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Avg: 3.5 (141 ratings)
- Date Released: May 9, 2006
- Genre: Electronic
- Style: Abstract
- Label: Matador
Sonic biographies that click, clack and whirr.
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We Say...
Matmos is the San Francisco duo (and domestic partnership) of Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt, conceptual art experimentalists who integrate contemporary sample-dominant electronica with old-fashioned musique concrète. Consisting of ten aural portraits of unconventional gay icons, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast is both their most accessible and queerest offering. The disc pays tribute to people as diverse as Darby Crash of '70s Los Angeles punk band the Germs and 19th century's King Ludwig II of Bavaria. Using noises and arrangements evocative of their subject matter to compose fitting sonic biographies, Matmos craft left-field disco in "Steam and Sequins for Larry Levan" and haunted nocturnal jazz in "Snails and Lasers for Patricia Highsmith." Neither song requires the listener to know anything about the duo's sound sources or even their subjects, but such knowledge sure makes this peculiarly playful disc more fun.
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They Say...
More like a portable gallery installation than a mere album, Matmos' The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast is a collection of fascinating, fractured audio and visual portraits of ten prominent gay and lesbian figures, among them writers, philosophers, filmmakers, and musicians. The previous two Matmos albums kept the music closely tied to the concepts they explored, with surgical sounds making up A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure and The Civil War immersed in medieval music and American folk. The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast, however, loosely holds together very different tracks that fuse art, history, and politics as they chop and manipulate sounds that include a cow's reproductive tract and styles of music ranging from surf to power electronics. Similarly, Matmos' approaches to their portraits span photograph-like detail and literalism to highly abstract smears and splashes of sound. "Roses and Teeth for Ludwig Wittgenstein" is more on the literal side: beginning with dried-roses-and-wisdom-teeth percussion, the track builds to include samples of beaver, shark and goat teeth, mooing cows, and honking geese as Laetitia Sonami, Björk, and M.C. Schmidt's brother Werner recite a passage from Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. At the other end of the spectrum is "Semen Song for James Bidgood," where Antony's vocals and Zeena Parkins' harp are looped and layered upon each other in an impressionistic, sensual homage to the director of Pink Narcissus. The album's accompanying visual artwork is just as wide-ranging, with Daniel Clowes turning in a creepy-comical caricature to go along with the porn-funk of "Public Sex for Boyd McDonald." Jason Mecier contributes a snail shell, cigarette butts, and twigs likeness of novelist Patricia Highsmith, whose tense, jazzy audio portrait deftly captures the danger and intrigue of stories like Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Matmos themselves have always been exceptionally good storytellers in their music, which keeps The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast from being a purely academic/experimental work. "Solo Buttons for Joe Meek" is a witty update of the space-surf the tormented producer concocted in his apartment recording studio; the way the naïvely twangy guitar is intercut with sawing strings (courtesy of the Kronos Quartet) and the way the song keeps short circuiting makes it an inspired expression of his creativity and turmoil. Meanwhile, on the comically bloated and regal "Banquet for King Ludwig II of Bavaria" (based on an incident in which the king had dinner served to his favorite horse in his castle's Hall of Mirrors), it's clear something is very wrong even before the dishes start breaking and Maja Ratkje's soprano turns into a scream. Songs like these and the brilliantly warped disco of "Steam and Sequins for Larry Levan" -- which may be the most accessible track Matmos has done yet -- show that as fascinating as the concepts and processes behind The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast are, the album's inventive sounds can be enjoyed without having to know anything about them. Just as Wittgenstein found a way to explain the title's seemingly absurd notion ("Why, suppose one were to say: the cow chews its food and then dungs the rose with it, so the rose has teeth in the mouth of a beast") Matmos seeks unique ways of making connections -- and of course, music -- that aren't obvious. Though The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast's fractured nature makes it a somewhat daunting listen at first, in the end, its portraits end up becoming a self-portrait of Matmos, and it's a dazzling mosaic of sounds, ideas, and history. Even if it's not as cohesive as their two previous albums, it's some of their best (and certainly most ambitious) work.
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| 01. |  |
Roses and Teeth for Luwig Wittgenstein |
3:24 |
|
| 02. | |
Steam and Sequins for Larry Levan |
5:20 |
|
| 03. | |
Tract for Valerie Solanas |
5:07 |
|
| 04. | |
Public Sex for Boyd McDonald |
5:52 |
|
| 05. | |
Semen Song for James Bidgood |
5:02 |
|
| 06. | |
Snails and Lasers for Patricia Highsmith |
5:51 |
|
| 07. | |
Germs Burn for Darby Crash |
4:10 |
|
| 08. | |
Solo Buttons for Joe Meek |
3:33 |
|
| 09. | |
Rag for William S. Burroughs |
13:52 |
|
| 10. | |
Banquet for King Ludwig II of Bavaria |
3:23 |
|
10 Total Tracks, 55:34 Total Length
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Credits
- The Kronos Quartet - Strings // Laetitia Sonami - Readings // Michael Brook - Projection // Hank Dutt - Viola // Bridget Fitzgerald - Viola // David Harrington - Violin // Duff McKagan - Readings // Zeena Parkins - Harp // Zeena Parkins - Harp // John Sherba - Violin // Kalonica McQuesten - Voices // Thomas DiMuzio - Mastering // Marcus Schmickler - Readings // Don Bolles - Paintings // Don Bolles - Prop Design // Rex Ray - Design // Björk Gudmundsdottir - Readings // Mark Lightcap - Trumpet // Mark Lightcap - Guitar (Electric) // Mark Lightcap - Peck Horn // Daniel Clowes - Illustrations // Brian O'Reilly - Double Bass // Steve Goodfriend - Drums // Steve Goodfriend - Sleigh Bells // Jon Leidecker - Digital Transfers // Jon Leidecker - Effects // Drew Daniel - Synthesizer // Drew Daniel - Bass // Drew Daniel - Keyboards // Drew Daniel - Sound Effects // Drew Daniel - Sampling // Drew Daniel - Digital Editing // Drew Daniel - Sequencing // Drew Daniel - Tape Recorders // Drew Daniel - Bombard // Drew Daniel - Effects // Drew Daniel - Tapes // Drew Daniel - Arp 2600 // Drew Daniel - Marbles // Drew Daniel - Shortwave Radio // Drew Daniel - Typewriter // Drew Daniel - Video Tape // Drew Daniel - Sementes // Blevin Blectum - Violin // Maja Ratkje - Voices // Antony Hegarty - Voices // Clarice Jensen - Cello // John Talaga - Electronics // Lev Zhurbin - String Arrangements // Jeffrey Zeigler - Cello // Ben Bisson - Illustrations // Erika Clowes - ? // Miranda Cuckson - Violin // Matthew Curry - Arp 2600 // Leif Fairfield - Bass // Jefferson Friedman - String Arrangements // Matthew Fuerst - Piano // Matthew Fuerst - Prepared Piano // Barbara Golden - Readings // Liz Goldschmidt - Model // Yalie Kumara - Readings // Jay Lesser - Bass // Jay Lesser - Guitar (Electric) // Jay Lesser - Electronics // Jay Lesser - Model // Bernard Loggins - Illustrations // Lee Lozano - Assistant // Edmund McMillen - Illustrations // Jason Mercier - Artwork // Benjamin Morgan - Model // Phiiliip Morgan - Model // Werner Phillip Schmidt - Readings // Robert Syrett - Illustrations // Robert Syrett - Cover Illustration // Ivy Tiegel - Artwork // Ivy Tiegel - Photography // Amy Vaillancourt - French Horn // Zum Zoom - Readings
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