Matmos Have Made an Entire Album from the Sounds of Plastic

'Plastic Anniversary' will arrive next year

BY Brock ThiessenPublished Dec 13, 2018

Avant-garde heroes Matmos are returning with a new album, and since this is Matmos we're talking about, it comes with quite the concept. For the Baltimore electronic duo's new album Plastic Anniversary, the record is derived from a single sound source: plastic.

The album follows Matmos' 2016 effort Ultimate Care II, which was made entirely from the sound of a washing machine. And in addition to celebrating all things plastic, Plastic Anniversary also marks the couple of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt's own anniversary.

As a press release explains, Plastic Anniversary "explores the world's relationship to plastic — a material whose durability, portability and longevity, while heralded by its makers, are the very qualities that make it a force of environmental devastation. Through its reliance on discarded plastic, the album shows at once the boundless creativity of Matmos and pervasive nature of the material, and therefore the urgency for solutions."

To create the sounds included on the new album, Matmos employed everything from Bakelite dominos and styrofoam coolers, to police riot shields and polyethylene waste containers, to PVC panpipes and bubble wrap. They even use silicone gel breast implants and synthetic human fat. 

Down below, you can watch a trailer for Plastic Anniversary, where you'll also find its tracklist. Plastic Anniversary arrives on March 15 via Thrill Jockey.

Plastic Anniversary:

1. Breaking Bread
2. The Crying Pill
3. Interior With Billiard Balls & Synthetic Fat
4. Extending The Plastisphere To GJ237b
5. Silicone Gel Implant
6. Plastic Anniversary
7. Thermoplastic Riot Shield
8. Fanfare For Polyethylene Waste Containers
9. The Singing Tube
10. Collapse Of The Fourth Kingdom
11. Plastisphere

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