As it wont to happen when you’re a couple, M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel — the inseparable-forever (hopefully!) duo known as Matmos — like DOING STUFF together.
But of course, they don’t just like doing ANY OLD stuff together; they like doing rather absurdly high-concept stuff together — e.g. 2016’s Ultimate Care II album, which consisted entirely of sounds sourced from a rather specific (and damned dependable!) Whirlpool-brand washing machine.
Well, as luck would have it, the multitudinous bangs, pops, rattles, hums, and hiccups of a gruff electrical appliance aren’t the ONLY sources of incessant noise around the Schmidt/Daniel household, because the Baltimore duo (who NOT-un-coincidentally are also celebrating their own anniversary as a couple) have just announced the March 15 release of their newest full-length flight of sonic fancy: Plastic Anniversary: an eleven-track album consisting soley “from a single sound source: plastic.” From the press release:
The album was crafted as a celebration of Matmos’ Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt’s own anniversary as a couple and explores the world’s relationship to plastic — a material whose durability, portability and longevity, while heralded by its makers, are the very qualities that make it a force of environmental devastation. Through its reliance on discarded plastic, the album shows at once the boundless creativity of Matmos and pervasive nature of the material, and therefore the urgency for solutions.
True to form, the band have assembled a promiscuous array of examples of this sturdy-yet-ersatz family of materials to create the sounds on the record: Bakelite dominos, Styrofoam coolers, police riot shields, polyethylene waste containers, PVC panpipes, pinpricks of bubble wrap, silicone gel breast implants and synthetic human fat. The bounce and snap of the duo’s programmed rhythms are supplemented by a sweatier and more unruly human element than on previous releases, provided by a surprising cast of guest musicians including Members of the horn and drumline sections of the Whitefish Highschool Bulldogs from Whitefish, Montana and drummer Greg Saunier of Deerhoof.
Aww. Adorable! And I know it sounds far off, but March 15 is right around the corner! So knock off whatever the hell else you’re doing this time of year and check out the album trailer down below — followed by its cover art and full tracklisting — and pre-order Plastic Anniversary for that special sweetheart (real or imagined) in YOUR life right over here. Love (and bubble wrap…and silicone breast implants…and synthetic human fat!) really does conquer all. <3
Plastic trax:
01. Breaking Bread
02. The Crying Pill
03. Interior With Billiard Balls & Synthetic Fat
04. Extending The Plastisphere To GJ237b
05. Silicone Gel Implant
06. Plastic Anniversary
07. Thermoplastic Riot Shield
08. Fanfare For Polyethylene Waste Containers
09. The Singing Tube
10. Collapse Of The Fourth Kingdom
11. Plastisphere