From one of the most inventive and avant-garde electronic outfit of this generation comes the 3-hour long monster “The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form”. This album is as enigmatic as the name suggests, an extensive study in auditory textures and sound design that sometimes can feel like art for the sake of it.
I chose this particular track as a sample for it because I feel it’s a good representation of the general intention of the project as a whole and also because it instantly reminded me of one my favourite jazz albums of all time, “Bitches Brew” by Miles Davis, both in sentiment and nature. You can taste the free jazz feel and experimental approach to music in the seemingly random drops of notes and the laid-back drum beat.
These kinds of projects are not exactly easy to listen, it takes some effort to really appreciate the creative and innovative instincts of Matmos, but it is thanks to these boundaries pushing artists that music keeps moving towards new and exciting directions, and it’s always worth to try and challenge yourself and your perception of what can be described as music, an exercise in open mindedness.
You can learn more about Matmos here:
About the Curator: Ema Page
Music has been one of the few constants in my life, since I was a little kid it has been my greatest passion. I remember being 5 or 6 years old sitting on the floor in my living room in front of the cd and vinyl player and being completely entranced by it. Since then I have been completely addicted to anything related to music.
For quite a bit of time I was a complete rock and metalhead, I fell into the trap of not listening to anything else and being snob towards other kinds of music for no good reasons. Luckily for me I had some good friends that opened my mind to all the possibilities out there, one of my best friends in particular introduced me to the Jazz world, that was a game changer for me. I started looking at music through different lenses, really thinking about what I was listening to, analysing it, understanding it at a deeper level. From that moment on I opened the doors to everything else, from pop music to indie folk, from traditional Spanish music to hardcore EDM, from experimental and cutting-edge stuff to classical music.
I just crave for new perspectives and approaches to deepen my appreciation of this incredible form of art that we call music.