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Matmos

Matmos is an American experimental electronic music duo composed of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, formed in in 1997 and based in since 2007. The pair is renowned for creating innovative compositions that incorporate unconventional sound sources, such as amplified nerve tissue, procedures, human hair, crystals, and metallic objects like and . Their music blends musique concrète techniques with glitchy elements, often drawing from conceptual themes while remaining accessible through the integration of traditional instruments and guest musicians. Over their career, Matmos has released more than twelve full-length studio albums and numerous EPs, primarily on labels and , including notable works like their self-titled debut (1999), A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (2001), The Civil War (2003), and their most recent album Metallic Life Review (2025), which exclusively samples sounds from metal objects. Matmos gained wider recognition through high-profile collaborations, particularly with Icelandic artist , for whom they provided remixes (such as "Alarm Call" in 1998), contributed to her album (2001), and served as part of her touring band. They have also worked with artists including the , , , and , as well as in film, theater, and installation projects with creators like and . Their output frequently explores themes of the body, technology, and environment, establishing them as influential figures in left-field electronic music.

History

Formation and early career

Matmos formed in 1997 in as a creative partnership between M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, who bonded over shared interests in and technology, blending electronic experimentation with field recordings to create innovative sound collages. The duo's early work emerged from the city's vibrant underground arts scene, where they began producing audio pieces using basic tools like SoundEdit, drawing inspiration from composers such as . Their debut self-titled album, Matmos, released in 1997 on their own Vague Terrain label, showcased this approach through tracks built from field recordings of everyday activities and unusual sources, such as the amplified nerve activity of a . The album featured sequencing and sampling with synthesizers like the and Mono/Poly, establishing their signature style of transforming mundane and organic into abstract electronic compositions. Follow-up Quasi-Objects, also on Vague Terrain in 1998, delved deeper into abstract electronic structures, incorporating manipulated recordings of , balloons, sounds, and silent tape hiss to explore glitchy, musique concrète-inspired textures. In 1999, Matmos shifted toward more conceptual territory with The West on the Deluxe label, an album that reimagined Western folk motifs through digitally constructed acoustic elements, including samples of banjo, acoustic guitar, and drums recorded during impromptu sessions with collaborators like Dave Pajo and Kris Force. This release marked their growing emphasis on thematic albums, blending machine-generated sounds with organic folk influences to evoke American landscapes. Early live performances in San Francisco's underground venues, such as the queer nightlife spot Klubstitute and ambient raves at warehouses like Aunt Clara's, helped build their local following amid the city's anarchic '90s experimental scene. Their initial foray into remixing came in 1998 with Björk's "," where they chopped her vocals into rhythmic patterns after she discovered Quasi-Objects, providing an entry point to broader recognition beyond the electronic circuit. This work, alongside deals with labels like Vague Terrain and Deluxe, solidified their foundation in during the late 1990s.

