Flight of Fancy

Snails. Blood. Amplified semen. Synapses firing. The amplified bars of a rat’s cage. The clicks, cuts and clatters of plastic surgery operations.

The samples and sound sources Matmos have used in their recordings over the years make for a pretty odd list, and save for their time as support act and backing band for Bjork’s Vespertine tour, they’ve ploughed a fairly leftfield furrow. But while their love of game-playing and arbitrary rules continues undiminished, this time round the conditions aren’t quite as unusual, as Supreme Balloon was made entirely with synthesisers.

The 24-minute title track starts with a warm, twisting bass tone, gradually adding a tabla beat and wobbly fluting notes, continually morphing through textures and patterns, eventually coming full circle to end how it began.

In a way, the album’s a tribute to the mid-20th century as a golden age of electronic experimentation, with knob-twiddling pioneers like Jean-Jacques Perrey an obvious influence, although some listeners might also hear hints of R2D2 emerging from the mix.

As well as a varied collection of vintage analogue kit, they’ve gathered together half a dozen guests from varying musical backgrounds. Marshall Allen, saxophonist with space-jazz collective the Sun Ra Arkestra, plays a breath-controlled oscillator on Mister Mouth, and vinyl and iTunes editions of the album feature bonus track Hashish Master, with a guest improvisation from legendary minimalist composer Terry Riley.

Elsewhere, an electronic reworking of Les Folies Françaises by baroque composer François Couperin raises the cheese factor. Covers of classical pieces often evoke the embarrassing over-seriousness of prog, but the tongue here remains firmly in cheek, and the knowing edge punctures any pretentious excesses.

Supreme Balloon is certainly one of Matmos’s most immediate and accessible releases, but doesn’t linger long in the memory after the last bleeps and whooshes have faded away.