Portrait: Matmos @ Mutek 2010
 

The Baltimore-based duo of Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt, who have been recording together as Matmos since 1997, are electronic collage artists with a unique sense of humor and artistry. Their recording techniques may hearken back to the musique concrète of Steve Reich and Luc Ferrari, but their playfulness of rhythm and selections of field recordings inject a dose of contemporary real-world dynamism into their music. Conceptualists on par with sample guru Matthew Herbert, Matmos have spent eight albums crafting pop abstractions from sources as unlikely as clipped hair and body fat left over from plastic surgery. Arguably breaking through at the start of the decade with their memorable MUTEK 2001 performance, the duo return to festival stages after a decade’s absence to showcase just how far they’ve come since then. In between, they have toured extensively with Bjork – a longtime fan of the group – and even produced portions of her albums Vespertine and Medúlla, both of which bear significant signs of the duo’s conceptual influence. Always ones to flip the script, their latest album, 2008’s Supreme Balloon, abandons microphones and recorded music altogether and opts for purely electronic tones as its source material.

NAME: MATMOS
CITY/COUNTRY: BALTIMORE, USA
WEBSITE: www.brainwashed.com/matmos
FACEBOOK: Drew Daniel

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/s...pr1/Matmos.jpg

Have you played at MUTEK before? If so, please share your favorite MUTEK memory?
We played at it in the year 2000. Our favorite moment was going out to gay bars like Club Adonis and getting lap dances from hot go go boys with Richard Chartier.

Best DJ moment of 2010 so far
DJing with Cex and Mark Brown at "Deep in the Game" in Baltimore.

Obsolete item you can't part with
Our ARP 2600.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/s...r1/ARP2600.jpg

Best recent gift
Two cases of Corton Charlemagne.

Next big purchase
Fixing our deck out back for summer BBQs.

Best producer of 2010
Leprechaun Catering.

What you miss most about home when abroad
Our huge bed, and our cats Puck and Gibson.

Indispensable travel item
Euro to US power adapter.

Favorite touring memento
We bring a tiny sculpture of two cows tango dancing wherever we go, on the bottom of it our friend Jason wrote the words "Lectric Wizards".

Best track to encore the night
I liked the tour where we did a country and western cover of Kraftwerk every night as our encore. That was fun.

What’s on your drink rider
Fruit juice, coffee, tea, sparkling water.

iPhone or Blackberry?
Neither. I have a iPod Touch though!

Favorite iPhone App
Anatomy Lab.

What’s on your iPod playlist
Nurse With Wound, Liturgy, John Bender, Beherit, Anthony Shakir, An, Muslimgauze, Esplendor Geometrico, Roy Orbison

Favorite city/club to play
Baltimore

Favorite city/country for holiday
Paris.

Hobbies
Reading, Trolling,

Personal hero
Ronald Firbank.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/s...r1/Firbank.jpg

Favorite book
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

Guilty pleasure artist/record
Red Nex "Cotton-Eyed Joe"

What did you want to be when you were a kid
An artist.

Least favorite day job before DJing?
I'm not a DJ. But . . . I would have to say going door to door for the Nielsen corporation was pretty shitty.

Fictional character you identify with
Polonius, from William Shakespeare's "Hamlet".

One thing you should always do
Cover your mouth when you cough.

One thing you should never do
Say never.

http://i577.photobucket.com/albums/s...mutek_logo.gif

June 2-6, 2010

MUTEK 2010
International Festival of Digital Creativity and Electronic Music

Montreal, QC Canada

www.mutek.org