Mid-career developments and relocation

In 2001, Matmos signed with , marking a significant shift toward broader distribution and conceptual depth in their output. Their debut for the label, A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure, was released that March and drew exclusively from surgical procedures as sound sources, including , , and , layered into rhythmic and melodic structures. This approach exemplified the duo's commitment to transforming clinical, bodily sounds into accessible electronic music, bridging experimental sampling with pop sensibilities. Building on this momentum, Matmos released The Civil War in 2003, still under , which reimagined the era through electronic abstraction. The album incorporated historical field recordings, such as 19th-century folk instruments, cannon fire simulations, and archival speeches, to evoke the conflict's chaos and cultural resonance without direct narration. Critics praised its fusion of Americana traditions with glitchy , positioning it as a pivotal evolution in the duo's thematic exploration of history and sound. During this period, Matmos contributed to Björk's albums (2001) and (2004), providing percussion elements for the former and alongside vocal manipulations for the latter, enhancing the records' intimate, organic textures. These collaborations elevated Matmos' profile while allowing them to experiment with human-generated sounds in a high-profile context. Around 2006–2007, Matmos relocated from to , Maryland, coinciding with Drew Daniel's appointment as an associate professor at . This move fostered a more academic and interdisciplinary phase, integrating scholarly influences like and into their practice, and facilitating deeper collaborations within East Coast experimental scenes. The relocation grounded their work in a vibrant, institutionally rich environment that emphasized conceptual rigor over purely sonic novelty. Their Matador release, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast (2006), delved into queer history through sound portraits of figures like , , and , using biographical samples such as dental procedures and insect noises to evoke themes of identity, desire, and . The album's structure—each track dedicated to a specific icon—highlighted Matmos' growing interest in narrative-driven , blending archival audio with visceral, grotesque elements for emotional impact. In 2008, Matmos issued Supreme Balloon on Matador, an album constructed almost entirely from the sounds of balloons being inflated, twisted, popped, and manipulated, evoking surrealist whimsy and ephemeral textures. Tracks like "Mister Mouth" and "Exciter Lamp and the Variable Band" transformed these mundane sources into buoyant, otherworldly compositions, reflecting a playful yet precise engagement with minimalism and absurdity. The record underscored the duo's maturation in source-material innovation during their Baltimore years. By 2013, Matmos had transitioned to Records, releasing The Marriage of True Minds, which explored and through the —a technique involving to induce mental transmission. The album's production incorporated real-time psychic sessions conducted in and at Oxford University, where participants described visualized images that shaped the tracks' abstract forms, resulting in a hypnotic, mind-bending electronic suite. This shift to signaled a new era of psychological experimentation, aligning with the duo's academic influences post-relocation.

Recent projects and releases

In 2016, Matmos released Ultimate Care II on Thrill Jockey, an album constructed entirely from the sounds of a Whirlpool Ultimate Care II washing machine, including its rhythmic chugs, spin cycles, and mechanical clanks, transforming domestic appliance noises into a 45-minute percussive composition. The duo's 2019 album Plastic Anniversary, also on , drew exclusively from samples of objects such as bottles, bags, and riot shields to explore the material's ubiquity and environmental , creating tracks that evoke both its versatility and the waste it generates. The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form (2020, ) emerged as a three-hour, three-disc collection featuring 99 collaborators in synchronized improvisations across genres, recorded before but released amid the to highlight communal creativity in isolation. In 2022, Matmos paid tribute to avant-garde Bogusław Schaeffer with Regards/Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer on , reinterpreting his graphic scores and electronic works through modular synthesizers and pop-inflected edits, blending electroacoustic traditions with playful manipulations. Return to Archive (2023, Smithsonian Folkways) repurposed non-musical field recordings from the Folkways catalog—such as industrial noises and —into remixes, expanding the label's archival legacy through looping and recontextualization. In , Matmos member Drew Daniel introduced the fictional "Hit Em" genre via , describing a satirical style born from a dream: high-speed (212 ), odd-meter () breakbeats infused with culture and exaggerated club tropes, which sparked online memes and inspired experimental tracks by others. Most recently, Metallic Life Review (2025, ) was built solely from metal object samples like pots, cans, and gates, yielding clanging rhythms and textures across six tracks, with the album announced alongside North American tour dates starting in summer 2025.

