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What happens when you trust the Brooklyn experimental ensemble So Percussion's sounds with the electronica innovating masters Matmos? The simple answer is that you get Treasure State, a collaborative album that will be digitally released on June 8th (physical release July 13th) via Cantaloupe Music.
The music on Treasure State features steel drums, mallet percussion, water splashing, blippy samples, backward drum hits, trumpets, a toy piano, grungy electronics, blowing over glass bottles, a drum kit and so many other sounds whose origins we can’t begin to identify. Even though the album has an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to sound sources, Baltimore-based Matmos creates a cohesive and well-crafted sonic cloth that grooves, floats, twinkles, warps and gets dirty.
File this collaboration under “ambient grungy minimalist electronica.” Each track is a mix of metallic sounds, electronics and a beat. The specific ingredients vary (sometimes greatly) from track to track, but the album as a whole is sonically unified.
Hearing Treasure State in your car is one thing, but put on a pair of headphones, and the sound world crystallizes into something beautiful: Listen up close to the details, the interplay between the electronics and the unaffected samples, and the attention given to instrumentation.
If you like The Books, Múm or Matmos' other work, then definitely check this album out--especially with headphones or at least a pair of really good speakers.
So Percussion and Matmos will be performing at the Jensen Rec Center on June 23rd
- Written by Ellen Reid for LAist
So Percussion and Matmos - "Treasure"
