Now Available: More Info Than Anyone Really Needs To Know About Supreme Balloon

As promised below, a track-by-track guide to “Supreme Balloon” has been prepared and is now available here on the site. As noted in the introduction, “please proceed with caution, especially if you are squeamish about gear porn and namedropping.”

May 6th, 2008

SUPREME BALLOON ACHIEVES LIFTOFF TODAY

The seventh Matmos album is called “Supreme Balloon” and it is now available in many forms: a compact disc with 7 songs is the form that M. C. Schmidt feels best represents the real core of the album, while Drew Daniel prefers the longer 11 song double LP vinyl format with the fancy gatefold artwork, and many eco-conscious listeners will probably treasure the entirely digital file-format version. These decisions are up to you; choose wisely, and remember that more is not necessarily better.

Every time that we complete an album we try to provide an online text describing each song and giving some background information about its backstory. This album is harder to talk about than most. Consulting the I-Ching while working on this album produced the sixteenth hexagram, “Delight”. This feels appropriate, because this album is sincerely intended to give delight to the listener. While creating it, many more songs were fashioned than were used on the final tracklisting of the album, and the more discordant, harsh, clanging and abrasive songs were weeded out in favor of songs that shared a family resemblance and a positive direction. The core of the sixteenth hexagram is its fourth yang line; in the translated annotations to this figure provided by Thomas Cleary we read of the fourth yang that: “Being the source of delight, there is great gain. Let there be no doubt, and companions will gather.” This too is true of our album. Many friends from far and wide participated in the recording sessions for this album, making it a social and collaborative affair. We are thankful to the people who gave us sounds that we did use and we are just as grateful to the people who gave us sounds that we did not use for this record. Someday these sounds will find their home too. As we prepare to tour Europe and the UK and America playing the music from this album we hope that you will also gather together with us and Lesser and Wobbly and Leprechaun Catering and be our companions.

In the coming days we will present a guide to the record with photos and stories about its creation. Thank you for listening.

(Drew with Terry Riley)

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