MATMOS | SOFT PINK TRUTH | LEAFCUTTER JOHN....

MATMOS | SOFT PINK TRUTH | LEAFCUTTER JOHN....

6 JUNE 2004 – SCALA | LONDON

[no.signal] and Eat Your Own Ears present

M A T M O S ~ an exclusive CIVIL WAR performance

also performing:

SOFT PINK TRUTH

LEAFCUTTER JOHN

DICK SLESSING COMBO|

YAXU PAXO

THE WIRE Sound System

Doors 7.00pm | Tickets: £13.50 (adv)

from: http://www.ticketweb.co.uk http://www.wayahead.com NME Ticket Line Rough Trade shop Covent Gd (WC2H T. 0207 240 0105) and Talbot Road (T. 0207 229 85 41)

::info::

……. San Francisco-based electronic duo Matmos return to the UK for a rare headline The Civil War performance after its astonishing world premiere at last October’s Dissonanze festival in Rome. The one-off London appearance will showcase the ingenuity of M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, who have built up a reputation for transforming the sounds of objects (ranging from plastic surgery, crayfish synapse and cat litter) into some of the most adventurous and enjoyable music around. Their most recent album, The Civil War, brought medieval instruments into the mix, as well as the obscure samples (such as a rabbit pelt), creating a mélange of traditional British music and 19th century Americana, spliced together with crisp digital editing techniques. The performance also includes video footage from the American Civil War.

Joining Matmos on stage at The Scala are several of the guest musicians who appeared on The Civil War. Mark Lightcap and Steve Goodfriend will swell the ranks to a four-piece, being on guitar/horn and drums respectively. The two of them also will be appearing on the bill as Dick Slessig Combo, along with bassist Carl Bronson. Drew Daniel will also be treating us to a portion of his disco/funk/techno side-project The Soft Pink Truth. The awesome, Planet-Mu signed, Leafcutter John will be snipping his way onto the Scala stage, and with music from The Wire Magazine’s very own sound system and a short set of Yaxu Paxo’s live code-based techno, the night looks set to be legendary.

Matmos provide a unique and unusual stage performance, using live samples, improvisation, props, and videos, plus whatever is at their disposal, all manipulated in mesmerizing and mysterious ways. Matmos have toured with Bjork, Lesser, The Rachel’s and Labradford, shared stages with Terry Riley and Wire, and were invited to play the now postponed Throbbing Gristle reunion shows at Camber Sands.

“Matmos are probably the most resourceful sound sculptors in contemporary music.” Philip Sherburne – The Wire

"By turns unsettling and funny, The Civil War is an album that defies categorization. Few musicians can really claim to be seriously pushing at the boundaries of modern music. To Matmos, however, it's second nature." Fiona Sturges, The Independent

"Embarking on a joyous smash'n'grab across the last, er, 410 years of popular music, 'The Civil War' overflows with humour and humanity" Tim Jonze – NME

further links: http://brainwashed.com/matmos/ | http://www.matadorrecords.com/

PRESS INFO: Lucy Hurst - MATADOR – PO Box 20125, London W10 5WA, 020 8969 5533, lucy@matadorrecords.com http://www.matadorrecords.com

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Leafcutter John (aka John Burton) has been defined as “one the bourgeoning stars of post-electronica” (Tony Herrington, The Wire). ‘The Housebound Spirit’, John’s 3rd and latest album released on Planet-Mu Records in 2003, was featured in The Wire Magazine’s top 50 records of 2003.

John has played at festivals throughout Europe. Last year’s highlight being headlining the dis.lab show (part of the dissonanze festival) in Rome – where he premiered his ‘electric breasts’, a remarkable performance interface. Further info/contact: http://leafcutter.33-rpm.net

“Within the firs 40 seconds of The Housebound Spirit, Leafcutter John (Burton) manages to assemble the kind of complex, suggestive soundscape that most producers working in the field struggle to deliver once during an entire album’. [Chris Sharp - The Wire]

‘Fragments of sound hang together with the inviolable conviction of a fine haiku’. - Interview by Rob Young – [The Wire, September 2003]

…..

Yaxu Paxo Gut-wrenching techno messing with a programmer's mind pre-occupied with computer code. Somehow the music got messed up with the code, the structure of the code describing the movement of sound. Yaxu (aka Alex McLean) is one founder member of a new movement called TOPLAP, a crew writing and manipulating code during live performance. You see the programmer play live, the same as you see a guitarist play live – the process is brought back to the fore. Must see experience. He has performed in various electronic music and software art festival including last year’s Rome’s dis.lab and dissonanze and at London’s Planet-Mu night at Electrowerz alongside Leafcutter John. He has won various software art prizes including the Transmediale prize in 2002. Link: http://slab.org.

Further info: eric namour / [no.signal] – 8-10 rhoda st. | eric@state51.co.uk | tel: 07721748756