Matmos - Supreme Balloon(Matador, 2008)9 out of 10Supreme Balloon is a Disneyland of synthesized music, its listener given a choice of many lands in which to play — electro-funk, house, Baroque, classic video game, minimalism, and more — with an overall architecture designed for fun, harmless thrills and the eating of color-striped unicorn lollipops. I won't pretend to know what most of the synthesizers featured on the album do, so I won't name any of them. Sufficient is to say that the sonic palette is full of, and consisting of nearly nothing but, shaped waves. These are bright, shiny, fabricated, oscillated tones that describe themselves as nothing more than electronic mirth-makers. It is the considerable talent of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt — a talent for dramatically sculpting a piece and making influences their own — that allows this stylistically-guided content to transcend basic amusement or any signifiers of kitsch. In a mostly-outstanding discography full of unique sonic and conceptual approaches, each of which worth exploring, Matmos's LP7 is their finest.The first half of the album throws you beats, and you catch them like the flu. In the four-track run from "Rainbow Flag" to "Exciter Lamp and the Variable Band" (perhaps the best song title in the Matmos discography), you are Super Mario 3, jumping on music-note-adorned cubes that bounce you like jello trampolines. Glissandos quick and slow, smooth and chunky, surround blips that quite often arrange into lovely chords and tunes. "Zemoi" slows down the formula somewhat, even taking a couple of moments to feature a padding synth strain that strongly evokes certain David Lynch film and television scores; "Orban" then takes the relatively subdued tone and brings the tempo back up for a dubby house excursion. (Keep in mind that any defining structural "formulas," by the way, are more those of the methods of Matmos than the genre with which they might be dallying at any given moment.)Phase two gets darker, airier, more slippery and no less juicy as the funk more or less drops out. The shift is marked by "Les Folies Françaises," a short composition by Baroque composer François Couperin, originally written for the harpsichord and performed here on (okay, I'll name just one) Korg MS2000 by the contemporary classical pianist Sarah Cahill. The solo piece is turned into a duet as M.C. Schmidt alters the attack and decay of the instrument, and the breathing, organic nature of the performance is somewhat incredible, more vibrant and nuanced in its tone than even the most accomplished of Wendy Carlos's groundbreaking classical arrangements for Moog. From my perspective, their take on "Les Folies Françaises" quietly and uniquely both characterizes and deepens the achievement of
Supreme Balloon. From there, it is onto "Cloudhoppers" and "Staircase," two psychedelic, ambient pieces for keyboards swimming in delay; falling between them is "Hashish Master," which opens with an Eastern-tinged solo from
the Terry Riley and morphs into an ominous, devilish, house-influenced jumble of minor-key menace. These three pieces prepare those who have stayed on board (and why not?) for the ultimate reward of
Supreme Balloon, the 24-minute title track. "Supreme Balloon" is a pulsing meditation in F major, ostinatos fading in and out while other synths take solos, electronic tabla being manipulated not unlike the way the piece itself manipulates the basic form of a raga. The piece, in essence, is
fresh new age music, informed by both Indian classical and 20th century minimalist, but without falling into a single "new age" trap, completely untied from the stale approaches of soundtracks for massage or yoga. Better yet, it appears to be inexhaustibly listenable. Believe me or don't, but I insist: this is how it should be done, just as Matmos consistently present, on the whole of
Supreme Balloon, exemplary, elevating work in (and above) the field.-Spencer Owen
NOTE ON VERSIONS: The CD issue contains eight songs (one hidden), while the vinyl contains eleven, the one hidden and three extra tracks interpolated into the running order. If you buy the album on iTunes, you get all four songs as "bonus tracks" stuck to the end of the album. I took the iTunes route and then, after getting acquainted with the CD version, I reordered it under the vinyl edition's specifications; I've replicated both CD and vinyl listings below. M.C. Schmidt claims that he prefers the CD version and Drew Daniel prefers the vinyl. I think both versions of the album are basically flawless, and as such, will gladly take Drew's, it being the one with more songs on it.Supreme Balloon
(Schmidt edition; CD):1. Rainbow Flag2. Polychords3. Mister Mouth4. Exciter Lamp and the Variable Band5. Les Folies Françaises6. Supreme Balloon7. Cloudhoppers8. Orban (hidden track)Supreme Balloon
(Daniel edition, review version; vinyl, modified-iTunes):1. Rainbow Flag2. Polychords3. Mister Mouth4. Exciter Lamp and the Variable Band5. Zemoi6. Orban7. Les Folies Françaises8. Cloudhoppers9. Hashish Master10. Staircase11. Supreme Balloon
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