MATMOS - CONSUMING FLAME: OPEN EXERCISES IN GROUP FORM[3CD] Price: €29.99 Format: Compact Disc Availability: Immediate Dispatch

? 3-disc CD set comes in a deluxe triple gatefold package with full colour 2ft x 3ft
poster.

Matmos have a playful nature often lacking in electronic composition, bristling with a
palpable sense of wide-eyed discovery undiluted across their 25 years as a band.
M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are long-known for their practice of unusual sampling
and experimenting with conceptual restrictions. ? ‘The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises In Group Form' is both a tongue-in-cheek
rebuttal to the backlash against ‘conceptronica' and their most ambitious project to
date. The record is oriented around a deceptively simple commitment. 99 different
musicians were asked to contribute: they could play anything that they wanted but
the tempo of any rhythmic material had to be set at 99 beats per minute. The
resulting album is a three-hour long assemblage that's a kaleidoscope of genre,
mood and density, while all synchronized to a constant underlying tempo. There's a
relentless forward-motion keeping more with traditions of pirate radio and mixtapes
than the traditional album format. ? ‘The Consuming Flame' was composed through the act of invitation and the album's
99 participants are, even for Matmos, wildly eclectic. Some collaborators have
worked with Matmos for years (J. Lesser, Jon ‘Wobbly' Leidecker, Mark Lightcap,
Josh Quillen of So Percussion, Vicki Bennett) and some are near total strangers.
There are players from the conservatory-trained world of ‘new music' (Kate Soper,
Bonnie Lander, Ashot Sarkissjan, Jennifer Walshe) and figures from the extreme
music underground (Blake Harrison of Pig Destroyer, Kevin Gan Yuen of Sutekh
Hexen, Terence Hannum of Locrian), as well as auteurs from the world of ‘noise'
music (Twig Harper, Moth Cock, Bromp Treb, Id M Theft Able) as well as writers
(Douglas Rushkoff, Colin Dickey) and conceptual artists (Heather Kapplow). There's
distinguished alumni and contemporary luminaries of electronic music (Jan St.
Werner and Andi Toma of Mouse on Mars, Daniel Lopatin, DeForrest Brown Jr., J. G.
Thirlwell, Matthew Herbert, Rabit, Robin Stewart and Harry Wright of Giant Swan)
and artists associated with indie rock and folk traditions (Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley
and James McNew of Yo La Tengo, Marisa Anderson) and undergraduates who took
M.C. Schmidt's ‘Sound As Music' course during the final year of The San Francisco Art
Institute's existence. ? Matmos are one of the most prominent experimental electronic groups of the last
decade, with some of the most significant and acclaimed albums in the genre, and
their high profile collaborations and shows with artists like Bjork and Kronos Quartet
have given them exposure outside of just heady electronic music. ? Both members of Matmos are active solo musicians, M.C. Schmidt under his own
name and Drew Daniel as The Soft Pink Truth, whose ‘Shall We Go On Sinning...'
received Pitchfork's Best In Music in 2020. ? “A welcome reminder that Matmos has been good at this sort of thing for a very long