Matt McCormick – Very Stereo

Matt McCormick is the go to guy in town if you need to shoot a film or music video. Reading through his bio I find out that he’s worked with The Shins and Sleater Kinney, has exhibited video all around the world, and has a slew of documentary type short films. Not to mention he works with photography as well. So with all this artistic talent of course the next step is music. Marriage Records sent over an album called “Very Stereo” which is a compilation of music created by McCormick for his various films.

The album at its root is very minimalist. I think of a fusion of Philip Glass and early electronic composers when I listen to it, sans acoustic piano and ear piercing 50s synthesizers.

In his artist statement he says that the music was “only intended to be abstract sound tracks,” to accompany his films. While I am sure the music fits the film very well, by itself the music is pretty hard to listen to. I’ve listened to the record quite a few times now and have been trying to think of a situation where someone would want to listen to it. Honestly, the only scenario I can think of is the background to a film.

It is quite amazing the amount of music and range McCormick can get out of a Casio keyboard. Some songs are just a soundscape of distortion and others like “it was a crushing defeat” has some real pull to it and lets you imagine what the music originally accompanied.

I am really confused by the record because I can’t tell if I like it or not. I really like the music of Glass and Riley, I like atmospheric music that lets you use your imagination. I like music with emotional quality and distorted music that let’s you get some frustration out. “Very Stereo” has each of those qualities in one form or another but it’s hard to listen to and probably makes a lot more sense on film. But this is one very talented person.

Matt McCormick – refrigerator dance musics Mp3

Matt McCormick Links
Home Page
Marriage Records page