Musical style and techniques

Sampling and sound sources

Matmos' production philosophy centers on the use of field recordings derived from non-traditional sources, eschewing synthesizers in favor of everyday objects, medical procedures, animals, and noises to construct their electronic compositions. This approach draws from traditions, where raw environmental sounds serve as the foundational material, transformed through manipulation rather than generated via conventional electronic means. For instance, they have recorded sounds from cosmetic surgeries such as liposuctions and rhinoplasties, capturing the mechanical whirs of cannulas and scalpels during procedures in clinics. Similarly, animal vocalizations like calls, croaks, and mud-dauber wasp buzzes, alongside elements such as junkyard clangs and emissions, form core sonic palettes. Central to their methodology are techniques like granular synthesis and looping, which repurpose these mundane or visceral recordings into rhythmic and melodic structures. Granular synthesis involves slicing audio into micro-grains and reassembling them to create textures, as seen in their processing of insect sounds using tools like Ableton’s Flatenator for dense, evolving sequences. Looping facilitates the extraction of percussive elements from irregular sources; for example, in Ultimate Care II (2016), the duo dissected cycles from a Whirlpool Ultimate Care II washing machine—recorded via contact microphones and transducers in their Baltimore basement—into layered percussion, mimicking polyrhythms akin to IDM or electroacoustic styles. These sounds, including water gushes, spin imbalances, and surface rubs (e.g., using a licked finger for trombone-like tones), were edited to form an unbroken 38-minute track mirroring a full wash cycle. In A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (2001), surgical incisions and procedural noises provided organic textures, with extractions filtered and pitch-shifted to evoke string sections or hi-hats, while hums from life-support blankets were EQ'd for ambient depth. Surgeons occasionally amplified actions—like flinging scalpels—for enhanced recordings, blending these with minimal acoustic elements such as clarinets to achieve a "poppy, toe-tapping" accessibility without relying on synthesizers. This avoidance of traditional instruments underscores their commitment to "found sound" as the primary tool, occasionally supplemented by balloons for basslines but prioritizing unaltered field captures. Their techniques have evolved from analog in early works—using four-track recorders and hardware samplers like the W-30 for time-stretching loops—to sophisticated digital processing in later . Initial editing relied on Sound Edit 16 for basic adjustments like volume, pitch, echo, and EQ, paired with close-miking via AKG 414 or Sennheiser setups for high-fidelity field recordings. Contemporary workflows incorporate software such as Max/MSP for custom patching, and for sequencing and chopping, and iZotope for cleanup, enabling complex layering of samples into polyrhythms. This progression allows for intricate builds, as in combining rhythmic surgical blips with gestural animal calls via controller keyboards and apps like Samplr, fostering dynamic compositions from disparate sources.

Conceptual themes and influences

Matmos' music frequently explores motifs of the , sexuality, and identity, drawing on the physical and emotional resonances of human experience to challenge normative perceptions. In albums like A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (2001), the duo samples sounds from surgical procedures and bodily fluids, evoking the vulnerability and intimacy of flesh while highlighting perspectives on corporeality. This thematic focus extends to their identity as a creative partnership, where Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt infuse their work with explorations of desire and embodiment, as seen in performances and discussions framing their sound as inherently "queer noise." Their approach often pays homage to literary influences, such as , whose cut-up techniques and depictions of altered bodies inspire tracks like "For the Trees (The Casio Version)" on The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast (2006), which uses unconventional samples to mirror Burroughs' experimental prose. Historical reinterpretations form another core conceptual thread, reimagining past conflicts to comment on contemporary divisions and reconciliation. On The Civil War (2003), Matmos blends 19th-century Americana with medieval English folk elements, creating a fantastical narrative that juxtaposes the American Civil War's paradoxes of unity and fracture against broader historical cycles of strife. This album serves as a sonic artifact collection, linking events like the English Civil War of 1640 and the U.S. conflict of 1861 to modern societal tensions through manipulated historical sounds. Environmental and material critiques underscore Matmos' engagement with and ecological impact, using everyday objects to interrogate human-object relationships. Plastic Anniversary (2019) sources all sounds from items, framing the material's durability and ubiquity as both a convenience and a harbinger of pollution, with tracks like "" evoking the ""—microbial ecosystems thriving on discarded waste—as a for . Similarly, Metallic Life Review (2025) draws exclusively from metal objects like gongs, graters, and industrial scraps, reflecting on the longevity and reflectivity of metals to critique material excess and industrial legacies in a warming world. The duo's fascination with and the manifests in explorations of extrasensory phenomena, blending and . The Marriage of True Minds (2013), titled after Shakespeare's on love's intuitive bond, centers on , with Matmos conducting Ganzfeld experiments—parapsychological tests involving —to "transmit" album concepts to participants, resulting in tracks that simulate psychic transmission through layered, disorienting . This project draws from historical research, questioning the boundaries of and communication. Matmos' influences span avant-garde composers and electronic pioneers, whom they reinterpret with pop-inflected accessibility to broaden experimental reach. John Cage's tape collage techniques in works like Williams Mix (1952–53) directly inform their object-based sampling, emphasizing chance and found sounds as liberatory forces. Throbbing Gristle's industrial ethos, with its raw electronics and taboo-shattering themes, profoundly shaped their early listening and production, inspiring a punk-infused rigor in confronting societal undercurrents. These roots allow Matmos to merge high-concept abstraction with danceable structures, making esoteric ideas approachable. Satirical elements permeate their commentary on cultural phenomena, particularly viral trends in . In , Drew Daniel's dream-inspired describing "Hit Em"—a hyper-specific in 5/4 time at 212 with "super crunched-out" distortions—sparked a crowdsourced wave of tracks, parodying the absurdity of micro-genres and social media's role in fabricating musical fads. This playful provocation critiques the of in the digital age, aligning with Matmos' broader ironic lens on and hype.

