Metallic Life Review

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Metallic Life Review is the sound of two people who have collected field recordings of metal objects from around the world for years of their lives together, collaging their magpie hoard into rhythmic patterns, sometimes writing melodies and basslines, but sometimes just letting sound be sound. Patient gathering yields to ADHD editing. Painstakingly made but blink and you’ll miss it. Is it music or is it noise? It is without a doubt exceptionally beautiful music wrought from metal detritus.

By employing the strong contrast between a harsh industrial clatter-fest and a sweeter melodic dimension that acts as a deliberate counterforce, Matmos created an album that is utterly delightful. A “life review” is a phrase used to describe the psychological phenomena reported by people who have survived near death experiences: the sense captured in the phrase “my life flashed before my eyes.” Metallic Life Review is a kind of compressed fast-forward of Matmos’ career with a sonic parade of the metallic objects from their lives. The sounds on the album were captured over the entire length of the existence of Matmos as a band.

Metallic Life Review features Susan Alcorn’s pedal steel, Owen Gardner’s glockenspiel, Thor Harris’ drumming, Jason Willett’s (Half Japanese) guitar, and Jeff Carey’s aluminum cans, which were melted, molded into custom aluminum rods, and then bowed and struck. The most dramatic difference from any previous Matmos album is that side two was recorded “live in the studio”, ala Throbbing Gristle’s Heathen Earth. For the first time on recording, Matmos capture the evolving, shifting, slithering dynamic that happens when they play live and let patterns emerge out of chaos and then collapse and then re-form. Their playful blend of compositional brilliance and improvisational playfulness meld perfectly, truly capturing ecstatic moments in a way that can only happen live.

Metallic Life Review is a love story transmuted into sound, the result of a life filled with curiosity and powered by boundless exploration. Matmos have again made something spellbinding, brilliant and emotionally resonant.