Mattin
& Matthew Bower
A New Form Of Beauty (1975)
CD
/ B-BOY 029
Using
guitars and electronics, Mattin and Bower mould a relentlessly pounding
tsunami of sound. No time to catch your breath in this long, thundering
tornado of noise, feedback, distortion and screaming strings. A
screeching guitar occasionally lifts its head above the whirling
maelstrom. Ghostlike sounds rise towards the surface of this sonic
mass; is that a wailing, desolate violin or a radio I hear in the
distance? Am I hallucinating or is this indeed that new beauty?
Mattin
& Bower far exceed the pain threshold. No need to prick up your
ears; expect your eardrums to be pierced. Just when you think calm has
returned, the duo decides to increase the dose. At the end of their
piece Mattin & Bower reveal an unparalleled vertiginous abyss of
noise. The listener is transported from high to higher plateaus of
sound. Cries for help are suppressed as salvation comes nigh. This is
white noise from the dark side. This is indeed a new form of beauty.
'A
New Form Of Beauty (1975)' is packed in beautiful new 'envelope'
packaging designed and handprinted by Jason Dodge & Christine
Roland.
Reviews:
Volcanic Tongue
New collaboration between Matthew Bower
(Sunroof/Hototogisu/Skullflower et al) and anti-copyright activist/free
electronics artist Mattin. Supposedly (and somewhat confusingly) named
in tribute to a Virgin Prunes LP (??!!) this new set is some kind of
peak for Bower in his decades-long quest for an endlessly enveloping
ecstasy sound, as the whole thing just rockets through vector after
phantom vector of irradiating white light, what sounds like sunspot
activity magnified to the power of punk, infinite orchestras of
microtonal fractals and the use of the kind of Ur-chord that would
re-tune your entire body. Totally massive, edition of only 250 copies
in special envelope style sleeves handprinted by Jason Dodge and
Christine Roland. Highly recommended. David Keenan
The Wire (#283, September 2007)
Reviewed by Josseph Stannard
Oddly enough, but perhaps fittingly, Bower Mattin is the name of an
architects' firm based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. it's one of those
synchronicities one imagines Bower would appreciate, although any
temptation to evoke 'architecture of sound' platitudes are best
avoided. Swuiped from Dublin avant Goths The Virgin Prunes, A New Form of Beauty is probably
one of Bower's most apposites titles, summing up his aesthtic in five
perfect words. This is a considerable less accessible record than Spitting Gold Zebras, though, and
less reliant on the gurgling, giggling, and hiccoping that characterise
Bower's more playful Sunroof! style. In its place is a
relentless, brain splitering high end assault in which heavily
processed guitar is joined by the equally abrasive electronics of
Basque noise musician Mattin. et it also has a sense of beauty: its
extremity eventually inspires melancholy, especially whn a slender
sliver of feedback is allowed to hover precariously above the sheer
hellish miasma for a new significant seconds.
Diskunion (Japan)
英ノイズのベテラン、スカルフラワーのマシュー・バウアーと、バスクの怪人
マッティンのデュオ作品。ギターとデスクトップPCによるコラボレーションだと思われる。容赦ないノイズの嵐が吹き荒れるノイズ作品。マッティン、グレイ
ト!!
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VITAL
WEEKLY
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number
583
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week
27
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MATTIN & MATTHEW BOWER - A
NEW FORM OF BEAUTY (1975) (CD by Bottrop Boy)
Recorded live to cassette to
guarantee the gloriously fucked-up lo-fi splendor, this duo work by
Mattin on computer feedback and Matthew Bower (Skullflower, Sunroof!,
Hototogisu) on guitar and microphone captures a 48-minute outburst of
remarkable sonic rawness. This is the kind of music that floods
your perception with a full blast of opaque noise from the first to the
last minute. Mattin and Bower play a risky game in using a rather
limited palette of sounds and going full force right from the
beginning, but they succeed in keeping the energy and tension, as they
know how to keep coming up with new nuances and structural accents
throughout. During the first half of the
piece, Mattin sets up a wall
of rumbling and hissing digital feedback noise - static on the surface,
but yielding an overflow of complex sounds below - and Bower joins
in with aggressive guitar treatments. Without ever drifting into
arbitrariness, the structure of this part stays rather amorphous.