Collaborations and performances

Work with Björk

Matmos first collaborated with Björk in 1998, remixing her track "Alarm Call" from the album Homogenic as the "Speech Therapy Mix" and "Rhythmic Phonetics Mix," which incorporated glitchy electronics and phonetic found sounds to reimagine the original's energetic beat into an experimental electronic form. This initial project led to deeper involvement on Björk's 2001 album Vespertine, where Matmos served as co-producers, contributing intricate beats derived from unconventional sources such as music boxes, harpsichord recordings, and cracking ice samples. Their work focused on tracks like "Cocoon" and "Undo," creating delicate, microbeat percussion that blended organic textures with electronic subtlety to support the album's intimate, domestic atmosphere. These elements helped realize Björk's vision of fusing everyday sounds into a layered soundscape, with Matmos providing programming and additional production at Olympic Studios alongside engineer Mark "Spike" Stent. Matmos continued their partnership on Björk's 2004 album , an all-vocal project emphasizing human sounds as instruments, where they added vocal layers and elements to enhance the record's primal, choral density. Specifically, their contributions included programming on the track "Who Is It (Carry My Joy on the Left, Carry My Pain on the Right)," layering manipulated human voices and rhythmic vocal percussions to build the album's textural complexity without traditional instrumentation. As producers, they worked alongside Mark Bell and Valgeir Sigurðsson to process and integrate these vocal elements, aligning with 's concept of as the core expressive tool. The collaborations fostered a lasting friendship between Matmos and , with no major joint projects after Medúlla, though they exchanged mutual influences through interviews and shared artistic references. , an early admirer of Matmos' records, drew inspiration from their innovative sampling techniques, which informed her approach to organic-electronic fusion in subsequent works. In turn, Matmos credited 's melodic structures and experimental openness for shaping their own production methods during the period.

