So I rolled up to the break room in this very cool office at this very cool job I work at. I hear two co-workers chitter chattering, and one of ‘em says, “Yeah, and you know they made the whole album using sounds from a washing machine?” So, with that, I casually busted in and was all like, “Are you guys playing six degrees of worn out Sunn O))) jokes or are you talking about some new Matmos album?” and they nodded “yeah.” “Did you read the press release, too, Taylor?” I just grinned and said, “Nah, I haven’t read a press release in three years. That just sounds like a new Matmos album to me,” and all of us just laughed and laughed, because we’re cool and work in a cool office and get jokes about electronic and experimental music.
About that new album, though: it’s called Ultimate Care II, and it’s named for the Whirlpool Ultimate Care II model washing machine that served as the source of the album’s litany of “rhythmic chugs, spin cycle drones, rinse cycle splashes, metallic clanks, and electronic beeps.” That’s cool, but also pretty much just par for the Matmos course, who in the past have structured albums around Ganzfield experiments, the sounds of surgery, and “the concept of Americana.” Matmos’ Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt are joined on the album by collaborators such as Dan Deacon, Max Eilbacher and Sam Haberman of Horse Lords, Jason Willett of Half Japanese, and Duncan Moore of Needle Gun, several of whom actually do laundry with the machine in question.
Ultimate Care II is out February 19 on Thrill Jockey. Check out an excerpt from the album below, and pre-order it here (it’s even available in “very dirty laundry”-colored vinyl if you’re feeling saucy).
Ultimate Care II tracklist:
01. Ultimate Care II