Matador Records
2003
The Civil War
About This Album
Once again, Matmos reinvents itself on The Civil War, an album whose subtly oxymoronic title suggests the inherent contradictions of its sound. While the duo sang the body electronic on A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure, here Matmos returns to tweaking more conventional instruments into surreal soundscapes. In this way the album resembles The West, but The Civil War is more immediate and more aggressive, combining up-front melodies and concentrated glitches and manipulation into some of the group's best work to date. Moving from biology to history for inspiration, two of the album's reference points are the English Civil War of the 16th century and the American Civil War, each cleverly represented by "Regicide" and the wittily named "Reconstruction." The swarms of fiddles and flutes and rolling, martial drums that make up "Regicide" and the likeminded "Z.O.C.K." sound like they've come from some futuristic Renaissance fair (in the good way, of course) or an inspired collaboration between Aphex Twin and Hans Zimmer. "Reconstruction" begins with a percussive call to arms before unleashing digital hell, then segues into what could be an IDM version of Booker T. & the MG's
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5 and 6)

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