Records of the Week

SO PERCUSSION ON MYSPACE
MATMOS ON MYSPACE
CANTALOUPE RECORDS

The most recent collaboration between So Percussion, a Eastern Seaboard-based collection of classically trained percussionists, and Matmos, a duo of unflappable electronic ingenuity, is a challenge on numerous levels.  And the 49+ minutes of the album rise to meet that challenge.  Most of Treasure State has a calypso feel, as if it were produced in the shade of palm trees and after a long morning of drinking piña coladas–but the auxiliary sounds, thanks to Matmos, couldn’t be further from the tropics.  “Aluminum,” despite it’s high-pitched chimes, was made mostly with empty beer cans, and the plucky beat of “Needles” is the result of hours spent fiddling with the pointy end of a cactus.  Despite the non-traditional sounds, the collaborators are able to gesture toward a number of tried-and-true aesthetic styles, like brooding ambiance on “Swamp,” and trip-hop on album-closer “Flame.”  The most rewarding moment on the album is hard to pin down–but that is because it is different for everyone.  It is when you forget that you are listening to Ivy League-trained musicians and manipulated, oddball sounds and begin to appreciate Treasure State as a vacation from musical classification.