Live shows and residencies

Matmos' early live performances in emphasized real-time sampling and , often utilizing custom hardware setups to create dynamic soundscapes on the spot. During opening sets for Björk's tour in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the duo employed vintage W-30 samplers, an E6400 sampler loaded with unconventional sounds like 'bowed rat cage' recordings, and live instruments such as and , all integrated with laptops running SoundEdit 16 software for immediate manipulation. Drew Daniel frequently incorporated an point detector as a to sample and build tracks incrementally during shows, allowing for varied improvisational outcomes each night, while M.C. handled analog effects like the Big Briar Fooger for on-the-fly tweaking. A landmark in their performance history was the 97-hour continuous residency at the Center for the Arts in November 2003, where Matmos served as artists-in-residence, collaborating with friends, musical guests, and the public to generate evolving, non-stop soundscapes that pushed endurance boundaries in . This marathon event, which broke records for sustained live electronic performance, drew from their signature sampling techniques—tying into broader explorations of found sounds—and resulted in source material for their 2006 album Work, Work, Work (1961-73), capturing the raw, improvisational energy of communal creation over four straight days. Throughout their tours, Matmos integrated visuals and unconventional props to enhance the theatricality of their sets, transforming stages into interactive extensions of their conceptual themes. For the 2008 Supreme Balloon tour supporting their synth-driven album of the same name, featured buoyant, balloon-inspired visuals and props that evoked the record's airy, cosmic motifs, creating an immersive, lighthearted to their typically gritty . Similarly, during 2016 live sets for Ultimate Care II, the duo brought a Whirlpool onstage as a central "instrument," running full wash cycles with a and 30-gallon water reservoir to replicate the album's percussion-heavy rhythms in , blending mechanical with for a 45-minute endurance piece that highlighted domestic objects as performers. Collaborative live projects further showcased Matmos' innovative stage dynamics, particularly their 2010 partnership with the percussion ensemble Sō Percussion for Treasure State. The groups shared stages across tours, with Sō Percussion's members performing alongside Matmos to blend acoustic instruments like waterphones, aluminum tubes, and glass with electronic sampling, resulting in hybrid sets that alternated between composed pieces and improvised explorations of unconventional materials. Venues such as (Le) Poisson Rouge in hosted these joint appearances, where the percussionists' physical presence amplified the album's textural depth, turning performances into collective rituals of sound invention. In 2025, Matmos launched tours for their album Metallic Life Review, centering sets around manipulations of metal objects such as pots, pans, aluminum cans, and creaking gates to generate resonant, soundscapes. These shows incorporated audience interaction through participatory elements, inviting attendees to contribute metallic clangs and vibrations, fostering a communal that echoed the duo's early while adapting their hardware rigs for amplified field recordings. The prompted Matmos to adapt their group-oriented performance style to virtual formats, culminating in remote collaborations that informed The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form (2020). Through online exercises and file-sharing with 99 contributors—including artists like and —the duo orchestrated a three-hour of synchronized, tempo-locked pieces despite physical isolation, effectively translating live into a distributed, digital residency that maintained their emphasis on collective sonic exploration.

Members and personal lives

Drew Daniel

Drew Daniel, born in 1971 in , is an American academic and musician whose scholarly work centers on , , and the intersections with electronic . He earned a bachelor's degree in from the , followed by studies at University, on a , and completed his Ph.D. in English from Berkeley in 2007 with a dissertation titled "'I Know Not Why I Am So Sad': Melancholy and Knowledge in Literature." Since 2006, Daniel has served as a Professor of English at , where his research explores epistemological dimensions of in early modern texts. His notable publications include The Melancholy Assemblage: and in the (2013), which examines melancholy as a mode of knowledge production in Renaissance writing, and Joy of the Worm: and Pleasure in Literature (2022), analyzing self-killing as a site of unexpected pleasure rather than mere tragedy. Within Matmos, the experimental electronic duo he formed with his longtime partner M.C. Schmidt, Daniel serves as the primary conceptual theorist, developing the thematic frameworks for their albums while handling much of the synthesis and programming. His approach to emphasizes synthesized elements that align with the duo's conceptual narratives, such as transforming abstract ideas into sonic structures. Daniel's literary background informs Matmos's thematic depth, particularly in how he theorizes electronic music as a form of epistemological inquiry akin to texts. Beyond Matmos, Daniel pursues solo electronic projects under the moniker The Soft Pink Truth, releasing albums that blend aesthetics with dancefloor-oriented electronics, as seen in works like Do You Party? (2003) and Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? (2020). His writing extends to , where he explores digital disruption as a and -inflected mode of cultural critique, drawing from his early exposure to punk music and influences from that shape both his scholarship and Matmos's thematic explorations of identity and subversion.

