Experimental Electro Duo Re-Releases Freeform Composition

Are there still frontiers to the west? Is there still land to explore? It seems San Francisco duo Matmos’ 1999 experimental techno saga, The West, covers so much ground that nothing is left to the imagination. The group’s third full-length, consisting of only five tracks and recently re-released on Matador Records, is a hodge-podge of sound elements that displays a picturesque electronic landscape – as well as a firm grip on the aesthetics that define the “musique concrète” genre.

On The West, Matmos blends spacious electric and acoustic guitars, surprising and intermittent electronic effects, gentle woodwind flair, sloppy perfunctory drums, and a medley of other dissonant instruments to unravel an exploration along the lines of a contemporary, eccentric Fantasia. Sometimes, Matmos appears to be telling a story. Other times, they seem to take sweeping expressionist brushstrokes, emotionally erratic and random. However you interpret The West, you can hold by the contention that it is undauntedly unique.

The album kicks off with “Last Delicious Cigarette,” an attention-deficit fueled rampage through an assortment of haunting, wavy effects. “Action At A Distance” follows with a melancholy trounce of rich, clean electric guitar and a haphazard collection of sounds and noises. The middle two tracks (“Sun on 5 at 152” and “The West”) compose the bulk of the album (31:36), imparting a non-thematic host of sounds and moods on the listener, while the final jam, “Tonight, The End,” sounds like a disjointed, variable Primus track that didn’t make the cut, with dissonant horns layered on top of off-key guitar and bass licks.

Almost ten years later, The West holds true as experimental and distinctive electro-noise pop, reaching for the stars and bringing back a handful of black holes, affluent in their arbitrary beauty. Matmos is a journey and an examination in the art of sound which pricks and tickles at will, driving a truly emotional expedition across sonic borders and into unknown territory.

Mark Sherbin