Let's go to a Matinee

The Matinee Orchestra - I'll Never Be Afraid Again

How do you feel about the onion? It's kind of a beautiful thing, I think. Its main prize grows underground, but it still has pretty blossoms. It is pungent and flavorful, it can make you cry, and has those amazing layers and layers and layers...

Not a bad way to link to the Matinee Orchestra: much like a big fat onion, the Matinee sound is many, many layers deep. Every track on the new self-titled album is a really great listening experience, but "I'll Never Be Afraid Again" really stands out to me as the perfect representation of what ME does. Guitars, percussion, all manner of keyboards, loopy samples, sometimes vocals, sometimes not, strings, horns... the list goes on and on.

The fun part is that this Orchestra is actually all the work of one man, Andrew Hodson. He is a sound artist, and Matinee Orchestra is his first commercially available album. It was recorded in Spain, Taiwan, and the UK, and besides his own beautiful warm sounds, the album features appearances by members of the Kathryn Williams band, singer Caroline Thorp, and northern-UK folks Peter and David Brewis, members of MFR alumni Field Music, and Paul Smith of another MFR alum, Maximo Park.

The album is released by Arable Records (owned by Robin Saville, half of WARP-released group ISAN) available today - also visit their Myspace page for info and more samples - you can purchase the Matinee Orchestra album direct from the label (UK) or from our friends at Forced Exposure (US).