Kaffe Matthews

My speakers haven't received such an intense work out since Aube's Substructural Penetration. This album is the latest work of Matthews, who uses live performance sound sources that are processed beyond recognition to create her often abrasive, occasionally soothing and sometimes even sublime sonic sculptures. Fifteen tracks are divided into three vaguely titled sub-categories - "In Search of a Bun," "The Last of the Violins" and "Pool in the Basement" - with textures ranging from as soft as beach sand to as abrasive as getting tossed into a bin of broken machine parts. Part three, "Pool in the Basement," is a nice ambient track that I would rank up there with Aphex Twin's Ambient Works Volume 2. This album made me cringe, nod along to rhythmic repetitions and shake my head in admiring disbelief. One track, in particular, in "The Last of the Violins" blew me away, since it was like what rock music might be 20 to 30 years from now, or what Nine Inch Nails might sound like if they had any balls.