The Marriage of True Minds is the ninth studio album by electronic music group Matmos.
Production
Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt, the members of Matmos, spent four years conducting parapsychological experiments based on the Ganzfeld experiment. After subjects were put into a state of sensory deprivation, Daniel attempted to "transmit the concept of the new Matmos record” into their minds. Subjects were asked to describe aloud any images that entered their minds. The Marriage of True Minds was constructed using both the subjects' verbal descriptions and the band members' reenactments of these "psychic" visions.
In advance of the full-length album, Matmos released the Ganzfeld EP on October 16, 2012, via Thrill Jockey. Baltimore producer Schwarz later released a club mix of "Very Large Green Triangles" with proceeds benefiting the Maryland Food Bank.
The album was recorded and mixed at Daniel and Schmidt's Baltimore home and Snow Ghost Studio in Montana, and mastered in San Francisco by Thomas DiMuzio. The album's final track is a "polyglot reconstruction" of Buzzcocks' song "E.S.P.", from their 1978 album Love Bites.
Reception
Pitchfork Media's Jayson Greene noted that Matmos' music "has always had an antic, morbid cast to it, like a Grimm's fairy tale with all the ghoulish aspects slightly accentuated, and The Marriage of True Minds is maybe the most confident they've ever been at balancing the two sides of this equation." Heather Phares, reviewing the album for AllMusic, wrote that it "effortlessly [balances] the duo's freewheeling, meticulous, ominous, and playful sides" and "delivers some of the most abstract, and most visceral, music" in Matmos' discography.
Track listing
Personnel
Matmos
Drew Daniel – Arp 2600, autoharp, banjo, bells, editing, sampling, sequencing, sleigh bells, triangle, vocals, wood block M.C. (Martin) Schmidt – bells, bongos, cymbals, mixing, percussion, photography, piano, processing, shaker, timpani, treated piano, triangle, tuning forks, vocals
Additional musicians and production staff
Bret Allen – mixing
John Berndt – sax (alto) Andrew Bernstein – cowbell, roto toms, tambourine Rose Hammer Burt – sax (baritone) Dan Deacon – vocals Tiffany DeFoe - sax (tenor) Angel Deradoorian – vocals Thomas Dimuzio – mastering Max Eisenberg – vocals Carl Ewing – drums, tuning forks Owen Gardner – cello, guitar, piri Sam Haberman – drums, percussion, triangle Ayman Harper – stones, tap dancing, wood Connor Kizer – trumpet Jon Leidecker – mixing, processing Dominique Leone – vocals Jay Lesser – guitar Gerry Mak – vocals Duncan Moore – bagpipes Edward Phillips – vocals Carly Ptak – vocals Ashot Sarkissjan – violin Ed Schrader – vocals Pete Shelley – composer, lyricist Clodagh Simonds – vocals Jenn Wasner – vocals John Wiese – noise Leslie Winer – composer, lyricist