Return to Archive

by Matmos

Overview

By the early 2020s, Matmos' Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt had earned such a reputation for their intricate sample collages that they were commissioned to create pieces from the works of renowned composers and institutions. After reassembling the music of Polish composer Boguslaw Schaeffer into fantastical new shapes on Regards/Uklony dla Boguslaw Schaeffer, Schmidt and Daniel helped Smithsonian Folkways celebrate the label's 75th anniversary with 2023's Return to Archive. Though Folkways is famed for its collection of music by artists such as Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, it's also home to non-musical recordings captured in the 1950s and '60s, including Sounds of North American Frogs, Sounds of the Junk Yard, and The Science of Sound. These are the sounds that Matmos piece together, playfully and reverently, on Return to Archive. Daniel and Schmidt's use of these recordings as the album's only source lets one of the world's greatest sonic archives -- and Matmos' technique -- shine. As on A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure, Plastic Anniversary, and Ultimate Care II, concentrating on non-musical sources emphasizes the duo's brilliance with rhythms and textures. On "Injection Basic Sound," Daniel and Schmidt turn the repetition of the titular phrase and the gurgling, squishing, and sputtering tones of air injected into an esophagus into an inviting groove; on the impish prologue "Good Morning Electronics," they seem to condense the entire Folkways catalog into a minute-long celebration of sound itself. Return to Archive often feels like a collaboration between Schmidt and Daniel and the recordists doggedly capturing the sounds of bottlenose dolphins and the noise the ionosphere makes more than half a century prior. Even when Matmos transform their source material, they remain true to its spirit. When they fuse operatic vocals with screeching ones on the hypnotic "Music or Noise?," the answer to the track's question is "both." With each listen, Return to Archive reveals more thought-provoking layers and surreal connections. Over a ribbiting rhythm of frog calls, "Why?" lets a child's questions bounce around the stereo field, evoking humankind's innate need to discover and document. On the title track, an announcer discusses frogs while an expansive assembly of sounds made by humans -- engines, chisels, gunshots -- reaches a droning peak echoed by "Mud-Dauber Wasp," an insistently buzzing techno homage to an animal as skilled at repurposing as Schmidt and Daniel themselves. At times, Return to Archive rivals Ultimate Care II when it comes to the more challenging, cerebral side of Matmos' music, but its fascinating reflections on how we build on and reframe the past make for a hip, thoughtful celebration of Smithsonian Folkways' forward-thinking legacy. ~ Heather Phares

Product Details

Release Date:	05/03/2024
Label:	SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS
UPC:	0093074026113

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Matmos   Primary Artist