Matmos

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Matmos
Origin	San Francisco, U.S.
Genre(s)	Electronic music Post-Industrial Glitch ambient techno experimental techno post-rock
Years active	1995 to Present
Label(s)	Matador
Associated acts	Björk The Soft Pink Truth
Website	Official Site
Members
M.C. Schmidt Drew Daniel

Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo from San Francisco signed to the Matador Records label. M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances, including notably J Lesser. Much of their work could be classified as a pop version of the musique concrète genre^{[citation needed]}.

Contents 1 Notable work 2 Personal life 3 Trivia 4 Discography 4.1 Albums 4.2 EPs 4.3 Limited edition 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Notable work

In 1998, Matmos remixed the Björk single Alarm Call. Subsequently, Matmos worked with Björk on her albums Vespertine (2001) and Medúlla (2004), as well as her Vespertine and Greatest Hits tours. In November of 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 from their website.

Matmos gained notoriety for their use of samples including "freshly cut hair" and "the amplified neural activity of crayfish" on their first album ^[1] 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 ^[2].

[edit] Personal life

M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are also a romantic couple, as stated in an interview in BUTT Magazine.

Schmidt formerly worked as a teacher in the New Genres Department at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Daniel has successfully defended his dissertation on the literary cult of Melancholy, directed by Janet Adelman at the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of English at Johns Hopkins University. This brought the band to relocate their home base to Baltimore, MD, in August 2007. Daniel also has a personal dance music project, The Soft Pink Truth. He is a contributing writer to the online music magazine Pitchfork Media, and wrote an essay about the Throbbing Gristle album, 20 Jazz Funk Greats for the Continuum Books series, "33 1/3". Both Schmidt and Daniel appeared in the Sagan music DVD filmed by Ryan Junell.

The band includes their mailing address in their album liner notes. Currently it is : 2920 Wyman Parkway, Baltimore, MD 21211

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The name Matmos refers to the seething lake of evil slime beneath the city Sogo in the 1968 film Barbarella. The alternate spelling, "Mathmos," is used by a lava lamp manufacturer.
• Matmos' private record label Vague Terrain is a reference to the publishing company and bookstore in Paris that originally distributed the comic book upon which the film was based.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

• Matmos (1998, OLE-380)
• Quasi-Objects (1998, OLE-381)
• The West (1999)
• A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (March 13, 2001, OLE-489)
• The Civil War (2003)
• The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast (2006, OLE-677)
• Supreme Balloon (2008) [1]

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Aural States blog interviews Matmos, Part 1 (02-18-2008)
• XLR8R TV Episode on Matmos
• Interview from Butt Magazine
• Official Website
• Matmos page at Matador Records
• Matmos at the Open Directory Project
• Interview on The Sound of Young America (2006)
• DecayCast Interview with Matmos 2006 (30min. MP3)
• interview Paris 2004
• Matmos interview Artbyte Magazine 2001
• Art of the States: Matmos "Y.T.T.E." and "The Stars and Stripes Forever" from The Civil War (2003)