In Matmos' new album, The Civil War, drummers, buglers and tin whistlers incite bravery in the hearts of soldiers with patriotic tunes and... laptops?
In The Civil War, artists Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt take electronic music on a trip through a century-and-a-half of American and English music history.
In the electronica community, Daniel and Schmidt are known for experimental sound assemblages that include unique sound sources like liposuction and amplified crayfish nerve tissue. In The Civil War, Daniel and Schmidt coax music out of a rabbit pelt, sewer pipe and other unlikely sources, but the real icing on the album comes from a rich blend of organic traditional sounds and electronica.
To make The Civil War, Daniel and Schmidt invited other musicians to help recreate stylistic music samples from as far back as the 1850s, which they then manipulated with techno beats and sound samples. In addition to music from the nineteenth century, The Civil War digests an eclectic range of traditional music styles. \Reconstruction,"" for instance, starts out with a Civil War drum roll but quickly slides into country western twang while ""For the Trees"" rolls slowly through a rural piano piece and ""Regicide"" leisurely soaks in a medieval marinade.
At its best, The Civil War filters the defining features of American and English traditional music through a complementary lacework of digital sounds. At its weakest, the album either drowns the traditional styles out with electronic and sampled sounds, as in ""Pelt and Holler,"" or does not add enough of them, as in ""For the Trees (Return)."" The latter is just a poorly-composed folk song; its only redeeming quality is that it comes at the end of the album rather than punctuating an otherwise enjoyable listening experience.
The Civil War cultivates fresh territory between traditional music and shiny modern-day electronica that will be a treat for fans who would like to hear a little organic matter seep into their laptops.