M.C. Schmidt

Martin C. Schmidt, born in 1964, developed an early background in and through his involvement in San Francisco's experimental creative community. As assistant manager of the New Genres Department at the for 15 years, he explored practices that bridged visual and auditory elements, laying the foundation for his later sonic explorations. Prior to the formation of Matmos, Schmidt was active in San Francisco's burgeoning and scene during the mid-1990s, contributing to performances and recordings that emphasized unconventional sound manipulation and . This period honed his skills in capturing and processing ambient and found sounds, influencing his approach to composition. In Matmos, Schmidt plays a pivotal role in leading field recordings and sample collection, often sourcing materials from medical procedures—such as surgical tools and bodily fluids—and natural environments like animal vocalizations or environmental resonances. His hands-on recording techniques, utilizing custom microphones and portable setups, provide the raw audio palette that the duo transforms into intricate textures. Since the duo's relocation to Baltimore in 2007, Schmidt has taught and at the of [Johns Hopkins University](/page/Johns Hopkins_University), where he instructs on digital synthesis, installation, and experimental audio practices. His curriculum emphasizes practical experimentation with non-traditional sources, drawing directly from his Matmos methodologies. Beyond the duo, Schmidt pursues solo and collaborative projects in installations and sculptures, creating immersive works that integrate projected visuals with spatial audio environments. Notable examples include visual synthesis videos exploring technological obsolescence and interactive pieces derived from everyday objects. These endeavors highlight his ongoing interest in the intersection of perception, technology, and materiality. As the longtime partner of Matmos collaborator Drew Daniel, Schmidt's shared creative life has intertwined their personal and artistic pursuits.

Relationship and shared endeavors

Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, the core members of Matmos, first met in 1993 in , where Daniel worked as a dancer, and quickly became romantic partners, forming the duo in the mid-1990s as an extension of their personal and creative bond. Their relationship has been a foundational element of Matmos' work, particularly in queer-themed projects such as the 2006 album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast, which features sound portraits dedicated to notable gay and lesbian historical figures like and . The pair married in the mid-2010s, further intertwining their personal lives with their artistic output, as evidenced by album titles like The Marriage of True Minds (2013), which draws on Shakespearean references to their partnership. Since relocating to in 2007, and Schmidt have shared a home that doubles as their creative laboratory, with a basement studio serving as the hub for experimental sound recording and production. This domestic setup has facilitated a seamless integration of their daily lives and artistic process, allowing for spontaneous collaborations using household objects—like their washing machine for the 2016 Ultimate Care II—and fostering an environment where personal intimacy directly informs musical innovation. Both partners contribute to the academic community at —Daniel as a Professor in the English Department and Schmidt as a faculty member at the —creating a shared intellectual milieu that enriches Matmos' conceptual depth with influences from , , and . Their partnership extends to public advocacy for LGBTQ+ issues, where they have discussed the queerness of sound and the challenges of collaborating as a couple in interviews and performances, using their music to challenge norms and highlight marginalized histories. The endurance of and Schmidt's relationship, spanning over three decades without major disruptions, mirrors the stability of Matmos as a duo, enabling sustained artistic evolution amid evolving personal and cultural landscapes.

