Matmos

For fictional place, see Barbarella (comic book).

Matmos
M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel at Pitchfork Music Festival 2006
Background information
Origin	San Francisco, U.S.
Genres	Electronic, experimental, glitch, ambient techno, post-rock, post-industrial
Years active	1995–present
Labels	Matador, Thrill Jockey
Associated acts	Björk The Soft Pink Truth Disc
Website	Official Site
Members	M.C. Schmidt Drew Daniel

Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore. 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. Apart from releasing seven full-length studio albums and numerous collaborative works, Matmos is also well known for their collaboration with Icelandic singer and musician Björk, both on studio recordings and live tours. After being signed to Matador Records for nine years, Matmos signed with Thrill Jockey in 2012. The name Matmos refers to the seething lake of evil slime beneath the city Sogo in the 1968 film Barbarella.

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 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 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.

In 2011, Matmos participated in a programmed evening of events with the visual arts organisation Auto Italia South East. The event was produced in collaboration with record label Upset The Rhythm and included contributions from experimental electronic musicians Jon Wiese and Birds of Delay. Matmos have since collaborated with a large number of visual artists and arts organisations, including Cafe Otto and Metal.

Personal life

M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are also a 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 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 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 film Unseen Forces by Ryan Junell.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album details
1997	Matmos Released: 1997 Label: Vague Terrain
1998	Quasi-Objects Released: June 16, 1998 Label: Vague Terrain
1999	The West Released: 1999 Label: Deluxe
2001	A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure Released: March 13, 2001 Label: Matador
2003	The Civil War Released: September 23, 2003 Label: Matador
2006	The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast Released: May 9, 2006 Label: Matador
2008	Supreme Balloon Released: May 6, 2008 Label: Matador
2010	Treasure State (with So Percussion) Released: July 13, 2010 Label: Cantaloupe Music
2013	The Marriage of True Minds Released: February 19, 2013 Label: Thrill Jockey
2016	Ultimate Care II Released: Currently unreleased Label: Thrill Jockey

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)
• The Ganzfeld EP (2012, on Thrill Jockey 315) [1]

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)
• Polychords : Promo Single released on Matador

External links

• Official website
• Matmos page at Matador Records
• Matmos at DMOZ
• Matmos at Myspace
• Matmos at furious.com
• XLR8R TV Episode on Matmos
• Art of the States: Matmos "Y.T.T.E." and "The Stars and Stripes Forever" from The Civil War (2003)

Interviews

• Burns, Todd L. Matmos RBMA video lecture session February 2010
• Calvi, Danny and Jop van Bennekom Matmos Experimental Duo Makes Music and meets President at Hysterical Party.” Butt Magazine 5 (Autumn 2005).
• Decaycast (ed.). “Decaycast #002: Matmos Interview.” October 15, 2006 (30 min., MP3).
• Flanagan, Marc. “Aural Surgeons.” Matmos interview. Artbyte Magazine, 2001.
• Golden, Barbara. “Conversation with Matmos (Drew Daniels and Martin Schmidt).” eContact! 12.2 — Interviews (2) (April 2010). Montréal: CEC.
• Mudge, Alex. Interview with Matmos Aural States blog. February 20, 2008.
• Sheridan, Molly. Ultimate Concept: Deconstructing Matmos.” New Music Box — “People & Ideas in Profile.” Baltimore MA, September 14, 2008. Published October 1, 2008 (includes video).
• Thorne, Jesse. “Your Brain on Music with Matmos and Daniel J. Levitin.” The Sound of Young America, February 21, 2007.
• Vivancos, Valérie and Rodolphe Alexis. “We’re a Half-Breed Music Mutant Thing.” Vibrö. Paris, June 1, 2004.