music
Veterans of music’s most experimental realms, the duo of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt—better known as Matmos—are returning to gnration. Over the course of a three-decade career, the Americans have accustomed us to the fact that they don’t settle for the easy path. They have built one of the strangest (in the best sense of the word) and most captivating discographies in the history of electronic music. Often associated with so-called left-field music, the most avant-garde strand of electronic music, their work is so diverse that it becomes practically impossible to classify. Their debut album, the self-titled Matmos (1997), was hailed by The Wire magazine as a “direct entry into the Valhalla of electronic music,” standing out for its use of unusual samples ranging from everyday human activities to the nervous tissue of lobsters. Metallic Life Review (2025) is their most recent work and serves as the inspiration for their return to Braga. It arrives as the spiritual successor to Plastic Anniversary (2019), an album created from the sounds of plastic objects, ranging from silicone breast implants to a PVC riot shield. Metallic Life Review is an essay on metal, in which the duo transforms aluminum cans, bowls, gongs, scissors, a barbecue grill, a cannon, and even a cemetery gate into enigmatic and danceable sonic experiences. Most of the sampled objects are the musicians’ memorabilia and appear on this album as mementos of what they have lived through.
As Matmos, Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt have had quite a career. They’ve built a memorable discography, featuring numerous concept albums and sound samples of the most bizarre things one can imagine. On A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (2001), they draw on recordings of surgeries and medical procedures. Quasi-Objects (1998) uses only samples recorded in the couple’s home, while Ultimate Care II (2016) consists solely of sounds from their washing machine, a Whirlpool that lends its name to the album. They recruited 99 musicians to release a triple LP, The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form (2020). In The Civil War (2003), they explore the similarities between American folk and medieval European music, whereas in Supreme Balloon (2008), they move away from samples to embrace the cosmic side of synthesizers. More recently, they were invited to create a commemorative work for the 75th anniversary of the Smithsonian Folkways label. The result is Return to the Archive (2023), an album pieced together from non-musical recordings found in the label’s archive—and which was ultimately released by Smithsonian Folkways itself. Ready to present Metallic Life Review, and with nearly thirty years in the pantheon of experimental music, Matmos returns to Portugal to treat us to yet another concert for the history books.
supported by portuguese republic – culture, youth and sports / general direction of the arts. portuguese contemporary art network (rpac). rtcp – network of portuguese theaters and cinemas.
