Matmos - Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure (7 tracks) +Album Reviews

Are sounds inherently... icky?

Ryan Hennessy | Albany, NY | 05/18/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You've played songs on your teeth before. Admit it. Everyone has. You'll get bored, start fiddling with parts of your face, and end up clicking your teeth with your fingernails, making rudimentary percussion versions of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or something by opening and closing your mouth to change the pitch. Well, apparently Matmos likes doing this too, and that's essentially the idea behind A Chance To Cut Is A Chance To Cure.Forget for a moment that they went out of their way to record some of the most morbid objects for their songs and appreciate the fact that Matmos can use complete non-instruments and coax some of the most musical sounds from them, and make textures that range from the horrifying "For Felix" to the funky "Lipostudio." Electronic musicians have always loved using non-musical intruements in their recordings, but seldom do they use them are more than a quirky 4/4 beat. Matmos finds the essence of the objects and creates a song for them.Martin Schmidt and Drew Daniel went into (of all places) the operating room to record much of this record. The record features the sounds of scalpels through flesh, fat being sucked through a liposuction tube, the buzz of eye surgery lasers and accupuncture point detectors, tones used for hearing aid tests, human and goat bones and a rat cage. And yes, they even use teeth on one song, althrough their not their own teeth. They belonged to some dead guy.This record brings up several interesting questions. Do objects like skulls and scalpels have an inherently sick sound to them, or if you listened to this record without knowing how it was made, would you just think it's regular electronic mumbo-jumbo. Certainly some of that depends on how edited the sound is, if it can be identified or not. A lot of the sounds have to be pitch shifted and changed to make music. Another question it raises is what exactly is a music instrument. We're at a point now where if you have the computing and mixing skills, you can make an instrument out of anything, as Matmos demonstrates. The record also shows that you don't even need engineering skills to make something of nothing. In "Lipostudio" Stephen Thrower plays a clarinet, and Schmidt blows through a straw into water, and almost the same effect is achieved with each. They get both to sound like a combination of a horn sound with the flesh sounds.Another question is "Would these songs stand on their own if they were made traditionally." The entire record is interesting, but why? Is it just because I know that they're playing a goat spine to get a beat? I really can't answer this question, but knowing what I know certainly makes the record more enjoyable. One song that would stand up well is "For Felix (And All The Rats)." It sounds like a cacophony of violins playing out of tune, then in the middle there is what sounds like the sound of a prepared xylophone or something being struck, until it all comes crashing together in what sounds like a wild animal attacking you. To read that all of this made by plucking a rat cage and playing it with a bow seems insane. The fact that they did it is pure genius. By playing the steel bars of the cage with a bow, they managed to coax out a sound that's simulaneously a violin, a horn and a whimpering animal. Absolutely beautiful.Don't get the wrong idea. This isn't an entirely dark album. "Spondee" is a playful song built over a speech record of phonetically balanced words, with equal stress on the first and second syllable (lunchbox, playground, raincoat). This makes the perfect beat for a surprisingly dancey song. The next song is a less bouncy but still danceable song made solely from the clicks generated from a accupunture point detector. Somehow, "Ur Tchun Tan Tse Qi" is a throbbing and droning song made out of sounds from a skull, teeth and a goat spine. The only real instrument on the final track is a nose flute. The rest was recorded during cosmetic surgeries in California. And it's never less than interesting."

A CHANCE TO CUT IS A CHANCE FOR SUCCESS

Peter Shultz | 01/15/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Matmos' newest album, A CHANCE TO CUT IS A CHANCE TO CURE is pure genius. They did some background music for Bjork's newest release, VESPERTINE, and I must say, they are my second favorite band, after Bjork. Lipostudio...And So On is a song that encompasses bubbling, liposuction, and the repeat of "now i know how it fits...and so on," I rate it 5 stars out of 5 2. l.a.s.i.k. is a song that uses some sort of laser eye technique. At first, there seems to be no rhythm, but after a minute or so, the beats of laser eye technology start. 3 out of 5 3. spondee is a song for those of you who like club beat songs. it consists of two syllable words from a deaf school, and numerous noises from a faulty hearing aid detector. great song 5 out of 5 4. ur tchun tan tse qi is a song that uses little bleeps from an acupuncture detector, and is has whinning noises that tell you when the machine is nearing an accupuncture spot. very melodic 5 out of 5
5. for felix (and all the rats) is a song that was created from matmos' deceased pet rat cage. it sounds like ten violins at once, each a fraction of a second off from each other. it also includes one of the matmos guys plucking the bars of the cage to sound like deep, sharp bells 5 out of 5 6. momento mori is a very good song for listening to when slipping into sleep. it contains noises from the tapping of a human skull, and nerves and such. it is very soothing 4 out of 5 7. california rhinoplasty is a song composed from rhinoplasty and chin implants done in california, hense the name. it is a very layered song, and is exactly 10 minutes long. 4 out of 5 All in all, Matmos' A CHANCE TO CUT IS A CHANCE TO CURE is a great cd, which uses some of the newest and oldest technology to create a collaboration of man and machine. if you like BJORK, you will likely enjoy this cd.
MATMOS AND BJORK RULE!..."

