13 October 2008

Matmos: The rose has teeth....

“A new born child has no teeth.”—“A goose has no teeth.”—“A rose has no teeth.”—This last at any rate—one would like to say—is obviously true! It is even surer than that a goose has none.—And yet it is none so clear. For where should a rose’s teeth have been? The goose has none in its jaw. And neither, of course, has it any in its wings; but no one means that when he says it has no teeth.—Why, suppose one were to say: the cow chews its food and then dungs the rose with it, so the rose has teeth in the mouth of a beast. This would not be absurd, because one has no notion in advance where to look for teeth in a rose. ((connexion with ‘pain in someone else’s body’.))

Matmos: The rose has teeth in the mouth of a beast was released quite a few years ago. 2006, to be more exact. I love it. Now I know I am not the only person in this world to have an appreciation for Wittgenstein and Valerie Solanas. Good, dynamic music. Elecro, pop, jazz. Surf guitars! Damn good. The concept of the album is to craft musical portraits of persons ranging from Joe Meek to Patricia Highsmith and Wittgenstein (all of the characters featuring on the record are considered to be parts of "queer history"). It's a fun idea. Plus it works. And you don't even have to know the stories of the persons referred to in order to enjoy the songs.

I can tell you: I rather prefer "Roses and Teeth for Ludwig Wittgenstein" to ploughing through boring exegesis.

No comments: