Regards/Uktony dla Bogustaw Schaeffer - Matmos: Review
Matmos
are an experimental electronic duo who have spent decades making some of the most acclaimed experimental and underground electronica. They are well known for their highly conceptual projects including their recent run of acclaimed projects. Their past three records have included an album made entirely with samples from a washing machine, samples from various plastic objects and most recently a 3-hour album made with 99 different collaborators. Regards is a tribute album to Polish composer Boguslaw Schaeffer where they were given access to his entire catalog to rearrange various sounds into the music on this record.
Review By Lav:
I've loved Matmos for a long time. Their 2001 album A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure is one of my favorite experimental music projects of all time and they've been on an incredible creative streak since 2016's Ultimate Care II. Because of this I was going to be excited for anything Matmos did next. While the singles for the record didn't blow me away, it wouldn't be the first time the duo impressed me once I got to see the full scope of their vision. Regards is a solid album with all the hallmarks of their best work, but I'm not sure it's as impactful as their recent run.
The trio of singles from the record kind of divided me and I feel pretty different about some of them within the context of the record. Flight To Sodom impressed me at first with its huge walls of keys but the more I sat with the track the more it felt like that was its only trick. It doesn't have a whole lot else to provide aside from some disconnected vocal samples and while I wouldn't call it bad, the effect isn't nearly as potent on me as it was on first listen.
Cobra Wages Shuffle was the next single and it's much more sonically all over the place, in a good way. It starts off with some squishy effects that remind me of a few of the grosser tracks on Plastic Anniversary and from that point on there are literally dozens and dozens of sounds warped around each other. There still manages to be some great standout sounds though with the squelching horn lines and distorted tattering drums being particularly memorable. I'm not quite as crazy about the second half of the song where it slows down significantly in terms of the mass of sounds being used, though the distant monotone voices are admittedly frightening. Flashcube Fog Wares turned out to be my favorite single with its disembodied strings and eerie keys. I like that all the sounds seem to have a collective focus on sounding scary or at the very least unsettling. My only complaint about the song is that it wraps up sooner than I'd like and it still sounds like it has more territory to explore.
Resemblage is the records opening track and it gets off to a slow start playing it pretty distant up to the halfway point when the warbled plasticy sounds come in. They play really well off these chimes and while it briefly settles into a familiar drum loop it ultimately plays those chimes out for the remainder of the song Few, Far Chaos Bulges is the other deep cut to show up on the records first half and it kicks off with the methodical clicking of a typewriter. From there it goes on an adventure that I'm not exactly crazy about mostly because too many of the sounds just stop on a dime. It gives the track a jittery aesthetic but I wish more of the sounds were left to just languish in space.
The last three songs on the record are the three longest here and like most everything surrounding Regards, I'm mixed about them. If All Things Were Turned To Smoke is probably my least favorite even if the almost lullaby like piano passage being warped into something much more sinister is a compelling trick. It never really focuses on a dramatic rise long enough to build any tension instead just summoning random sharp sounds seemingly out of nowhere. Tonight There Is Something Special About The Moon is better and has more sonic cohesion than most Matmos tracks these days. While there are moments of random crushing or synthetic noise here and there for the most part they are contained to the tracks second half. There's a tangible nocturnal rumbling that engulfs absolutely everything in the track that I really enjoy.
Anti-Antiphon is the closing track and has become one of my favorites on the record. It's probably the most alien of all the songs here feeling less scary and more just otherworldly. Thankfully it still comes with a heavy dose of piecing sounds above murmuring distortion, though it's ultimately the least active song on the album. While there's still too much insanity going on in pockets here and there for this to be called ambient, it has a reserved demeanor that works perfectly to set up some of its impossible to predict punches.
Regards is a fine record and if you've enjoyed any of the recent Matmos material there is definitely something for you here. But it also forces me to admit that this is probably their weakest record of at least the past 6 years. Despite the record's really clear concept it never really translates into much in the way of sonic cohesion and on top of it all I just think this is an inconsistent tracklist compared to what I know they're capable of. Whatever Matmos does next will probably be awesome, some mind-expanding concept that they work into inconquerable electronic music, but this record just isn't their best work. 6.5/10
This cover has a lot going on and it's not pleasing to look at. For me it's the execution that just doesn't mesh well together. I think there's potential here and it could've been made in a better more cohesive way that wasn't so cluttered. I love the purple/magenta color used and the pop of yellow but that being mixed with all the browns doesn't work at all and the white of the clip are computer graphics doesn't do anything for me. I like the font of the text but the way its structured looks like an old Goosebumps book cover. I think this could have been elevated by a lot. 2/10
