Labels: Matador
Review by: Spencer Grady
They used to make beats from the synapses of crawfish and the sounds of the surgery. Ah, but then came the pastoral tones of their more refined “The West”, which featured members of the Radar Brothers and Acetone playing various stringed instruments. The city boys were going country. And now this astounding CD takes them still further down that path. Navigating the rich histories of both English and American traditional musics – folk, country, bluegrass – without completely eschewing their interest in found sounds and electronics this is the finest Matmos release yet. This may have much to do with the increasing prominence of Coil in Matmos. There are moments during this album where your ears will be alerted to a familiar tune, only for its exact location to elude you. This is what real folk music is all about – renewing, retelling and remodelling what went before so that it is relevant or accessible to new generations – a new way to tell the same old wive tales. Matmos, during their Civil War, prove themselves more than worthy of the task.