioning what else it could be. In the case of Metallic Life Review, what may be possible with the sound that metal objects make? By ignoring the categorical genre constraints associated with terms like found sound, music concrète, techno, glitch and, yes, “metal” and pushing into new territory, Matmos’s approach answers this question with gleeful abandon. Underpinning their adventurous and inquisitive spirits is a sense of real feeling, never shying from the difficult and unsettling moments, but embracing the breadth of human experiences that live in communication with the constraints of each project.
Metallic Life Review continues to take a seemingly impossible premise like making an album only with select, often commonplace objects like sounds of plastic (Plastic Anniversary) or a washing machine (Ultimate Care II), this time by entirely sourcing its sound from the sound of metallic objects: bronze, copper, steel, aluminium, and various alloys. In this case, they have collected field recordings of metal objects from around the world, sourced from moments across the entirety of their years as a band. This life review documents their lives together, their curious collecting, and collages 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 the finer details. By employing the strong contrast between a harsh industrial clatter and a sweet melodic dimension, a deliberate counterforce, Matmos arrive at paradox: exceptionally beautiful music wrought from metal detritus.
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, including everyday pots and pans from each member’s childhood, door scrapes recorded decades ago on a European tour, and metal “take up reels” used at the INA/GRM studios in Paris on the tape decks used to make the classic musique-concrete recordings.
The band notes that after finishing mixing the album, an undercurrent of mortality presented itself as already woven into the fabric of the record. “We have the sounds of plucking the metallic gates around a tomb recorded in an underground crypt, the sound of cemetery gates, and the death of Susan Alcorn and the death of David Lynch occurred as we completed the album,” notes Daniel. “We had already mixed the music with Susan before she passed, and we dedicate “Changing States” to her. David Lynch’s way of being an American artist was inspiring to us and we dedicated “The Chrome Reflects Our Image” to him.”
Metallic Life Review features Susan Alcorn’s pedal steel and Owen Gardner’s glockenspiel, Thor Harris’ (Water Damage/Swans) drumming, Jason Willett’s (Half Japanese) guitar, and Jeff Carey’s aluminum cans, which were melted, molded into custom aluminum rods, and then bowed and struck. The most dramatic difference from any previous Matmos album is that side two was recorded “live in the studio”, ala Throbbing Gristle’s Heathen Earth. For the first time on recording, Matmos capture the evolving, shifting, slithering dynamic that happens when they play live and let patterns emerge out of chaos and then collapse and re-form. Their playful blend of compositional brilliance and improvisational playfulness meld perfectly, truly capturing ecstatic moments in a way that can only happen live.
Metallic Life Review is a musical love story transmuted into sound, the result of a life filled with curiosity and powered by boundless exploration. Matmos have again made something spellbinding, brilliant and emotionally resonant.
credits
released June 20, 2025
Photography, illustration, collage and images by Ted Mineo
Graphic Design by M.C. Schmidt with technical assistance from Daniel Castrejón
Mastered by Rashad Becker
Thank you: Everyone who played on this recording, all of our friends and family, Bettina and everyone at Thrill Jockey, Jennifer Walshe, Jeff Carey, Josh Quillen, Sarah Hennies, Karl Ekdahl, Francois Bonnet and the INA/GRM, Luc Meier and everyone at La Becque, Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown, Emily Moore, Vicki Bennett, John Wiese, Alejandro Quiles, Obie Feldi, John Berndt, The High Zero Foundation, Davide and Elisa / Folk Wisdom, Mickey Darius, Horse Lords, Jon “Wobbly” Leidecker, Negativland, Clodagh Simonds, Sam Pluta and The Computer Music department of the Peabody Institute, Stefan Ziegler, Tavia Nyong’o, Phillip Sollman, Harry Bertoia Foundation, Bang On A Can, Wave Farm.
supported by 82 fans who also own “Metallic Life Review”
A wonderful example of what disco can be when the sound palette can include anything. Synthesizers meet strings and woodwind meet cut-up breaks meet broken glass and crickets. spacefinnerfan
supported by 77 fans who also own “Metallic Life Review”
"Promises" is a strong contender for the greatest piece of art of this decade so far. This album appeals to the classical nerd, jazz nerd, and electronic nerd parts of me all at once. Even at 80 years old, Pharoah Sanders played his tenor sax with the conviction of a gospel preacher. Every second of this album is arrestingly beautiful. As far as I'm concerned, this is essential listening for anyone who considers themselves a fan of music. 3sidesinasquare
Experimental hip-hop beats and meditative arrangements abound on this original soundtrack, the producer's first release in nearly a decade. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 3, 2019
