Listening Response: Plastic Anniversary

This week, I listened to Plastic Anniversary, a 2019 album my Matmos.

The album is quite different from anything I’ve listened to previously. No natural sounds seem to inhabit the sound spaces which the composer creates. Instead, the composer specifically focuses on using entirely contrived materials. This is true of the sounds which the composer gathers, which seem mostly, if not exclusively, to derive from the sounds of plastic, as the title of the album seems to imply. This is also true of the structures used to organize the sounds, which include the use of repeated rhythms in an metrical idiom well established in Western music, as well as the use of tonality to create a sense of melody. Further, the means of composing the music, with electronic software, completes the sense that this music is entirely contrived.

Of the album’s tracks, I especially enjoyed number 6, “Plastic Anniversary.” The track is, like the album as a whole, intensely rhythmic and furthers the association with classical music through the use of plastic sounds mimicking parts of the orchestra. Constantly, we hear a rhythm section that suggests drums beating in the back of the orchestra. Midways through the recording, we hear brass sounds, also intensely rhythmic, and even lighter, more airy, but still tonal sounds which seem to suggest the presence of a string section. As someone who loves orchestral music, I enjoyed the variety of colors and dynamics achieved in this track just as I do in the orchestral music I enjoy listening to.

Equally important to note is the social context around what plastic means in our everyday lives. Not only does it have great practical utility, but as this work demonstrates, it has even developed a voice of its own—a “Singing Tube,” for example, as the title of track #9 suggests. However, if we limit our perception of what those voices are telling us to language we are comfortable and familiar with, as this album does, we may miss a more consequential message which our consumption of plastic is telling us—that we value convenience over the long-term health and sustainability of our home—a message which isn’t especially beautiful or aesthetically pleasing, but which we must come to terms with nevertheless if we want our species to continue to inhabit this space and not just the sounds of plastic which exclusively make up the sound spaces in this album.