Matmos, the duo composed of Drew Daniel and M.C. Schmidt, have announced their new album Metallic Life Review, out June 20th, 2025 and made entirely with sounds from metallic objects. Along with the album announcement, the duo have shared the first single “Changing States“, a twinkling constellation of pangs and glitchy rhythmic jubilee. The piece features and is dedicated to the late pedal steel player Susan Alcorn. Listen here: https://matmos.bandcamp.com/track/changing-states

After finishing mixing the album, an undercurrent of mortality presented itself as already woven into the fabric of the record. A “life review” is a phrase used to describe the psychological phenomena reported by people who have survived near death experiences: the sense captured in the phrase “my life flashed before my eyes.” Metallic Life Review is a kind of compressed fast-forward of Matmos’ career with a sonic parade of the metallic objects from their lives. The sounds on the album were captured over the entire length of the existence of Matmos as a band, including everyday pots and pans from each member’s childhood, door scrapes recorded decades ago on a European tour, and metal “take up reels” used at the INA/GRM studios in Paris on the tape decks used to make the classic musique-concrete recordings.

“We have the sounds of plucking the metallic gates around a tomb recorded in an underground crypt, the sound of cemetery gates, and the death of Susan Alcorn and the death of David Lynch occurred as we completed the album,” notes Daniel. “We had already mixed the music with Susan before she passed, and we dedicate “Changing States” to her. David Lynch’s way of being an American artist was inspiring to us and we dedicated “The Chrome Reflects Our Image” to him.”

Metallic Life Review features Susan Alcorn’s pedal steel and Owen Gardner’s glockenspiel, Thor Harris’ (Water Damage/Swans) drumming, Jason Willett’s (Half Japanese) guitar, and Jeff Carey’s aluminum cans, which were melted, molded into custom aluminum rods, and then bowed and struck. The most dramatic difference from any previous Matmos album is that side two was recorded “live in the studio”, a la Throbbing Gristle’s Heathen Earth. For the first time on recording, Matmos capture the evolving, shifting, slithering dynamic that happens when they play live and let patterns emerge out of chaos and then collapse and re-form. Their playful blend of compositional brilliance and improvisational playfulness meld perfectly, truly capturing ecstatic moments in a way that can only happen live. Metallic Life Review is a musical love story transmuted into sound, the result of a life filled with curiosity and powered by boundless exploration. Matmos have again made something spellbinding, brilliant and emotionally resonant.

Along with the album and single, Matmos have announced a series of shows throughout 2025 around the UK, Europe and US, including an album release show at Knockdown Center in New York. No shows in Benelux just yet.