Discography

Studio albums

Matmos has released fourteen studio albums since their debut in 1997, initially on independent labels such as Vague Terrain and Deluxe before signing with from 1999 to 2008, and subsequently with starting in 2013, alongside occasional collaborations with other imprints. Matmos (1997, Vague Terrain) draws from eclectic sound sources including the electrical signals of a crayfish's recorded at San Francisco's , blending computer-generated noise, jungle rhythms, and ambient textures to explore the duo's early fascination with bio-acoustic experimentation. Quasi-Objects (1998, Vague Terrain) constructs tracks from everyday household objects found in the duo's apartment, such as balloons and wires, emphasizing techniques to create glitchy, object-derived electronic compositions that question the boundaries between sound and source material. The West (1999, Deluxe) reinterprets Western and tropes through recordings by collaborators like and sounds of rustling Bible pages, fusing folk elements with electronic manipulation to evoke a surreal landscape. A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (2001, Matador) is built entirely from recordings of cosmetic surgery procedures, including and captured in operating rooms, transforming clinical sounds into rhythmic patterns that meditate on the body as a site of transformation. The (2003, Matador) integrates acoustic instruments like , brass, and strings inspired by American and English -era , avoiding electronics in favor of organic timbres to create a historical without despite initial intentions. The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast (2006, ) offers sonic portraits of queer icons such as writer and filmmaker , using smashed dishware, theremin-manipulated snails, and natural percussion to evoke their lives through abstract, narrative-driven compositions. Supreme Balloon (2008, Matador) serves as a homage to vintage synthesizers and pioneers like , employing modular synths and analog electronics to craft buoyant, melodic electronic pieces that celebrate mid-20th-century traditions. The Marriage of True Minds (2013, ) draws from the in , incorporating musical ideas telepathically "transmitted" by test subjects including local artists, to explore themes of perception, mind, and extrasensory connection through layered electronic structures. Ultimate Care II (2016, ) derives all sounds from a single Ultimate Care II in the duo's home, capturing its cycles of agitation and spin to build an entire of percussive, rhythmic that highlights appliance mechanics as orchestral potential. Plastic Anniversary (2019, ) commemorates the duo's 25th anniversary by sourcing sounds exclusively from various plastics, such as PVC pipes, , breast implants, and riot shields, to create a textural survey of synthetic materials in a celebratory, glitch-infused framework. The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form (2020, ) expands an improvised live performance concept to feature contributions from 97 musicians playing at a fixed 99 , resulting in a collective, score-based electronic work that emphasizes communal and rhythmic unity. Regards/Ukłony dla Bogusław Schaeffer (2022, ) remixes and recontextualizes sounds solely from the Polish composer's archival recordings, including water splashes, brass bursts, and organ stabs, as a to his legacy through deconstructive electronic collage. Return to Archive (2023, ) constructs tracks from non-musical field recordings and archival audio sourced from the collection, such as insect and environmental noises, to reimagine ethnographic materials as contemporary compositions. Metallic Life Review (2025, ) is composed entirely from metallic objects and , including tongues and chrome reflections, employing their resonant properties to form a series of , transformative pieces that contrast organic life with mechanical vitality.

Other releases

In addition to their studio albums, Matmos have released several collaborative projects, EPs, live recordings, and limited-edition works that expand their experimental electronic soundscapes. One notable collaboration is the 2010 album Treasure State, recorded with the percussion ensemble So Percussion on Cantaloupe Music; this eight-track release blends acoustic percussion with Matmos' signature digital manipulations, drawing from field recordings in to create a hybrid of contemporary classical and . Among their limited-edition and promotional outputs, Matmos Live with J. Lesser (2002, Vague Terrain) captures a series of improvised performances from global tours, featuring balloon manipulations and sampler-based collages with guest collaborator J. Lesser; issued as a CD, it highlights the duo's raw, on-stage energy. Similarly, A Viable Alternative to Actual Sexual Contact (2002, ), released under their Vague Terrain Recordings imprint as a in a of 311 copies, serves as a for a gay , incorporating foley sounds and abstract electronics derived from the production context. Further rarities include A Paradise of Dainty Devices: interludes, micromedia, & sound edits (2007, Vague Terrain), a compilation limited to 100 hand-collaged copies sold exclusively during their "Wet Hot EuroAmerican Summer Tour," compiling tour interludes, micro-edits, and sound experiments. The promotional single Polychords (2008, ), distributed as a CD sampler ahead of the Supreme Balloon album, previews tracks like the title cut with its polychromatic synth layers, emphasizing the duo's promotional tie-ins to broader releases. Matmos also ventured into split releases with I Want Snowden / Sheremetyevo Breakdown Blues (2013), a digital single shared with The Disco Yahtzee Empire on , dedicated to NSA whistleblower ; Matmos' contribution is a glitchy, rhythmic tribute to his limbo, paired with the Empire's garage-rock response. Complementing these, the EP The Ganzfeld EP (2012, ), available on 12" vinyl and CD, features three tracks rooted in parapsychological experiments, including an edit of "Very Large Green Triangles" and a by RRose, exploring perceptual illusions through and vocal processing.

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