(06.13.06) Menton J. Matthews distills the emotional weight of loss and
heartbreak down to the tremor of a violin’s string and the vibration
of a cello’s wooden frame. Stepping out from Sunday Munch to record
Ganglion as Saltillo, Matthews offers twelve tracks that merge
chamber orchestra intimacy with the caliginous seduction of trip-hop.
Matthews has scored a few soundtracks in his time and that mindset
thrives throughout the mostly instrumental tracks of Ganglion.
Violins and cello warble against a backdrop of sly beats in “A
Necessary End” (while Matthews’ wife Sarah provides wordless
exultations during the bridge); a echo-drenched banjo, a sepia-tinged
guitar and a crisp beat make “Remember Me?” seem like the incidental
music for a showdown at the OK Corral as if The RZA was scoring
Westerns. The Shakespearean-laden “A Hair on the Head of John the
Baptist” and “Blood and Milk” play out like DJ Shadow doing soundtrack
work on Elizabethan dramas.
“The Opening” is orchestral breakbeat, strings undulating in
tempestuous space while wrestling with noisy drum programming;
“Backyard Pond” glitches and hiccups with microtonal melodies while
vinyl scratching bubbles around a warm synthesizer melody. In
“Grafting,” Matthews’ string work evokes melancholic pastorals while
Bristol-style trip-hop throw a 20th century haze over the idyllic
landscape. Sarah’s voice is lost in glossalia, ephemeral world-beat
vocalizing that is so diaphanous that it never touches the ground.
For once, the press sheet hype (“quite possibly the finest release
we’ve ever heard”) doesn’t seem like hyperbole. Ganglion is
sumptuous listening — rife with heartache and release, longing and
liberation. Like Portishead or Massive Attack, Satillio brings
trip-hop to the heartland and gives it a new home. Highly
recommended.
Ganglion is out now on Suspicious. Buy it at Amazon.com.
