MATT AND ISOM

Location: Boston
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Review:

Today’s music genre boundaries have been greatly blurred, which I believe is a very healthy state…it just makes my dewey decimal-esque mind a little uneasy. Matt and Isom is a group that blurs those lines and defies any classification one might throw at it. They’re rock, like Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’ is a rock, and electronic like, well, Radiohead’s ‘Amnesiac’ is electronic. You seein’ where I’m going with this? It’s not subtle.

Their new album “AugustJesusDepression” beautifully combines the elements of a great singer songwriter album (think vocals, acoustic guitar, melody), with the very best that electronic production has to offer. Great ambient soundscapes, loops, beats, etc., dance with the vocals, live drums, and acoustic guitars in a symbiotic movement that is hard to pull off successfully. Many groups have tried only to sound like what Madonna sounds like trying to rap…forced and completely contrived. Matt and Isom are not riding a trend. They are what others try to emulate.

The album’s opening track sets up this dichotomy of organic vs. produced from the get go. An acoustic guitar and vocal lead the way, only to be joined by a thick, aggressive keyboard pad and quick, light electronic loop down the road from whence they walk hand in hand down the yellow brick road that is this album. Listen to it and you may not end up in Oz, but you’ll end up in a very satisfied place, a place where music genres don’t exist and the only classification is ‘good’ or ‘not so much.’ Matt and Isom definitely land in the former.

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www.mattandisom.com