New York-based classical musician and electronic composer Matthew Peters first emerged back on the Berlin-based Ad Noiseam label back in 2004 with his debut album as Mad EP “Eating Movies’, which introduced his deeply cinematic blend of jazz, hiphop, classical and electronic elements. While Peters’ 2006 follow-up “Not Afraid Of Spiders’ showed him adding even more depth and detail to his already spectacular productions, this third album proper as Mad EP The Madlands Trilogy offers up what’s easily his most ambitious creative venture yet. Neatly split into three thematically and stylistically linked mini-albums respectively subtitled “Player Piano’, “One Chelydridaen Night’s and “Damaged Goods’ with a total running time of 105 minutes, The Madlands Trilogy apparently represents Peters’ most personal collection to date, being conceptually based around a nomadic musician trying to find his way back home.
In this case, the subject matter is certainly autobiographical, with the tracklisting here composed over a period of seven years while Peters lived in ten different apartments in five different cities including the Iowa town of Solon, Quebec and Chicago. It’s also a collection that apparently spans right through Peters’ very first electronic tracks to his most recent works, but such is the level of consistent attention to detail and fluidity here that any transitions go down seamlessly and unnoticed. Perhaps the biggest thematic factor that binds all three mini-albums together is the inescapable movie score-esque jazz influence that lurks behind many of the tracks here, and which emerges perhaps most in full on the collaborations with Peters’ live Manhattan Gimp Project ensemble, such as the breakcore / free-jazz hybrid styles of “Gumbo On The Run’, which opens this collection and the Nils-Petter Molvaer-esque “After Hours’.
While slowburning horns and jazz-infused rhythmic signatures certainly feature amongst the collection however, the diversity of genre exploration covered by Peters over the three discs here is certainly remarkable, and what’s more, he pretty much doesn’t put a foot wrong the whole way, making this easily one of the best releases I’ve heard from Ad Noiseam in a while as well as one of the more intriguing releases to come my way during 2007. Whether fusing hard-edged MPC-driven hiphop beats with delicately chiming guitars and ghostly female vocal samples in a Boom Bip meets early RJD2 style on “Salamander Blue’, exploring deep, woodwind-led ambience on the hypnotic “I Thought I Saw You Dying’ or sending slow, looping operatic vocals gliding over a rippling minimal techno pulse on “Drug’, a collaboration alongside Chaonaut, it’s the virtually seamless mesh between live instrumental and electronic elements here that really astonishes. An ambitious collection that manages to pull the whole conceit off with nothing short of masterful results.
Chris Downton
