Off-beat avant-garde intellectuism.
San Francisco duo Matmos certainly like a challenge to their song writing capabilities. On 'The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of The Beast', they have attempted to capture the essence and biographies of ten historical figures and tie them together in one understated low-key electronic bundle.
Leaving aside the concept for now and focussing on the music, the album is a sparse electro record with multiple glitches and kitsch sounds filling the sparse background. As atmospheric pieces go, it has to be up there with the years most left-field pieces. In other words, don't be sitting around waiting for the choruses and big cheery anthems, as they aren't going to come.
That not to say this album doesn't have vigour though. 'Steam and sequins for Larry Levan' features some funk-filled bass lines and there is more than enough vigour and sass to get people up out of their seats.
And yet 'Snails and lasers for Patricia Highsmith' is a minimal jazz number, with the muted wails and squeals peppering a whirring background that never threatens to take off but does leave the listener in fear of something major is about to happen. The fact that it doesn't adds to the tension and drama of the mid-piece of the record which holds together nicely, without actually doing anything.
After a few listens, the middle of the record starts to get bogged down in this nothingness but on the first few listens, there is a palpable air of possibility around it.
The slumber is broken by a lazy jazz piano motif in a song dedicated to William S. Burroughs. Anyone aware of Burroughs would maybe question the relevance of this but the gunshout sound and prison sounds that follow would certainly be ones that would represent Burroughs.
That brings us neatly onto the concept element of the album, which is frankly, preposterous...but in a far reaching and probably far too intelligent for this writer's manner. Attempting to encapsulate elements of peoples' lives with virtually instrumental electronic soundscapes is perhaps a tall order and places Matmos squarely in the role of artists, as opposed to musicians.
If you don't get too hung up on the meaning of the individual tracks, it's a solid enough electronic buzz record, suitable for background play and non-distracting tasks. With the list of guest vocalists including an artist of the calibre of Bjork, it's clear there are big things behind this duo and they are making enough noises to garner a lot of interest. Whether they will interest you will depend on how avant-garde you judge yourself to be.