Label: Matador Format: CD,LP
In their latest album Matmos use the bone crunching noises of plastic surgery for their samples. So if you’ve had a nose job be warned, Matmos might have transformed the noise of your nose being broken into a snare. Well, here it is … A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure is a collage of sound recorded in clinics and operating theatres. There are copious medical dramas and documentaries to lift samples from. But that’s too easy. Matmos actually went into the hospitals to get their sounds, after gaining the trust of the surgeons and patients.
You might also think that an album with kick drums sampled from breaking bones would be dark at least, hardcore Gabba in all probability. You couldn’t be more wrong. That’s way too obvious. M.C. Schmidt and Drew Danielcontinue on their mission of making quasi-Pop music from the least likely sources. “Spondee” turns an audiologist testing deaf children into an unlikely House diva. “Lipostudio” mixes the dulcet tones of liposuction with the squalls of clarinet played by Stephen Thrower (Cyclobe and Coil). And then of course there’s “California Rhinoplasty“, built upon nose jobs and human flesh being cauterised.
Anyone could sample all this stuff, but few could pull it off with the skill of Matmos. Comparisons with Einstürzende Neubauten are inevitable. The comparisons regard Schmidt and Daniel’s skill and artistry rather than the sound of the end result. Apart from the occasional track they don’t really sound anything like the collapsing new people. Like Neubauten, however, Matmos have the ability to take their sources and turn them into something more just the sounds. You can listen to “Lipostudio” and say to yourself “Yes, that’s the sound of someone having the fat sucked out of them.” After a while you forget about what the sample source is, and wind up saying ‘that’s a really good track.’
A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure is up to the usual Matmos standard, high.
-a.p-
