We are pleased to announce that on May 6th 2008 Matador Records will release the new Matmos album "Supreme Balloon" as a compact disc, two vinyl long playing records, and as a gallimaufry of digital files through iTunes and other online retailers of note.

The album is a pretty wild departure from classical Matmos working methods: no kooky or abject objects were played percussively, no conceptual rubrics or philosophical syllabi are appended, and, hell, no microphones were used at any point in the creation of the record. Instead, "Supreme Balloon" is an ALL SYNTHESIZER ALBUM. Old synths, new synths, MAX patches, one-of-a-kind modular rigs, decrepit consumer electronics of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, boutique effects pedals, tabla drum machines from India: it's all there.

A number of close Matmos pals and some musical idols of ours came along for the ride this time: many of the songs are built of cut-up and manipulated synth solos played by Jay Lesser, Matthew "Safety Scissors" Curry, and Jon Leidecker (aka "Wobbly"). The album also features a guest appearance by Bay Area classical pianist Sarah Cahill, who tickles the plastic on our "cover" of French baroque composer Francois Couperin's "Les Folies Francaises" and a face-melting solo on the E.V.I. (Electronic Voice Instrument) from a living treasure of American jazz, Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra.

For those of you completists who seek out bonus tracks, we would also like to point out that the vinyl and digital editions of the album include a bonus track featuring an ARP 2600 solo played by none other than Terry Riley. The album has some really sweet original artwork by Robert Syrett which was made in collaboration with the number-crunching wizards at The Echo Nest, and the whole package is lovingly layed out by Rex Ray.

You will soon be able to hear the album's first song "Rainbow Flag" on the Matador website. We will have lots more to say about the album once it is released, and we're currently planning European and American tours in which only traditional synthetic cuisine of the highest quality will be served.

The new album from Matmos finds the dynamic duo taking a holiday from conceptual responsibility, skipping the outré sampling antics in favor of a lighthearted "cosmic pop" record made entirely out of synthesizers. Leave it to Matmos to invent a hard and fast rule that they have to follow even when they're just having fun: the creative restriction this time around is that "Supreme Balloon" is an ALL synthesizer album and no microphones were used at any point. That's right, no household objects played in a percussive manner, no snails or blood or amplified semen, no acoustic instruments, no voices of famous people for five seconds, not even any half-way cheating with Vocoders, just synthesizers of all shapes, sizes, eras and nationalities being snipped, folded and reshuffled by an arsenal of samplers and computers into colorful sound-origami.

Gear fetishists take note: the exotic and antiquated synths used on the record heavily spotlight the classic 60s/70s/80s consumer electronic rigs of Arp, Korg, Roland, Waldorf and Moog, and feature modular systems from Electro-Comp, Doepfer and Akai (hell, even a stylophone and a Suzuki Omnichord show up); these were recorded at home in San Francisco, California and in the SnowGhost studio at Whitefish, Montana. But there are also completely unique, one-of-a-kind modular curios present, such as the "Coupigny" modular synthesizer housed in the INA/GRM studios at Radio France in Paris and used extensively by some of the titans of musique-concrete. Guest players invited to the party include living treasure of American jazz Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra (he plays the E.V.I. or Electronic Voice Instrument, a breath controlled oscillator, on "Mister Mouth"), Bay Area troublemakers Jon Leidecker (aka Wobbly), East Coast electroacoustic sages Jay Lesser and Keith Fullerton Whitman, and classically trained pianist Sarah Cahill. Plus, our roll-call of the good and great would be remiss if we didn't mention that the gatefold double vinyl and ITunes edition of the album also includes the bonus track "Hashish Master" that features a guest solo synth improvisation from none-other-than minimalist mastermind Terry Riley(!). Though it was recorded all over the world over the last two years, the whole shebang was finished in Baltimore, Maryland (the band's new home, at least as long as Drew Daniel is a professor in the English Department at Johns Hopkins University), and comes encased in some truly gorgeous watercolor artwork by Robert Syrett.

To break it down: the album drops with a bumpin' front end of four rhythmic workouts (perky, stomping, toe-tapping, and shuffling, respectively) that coach Perrey & Kingsley and 8-bit video game music and kitsch Latin Moogsploitation into some freaky positions. Then things take a classy European vacation in which the baroque composer Francois Couperin's "Les Folies Francaises" is given the Wendy Carlos treatment. Then the band turn a corner into unexpected, ambitious new territory and things swell to a truly ridiculous/heroic climax. The jewel in the crown is the album's title track, a 24 minute monster synth jam that builds from a lone Roland SH-101 wobbling your sub-woofers into a celestial, psychedelic epic whose spiraling arpeggios recall the sidelong LP-era mind-journeys of Cluster, Mother Mallard and Vangelis. Riding an insistent tabla pattern courtesy of a "Taal Mala" drum machine from India, warm, bubbling layers of analogue synthesis, and the chattering and chirping of MAX patches shaking hands with boutique EFX pedals, it's a long strange trip indeed. Things cool down with an ambient air kiss and it's over.

We know you're probably shaking your head and thinking to yourself, "an electronic band makes an all-electronic album? These guys must be CRAZY." And you'd be right. Consider this revenge for all those Queen records whose liner notes said "And nobody played the synthesizer!", and a sweet surprise from a truly unpredictable American band.

i might have to get the vinyl for that terry riley solo.

This is completely unexpected, and I don't really LOVE any previous Matmos records (though they are all amazing in their own way), but this has me really, really, really excited. They're some of the most creative and innovative music makers out there right now, and this track is very, very trippy. TRIPPY

and as if by magic.......

Yeah, this is very good. Two stunning albums in one day. Not bad.

Many listens in and Im not close to properly digesting this.
Hats off.

I'm supremely ballooned right now, but the above-imaged slab is still our Moog standard...just sayin'...