Delightfully Different

E. Frampton | Wexford, PA United States | 08/31/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As a celebrated cynic among my friends, I have grown tired of electronic music in it's current form, all the trance, all the mediocrity. Don't get me wrong, there are a few gems here and there, this album of course being one of them. I own the other Matmos albums, I'm not a die-hard follower of Matmos, but I respect their originality and the obvious gift they have for rhythm. An album containing numerous samples of medical procedures does sound like a cheap novelty record designed for attention. But, that quickly fades within the first listen. Their quirky sense of rhythm shows itself time and time again throughout the record. Spondee starts out slow, but then becomes this insanely catchy little number. For Felix (and all the rats) is a surprisingly emotional song; it all becomes clear after reading the liner notes. In a stagnant mediocre electronic music landscape, Matmos is an oasis of creativity. My bad poetic analogies aside. It's quirky, catchy, and just good fun with a little liposuction thrown in."

Music is the medicine

Matthew D. Mercer | Chicago, IL United States | 05/04/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"California based duo Matmos have come a long way certainly. It wasn't until the release of "The West" that they really grew to accommodate their potential as a force in electronic music. Prior to that their releases like "Quasi-objects," while rewarding on a listening level, seemed too pre-occupied with their own sampling novelty."A Chance to Cut" is not too different in that respect, since the majority of the hubbub is based around its sampling premise: medical equipment and operations. And yes, the premise does become somewhat subversive, since when you hear a strange squelching noise on the first track and then you make the connection with the title "Liposuction," even the most adjusted listener will most likely squirm a bit.However, what Matmos has done with this release is create a product much greater than the sum of its parts. Never do they abandon the quirky pinache that characterizes the majority of their work, a quality that appears again and again, whether in the form of funky house on "Spondee" (a track based on two-syllable words, in which neither syllable holds an emphasis) or the goofy melodies of "California Rhinoplasty" or "Memento Mori." Still, "For Felix" transcends kitsch and becomes a sort of agitated elegy through its bowed overtones (using a rat cage as the source material).Through its seven tracks (some of them quite lengthy), "A Chance to Cut" never grows tiresome, as each track explores different territory while the premise holds them together as an album. Highly, highly recommended!!"

"You're listening to WHAT?"

Peter Shultz | Chicago, IL USA | 04/16/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you haven't heard Matmos before, and all you know of this CD is the conceit behind it, you probably aren't going to rush out and buy it immediately. It is my mission to convince you to do so. The sound sources on this disk, as everyone has already remarked, range from innocuously traditional instruments like guitars, drums, and synths all the way to goat spines and the sometimes horrifying, sometimes amusing sounds of cosmetic surgery. What reviewers don't usually discuss is the imagination with which these materials are combined and juxtaposed. Matmos's music thrives on contrast. Their last LP, "The West", combined twangy steel-strings, out-of-context vocal samples, and Ennio Morricone flutes with clicking, grinding, and occasionally bone-crushing computer-generated noises. The variety of musical material on "A Chance To Cut" is, if anything, more pronounced. To describe all of my favorite moments would be giving the game away, but the transformation of a hearing test into the audio equivalent of a word-association game, and then into a bouncy house track is a bizarre feat of musical wit that must be heard to be believed. Listen and read carefully, though, as Matmos play both sides of the game. While many of the surgery recordings end up sounding perfectly ordinary, there are a few sounds thrown into the mix that suggest all too vividly the slurping of fat through a tube, or the cutting of skin. Read the liner notes, though, and you see that the sound sources for the song include both "Liposuction surgery recorded in California" and "Straw and Water". It's not all a gross-out party game, though, as Matmos turns the tempo for an elegiac orchestra in track 05, "for felix (and all the rats)". If the effect of the music is sobering, even more so is the track's description in the liner notes: "Composed entirely from the plucked and bowed cage of our rat Felix (R.I.P.). Sadness at the loss of our pet is put in perspective by the fact that a laboratory animal dies every second in the United States." If there's one thing this disc lacks, it's the feeling of coherence that Matmos achieved with "The West". These tracks are all great, and the diversity of music is enjoyable, but the disc doesn't really hold together quite as well. My final verdict: If you already know you like Matmos, buy this disc immediately. It's a solid continuation of their previous work. If you have never heard them before, though, start with "The West"."

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	Matmos Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure Genres: Dance & Electronic, Alternative Rock, Special Interest, Pop, Rock Track Listings (7) - Disc #1 Lipostudio...And So On L. A. S. I. K. Spondee Ur Tchun Tan Tse Qi For Felix (And All The Rats) Memento Mori California Rhinoplasty
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