If one electronic group has separated themselves from everyone else because of their originality and refusal to work with typical composition and instruments, it is Matmos. The Rose has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast is a concept album on many people that M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel, the duo of Matmos, look up to in some way. Each song is dedicated to a different person of influence, using items or things from their lives or noted works as instruments in the song. Each song also has its own style very different from the song before it. The Rose has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast is a complex musical deriving from a cacophony of sources.

The Rose has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast is not artistic in the romantic sense of the word, with some starving artist drawing from his life experiences and pulling the universal truths from them, but is artistic in its aleatoric yet analytic approach to creation. For The Rose has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast, Matmos researched the lives of each of the people whom they dedicated their songs to, and picked a moment or work or thing from their life and personified it in the language of music, though not done in the most conventional way. On “Roses and Teeth For Ludwig Wittgenstein” the spoken word sound clips come from Wittgenstein’s work Philosophical Investigations. On “Rag for William S. Burroughs,” the loud gunshot heard in two minutes into the song is the shot that Burroughs shot at his wife Joan Vollmer in a drunken game of “William Tell” that ended in Joan’s death. After this, Burroughs traveled to South America and Morocco, all the while typing away on a typewriter, as heard in the song. “Semen song for James Bidgood” used the sound of semen in praise of the controversial photographer. “Lasers and Snails for Patricia Highwater” used the sound Patricia’s favorite animal crawling across a Theremin sensor combined with the Noir crime music that would underscore many of her books.

In the Mouth of Madness Romeo + Juliet Escape from Alcatraz The Shawshank Redemption Con Air Se7en The Interpreter Catch Me If You Can Primal Fear The Fugitive Forever Young The Beach Spider-Man 2.

While these songs may seem ambitious, they achieve what they set out to do. Each one of the songs makes an electronic soundscape for its subject, but each can be enjoyed by anyone, even if the listener is unfamiliar with said subjects. The pure discord in “Banquet for King Ludwig II of Bavaria” revolves around a center harmony, where the listener can grow to love uncertainty and pandemonium. This directly represents the feeling at the time of Ludwig II’s rule. His fairy-tale imagination created a relative sense of chaos as he ruled apparently away from the reality of his Kingdom. He was declared insane, and as such, was essentially exiled, but many of the citizens of Bavaria came to his aid.

Matmos’ The Rose has Teeth in the Mouth of the Beast is an album that has as much depth as each of the lives of the people it involves. Each of the songs can be enjoyed on a purely musical level, but also on an analytical level. The album also promotes remote revolutionaries in history, expanding the listener’s knowledge and is, in an odd sense, educational. Matmos’ extremity and unconventional, or to take liberties with the English language, disconventional, has made a monument for them and for the subjects of their songs.

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The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast is the sixth studio album by Matmos. Each of the album's songs is dedicated to a notable gay or lesbian person who has influenced the duo,^[7] and this influence is reflected in the songs themselves. For examples, 'Rag for William S. Burroughs' features the clatter of a type writer and a gunshot, representing the William Tell incident, and 'Tract for Valerie Solanas' contains excerpts from the 'SCUM Manifesto'.

As with earlier releases, the duo make use of field recordings in the music, recordings that range from ordinary things to more absurd sounds, such as a recording of a bovineuterus.^[9] The album's title is taken from a line in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations.^[7]

Critical reception[edit]

The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast received positive reviews from music critics. Review aggregator website Metacritic gives it a score of 81 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating 'universal acclaim.'^[1] Brandon Stosuy, writing for Pitchfork, wrote in a positive review that 'there are a few moments when the concept's cooler than the result, but in general The Rose Has Teeth's experiments result in frenetic dance tracks doubling as reading lists.'^[5]

Sygic travel maps. Dynamic Lane Guidance for safe lane changes. Junction View to highlights highway exists.

Jonathan Keefe, writing for Slant Magazine, called the album 'endlessly fascinating' but concluded that 'even armed with a cheat sheet from Wikipedia and a desire to figure out the significance of every last hair clipper and gunshot, the album never engages as anything more than an academic exercise.'^[7]

Pitchfork placed it at number 47 on the 'Top 50 Albums of 2006' list.^[10]

Track listing[edit]

Charts[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abThe Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth Of A Beast, by MatmosMetacritic. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
2. ^Heather Phares, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast reviewAllMusic. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
3. ^Andy Battaglia, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast reviewThe A.V. Club, May 17, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
4. ^Rachel Cawley, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast reviewDrowned in Sound, May 13, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
5. ^ ^abBrandon Stosuy, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast reviewPItchfork, May 9, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
6. ^Kevin Jagernauth, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast reviewPopMatters, May 22, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
7. ^ ^abcdJonathan Keefe, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast reviewSlant Magazine, May 19, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
8. ^Scott McKeating, The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast reviewStylus Magazine, May 9, 2006. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
9. ^'Matmos at Matador Records'.
10. ^'Top 50 Albums of 2006 (1/5)'. Pitchfork. December 19, 2006. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
11. ^ ^abcdefghijAlbum credits, Discogs.com. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
12. ^'Matmos Chart History (Top Dance/Electronic Albums)'. Billboard. Retrieved March 31, 2019.

External links[edit]

• The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast at Discogs (list of releases)