Later on, though, as
the opacity of the sound
decreases slightly, things get tighter and the guitar completely fuses
with the now more detailed digital beeps and screeches. Even at a low
volume, the music reaches a high level of physical intensity, almost
causing actual physical pain. It doesn't have the catchy
quality or the trash appeal of some other current manifestations of
lo-fi noise. But then again just trying to be more loud or radical than
all the others before would seem pretty redundant after all. So, rather
than that, "A New Form of Beauty" manages to find an irritating
as well as stimulating balance between austerity and excessiveness.
(MSS)
Intensity and noise are also
the keywords to the collaboration that Bower did with Mattin. Bower on
guitar and feedback and Mattin on computer feedback, recorded to a cassette
(although that's hard to believe). Recorded in one go, a forty-eight
minute onslaught - again - which is much more singular
and straight
forward than the more
complex Sunroof. It's a bit hard to guess what the title has to do it,
as an old bloke like me thinks of Virgin Prunes right
away, but this single minded
attack on the ears is something different. Well, perhaps this is the
real new form of beauty - the beauty of ugliness, the beauty of cruelty. But it's
beauty for the true lovers of the genre, whereas Sunroof could appeal
to more people.
(FdW)
BLOW UP (Italy)
Signore e signori, per il nostro consueto appuntamento con Mattin,
questo
mese proponiamo una collaborazione assieme a Matthew Bower a nome
³A New
Form of Beauty 1975². Il titolo omaggia i Virgin Prunes, ma per
quanto
l¹operazione che segnò l¹esordio degli irlandesi a
inizi ¹80 era ben più che
mostruosa, possiamo tranquillamente dire che il basco e l¹inglese
con Gavin
Friday e soci non c¹entrano niente. Qui semmai trovate valanghe di
feedback,
chitarre ultradistorte, ampli torturati e bestialità
improvvisate per 48
minuti buoni.
Brainwashed
| Mattin and Matt Bower "A
New Form of Beauty (1975)" |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Matthew Spencer |
| Sunday, 22 July
2007 |
| The
title claims that Bower and company have created a new form of beauty.
Instead they explore the rather conventional aim (for them) of
bludgeoning the listener to submission.
This
is collaboration between Bower and Basque noise artist Mattin. Its
emphasis on harsh noise is similar to Sunroof!'s newest album, Spitting
Gold Zebras,
only more tedious. The title is homage of sorts to the Virgin Prunes,
whose first release is this CD's namesake. I find it misleading because
aside from the title there is little musical commonality between the
two groups and none of the eclecticism and humor that the Prunes were
known for. The lone track is built by a solid yet unvaried riffing
buried under brittle, rumbling electronics. These components don't play
off each other but continually battle for dominance, never disengaging
form spot they are rutted down in. The big chords and riffs are not
allowed to decay or ring out in the manner that they demand to, and any
sort of modulation or timbral variation in the electronics is masked
from hearing.Mattin has stated that the new goal of noise is achieving
freedom, but this release sounds for like repression than anything.
He
and Bower fall into the familiar conceptual trap of many harsh noise
artists; that a piece must at all time maintain a maximum level of
abrasiveness in order to intense or compelling. In that approach
though, there is no relief that attends freedom, only sounds tensed
into shapelessness.
|
Musique
Machine
Mattin
& Matthew
Bower - A New Form Of Beauty(1975) [Bottrop-Boy - 2007]
The
1975 part of this title rather threw me, and had me wondering if this
dates from then but it seems this was recorded this year or last year.
Anyway on with music or sound, what we have here is one long and
punishing mix of electronics and gitar weaved into a rock jam/noise
storm.
Though there is a noise element
present here with the
wailing feedback pitch and electronic fuzz, most of the 48 minute track
is built up from drumless rock guitar jam that sort of
wonders over the
same few cords again and again, almost having the air of a gone wrong
blues sideman keep up a beat or groove. I have to say I prefer for the
most part guitar in noise to not be identifiable or playing some sort
of normal sound or progression, and that I think is the problem with
this- it’s always holding on to that structure and that musically
element. The noise element is ok, but hardly ground shaking- it just
really amounts to varying static storms of electronics, that sadly
don’t go anywere too interesting or exciting. Towards the end it seems
to start using some interesting accelerating tones and feed back pricks
of sound, but nothing really captivating.
This is really an extended rock
jam with noise bits stuck on with
very little craft or art in there manipulation. Passable on a slow day
for 20 minutes entertainment or so, but otherwise a little dull.
Roger Batty
discography
w.m.o/record label
desetxea net label
www.mattin.org