KAFFE MATTHEWS

CD EB + FLO

ANNETTE WORKS AWcd0005-6 2XCD

BY CLIVE BELL

(written for Annette Works website)

If earlier Kaffe Matthews albums have occasionally felt like a guided tour

of a dense, possibly life-threatening tropical forest, eb + flo is more like

watching someone paint with light. A cunning lighting designer can mould a

space on stage, then heat it up, open it out, and radically alter its

emotional density. In a similar way Matthews's gleaming, unpredictable

electronic sounds seem to define a space around the listener. The stereo

placing is carefully crafted, and the sounds themselves, generated from

theremins and feedback, often have a pure, jewel-like quality. At times they

lie almost static, winking like opals on velvet. Elsewhere they swoon or

gurgle, leap from wall to wall like a game of Pong, or gallop off into a

sweating riff, only to suddenly revert to more sunbathing.

eb + flo is a gentler, easier listen than previous outings - even when the going gets granulated and the flo starts to fizz, it's never an onslaught. Matthews has stripped back her sounds to a simpler, cleaner palette, and her imagination has hit its stride with this excellent double set.

Clive Bell. London, UK. September 2003.