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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Upcoming / Interview Psychic, Powerful, and Perfectly Wonky: Matmos's Mind-Blowing Telepathic Experiment

Posted by Dave Segal on Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 11:15 AM

Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt aspire to telepathy.

AJ FARKAS
Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt aspire to telepathy.

"These people were on fire," says Matmos member Martin Schmidt about the massive post–Super Bowl celebration by his fellow Baltimore citizens in the wake of the Ravens' win. "When I walked by, one of them said, 'Yay, our team won!' I'm infected by the same disease, but I just doubt myself. Am I allowed to be enthusiastic about anything?"

"Some of them had this weird irony about the fact they were celebrating," says Drew Daniel, Schmidt's musical and life partner, who recorded some of the spontaneous festivities because, hey, this stuff could come in handy for a future album or something. "It would creep into the way they would chant. 'Bal-ti-more! Bal-ti-more! U!S!A! U!S!A!' It was like there were quotes around it." But he also sensed something "utopian and awesome" about those crowds.

Matmos have been putting quotes around experimental electronic music for the last 16 years. If anyone could take the chaos and exuberance of a sportsball hullabaloo and make them interesting, it's these witty eccentrics. Hell, they could probably put an ingenious spin on the tired trope of "jock jams" if they set their minds to it. They may be highbrow creative chameleons, but Matmos know how to inject fun and unpredictability into their music, as anyone who saw Daniel's butt get used as a percussion instrument at that long-ago Triple Door set can attest.

Matmos play Neumos tomorrow, Wednesday Feb 20, with Mouse on Mars and Horse Lords.