Astral Social Club
Sieben Stax
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The Magnetic Headache
CD		Blood Stereo - The Magnetic Headache
bottrop-boyen/ofsemishigure
Mattin & Matthew Bower

A New Form Of Beauty (1975)

CD / B-BOY 029




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With the release of A New Form of Beauty Irish band Virgin Prunes placed themselves firmly on the map of experimental post-punk. This was the unprecedented cathartic musical experience of the early eighties. Din Glorious was the name of the breathtaking coda of this legendary Prunes session. This type of harrowing noise is also evident on Mattin & Matthew Bower’s A New Form of Beauty (1975). Not a follow-up but a magnificent, searing chords of chords. Basque noise expert Mattin has undoubtedly found his blood brother in Matthew Bower, the British godfather of noise-rock. In his Theses on Noise (2006) Mattin wrote: “the old conception of Noise was to believe in freedom; the new conception of Noise is to achieve freedom”. This is noise with a higher aim, this is noise as utopian ideal. 

Using guitars and electronics, Mattin and Bower mould a relentlessly pounding tsunami of sound. No time to catch your breath in this long, thundering tornado of noise, feedback, distortion and screaming strings. A screeching guitar occasionally lifts its head above the whirling maelstrom. Ghostlike sounds rise towards the surface of this sonic mass; is that a wailing, desolate violin or a radio I hear in the distance? Am I hallucinating or is this indeed that new beauty?

Mattin & Bower far exceed the pain threshold. No need to prick up your ears; expect your eardrums to be pierced. Just when you think calm has returned, the duo decides to increase the dose. At the end of their piece Mattin & Bower reveal an unparalleled vertiginous abyss of noise. The listener is transported from high to higher plateaus of sound. Cries for help are suppressed as salvation comes nigh. This is white noise from the dark side. This is indeed a new form of beauty.

'A New Form Of Beauty (1975)' is packed in beautiful new 'envelope' packaging designed and handprinted by Jason Dodge & Christine Roland.

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