Matmos - The Ganzfeld EP Mp3

Matmos are not only arch electronic conceptualists, they are a completely whacked out musical duo and on top of all that romantic partners. This late 2012 EP was their first under the umbrella of the US based, Thrill Jockey power house. It was the precursor to their 2013 album, "The Marriage Of True Minds", a conceptual work of art orbiting around theories of parapsychology. Four years prior to releasing it, the enigmatic duo have been conducting experiments based on the classic 'Ganzfeld' test - using blindfolded subjects who were played white noise in states of sensory deprivation while one of the group's members attempted to transmit "the concept of the new Matmos record" direct to their minds. The results are baffling.

Very Large Green Triangles (Edit) is like a broken beat IDM affair with piercing musical triangles, gothic choir vocals and some gypsy tamburin effects thrown in for good measure. No, I'm serious. There's probably more, but I just can't be bothered. Some three minutes deep everything is put to a hault, and out erupt evocative vocals very large greeen triangles... The percussion is tossed back in and we've hastily reached the track's end. Don't really know what to make of this one. It's just an oddball of all sorts...

Just Waves blows my little mind to shreds. It's a twelve minute symphony of dissected voices, arranged and processed in an meticulous and alluring manner. At points, it brings to mind the early Steve Reich works such as Come Out and It's Gonna Rain, but whereas those pieces applied the phase shifting technique, and used previously recorded extracts, which were then cut, pasted and toyed around with, Just Waves has a live feel to it. Similarities are merely superficial though, as the music progressively moves on in Just Waves, and the vocals undergo changes as well. This might be too leftfield for quotidian listening sessions, but those times when your puzzled mind just cannot fugure out what to do with itself, use this is as a soundtrack to organized confusion.

Rrose takes on You, wearing his multilayered drone techno cloth delivering a stunningly hypnotic techno piece that is as punishing on the floors as its properly suitable for shoegazing. The drums strum rhythmically with a marching stomp, accompanied by vaguely palpable vocals emerging from the background. Basically what you get here is a track composed by a duo that is so out there few can follow treated by Rrose's trademark production trciks: density, intensity, heavy sonic filtering and tweaking to untweakability. Meditate to it, waltz to it, dance or watch the wall melt down - just make sure not to miss it. Strangely enough, this is the most conventional and accessible track of the lot, then go figure what the other two are like. This EP is like a bottle of exquisite wine, to be abosrbed slowly with an aftertatste that lasts throughout the night...