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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 IDM 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 nine 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.^[1] The name Matmos refers to the seething lake of evil slime beneath the city Sogo in the 1968 film Barbarella.^{[citation needed]}

Notable work[edit]

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^[2] 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.^[3]

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 Oto and Metal.^[4][5]

Personal life[edit]

M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are also a couple, as stated in an interview in BUTT Magazine.^[6]

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 associate professor in the Department of English at Johns Hopkins University.^[7] 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[edit]

Albums[edit]

EPs[edit]

• 
  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[edit]

• 
  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


• 
  I Want Snowden/Sheremetyevo Breakdown Blues, split single with the Disco Yahtzee Empire (2013) ^[8][9]
  

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Matmos.

• Official website


• Matmos page at Matador Records


• 
  Matmos at Curlie
  


• 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[edit]

• 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.