When I asked Mathew Bethancourt, frontman of Josiah and spearhead of the solo-project Mathew’s Hidden Museum, what the name of this debut album was, he told me it was self-titled, “Like Led Zeppelin, etc.” Perfect.

As an artist, Bethancourt is not unthoughtful or unconsidered or lacking self-awareness. Mathew’s Hidden Museum is an experimentalist outlet, and the first full-length being announced here is set to release on Feb. 3 through Interstellar Smoke Records. So when he says it’s self-titled, “like Led Zeppelin,” I can’t help but think of all the other self-titled albums out there and why he might choose that specific one for a comparison point. Even over Black Sabbath.

Well, consider how that band flourished after their first record, raw and bluesy as it was. It was the testing ground for nearly everything they’d later become, and perhaps as Bethancourt unfurls the 10 songs and 41 minutes of Mathew’s Hidden Museum, having already done a proof of concept in 2020’s soft-launch Golden Echoes EP (review here), in a similar light. Expansive as it is, the full-length may just be the beginning of a broader exploration.

So be it. As a multi-instrumentalist/vocalist and producer, Bethancourt comfortably inhabits a variety of personae across the span, from the ethereal jab-fuzz of “Naked and Rolled in that Rotten Dirt” (premiering below) to the organ-led-then-bass-led-then-drum-solo-then-the-riff-comes-back seven-minute self-jam “The Voyage of Psyche,” which sounds improvised on top of its drums — a rare feat for a track invariably recorded one layer at a time to feel made up on the spot — dropping hints in “Sinphony” of the post-grunge-and-still-shimmering “All of the Saints Will Sin Again” only before “Summer Rain (Will Fall)” noodles out like a Beatles Get Back jam that Peter Jackson found and the prior “Born on the 3rd of July” lights its fuzz on fire with classic urgency.

The droning and spacious “Echoes Flow” caps side A and the even-more spacious and atmospherically weird keyboard piece “(Golden) Kiss Divine” answers back on side B, so there’s some underlying structure even where it least feels like it, but “The Resurrectionist” at the outset sets up open expectations, if the EP didn’t, and whether it’s the hard, low piano notes before the freakout in “Golden” or the alternate-universe strut in “Naked and Rolled in that Rotten Dirt,” Mathew’s Hidden Museum indeed offer a host of treasures for close examination and study. Or, you can put it on, be like, ‘Oh hey this is some weirdo shit right here’ and just dig on it as it happens. Totally up to you. The album seems cool with it either way.

And if the message of the self-titled is ‘this is where it starts’ rather than a declaration of everything Mathew’s Hidden Museum is as a project, yeah, that tracks. Even in bringing back Josiah with a series of reissues and the new album, We Lay on Cold Stone (review here), earlier this year, Bethancourt almost couldn’t help but progress in his craft while, you know, shredding as one will. Mathew’s Hidden Museum builds on that impulse while reminding of some of the off-kilter blues/garage moments during his time in The Kings of Frog Island in its dug-in, self-made spirit and outright refusal to limit itself to one thing or one style.

I’m gonna hope to have more to come before it’s out in February, but you can dig into “Naked and Rolled in the Rotten Dirt” on the player below, followed by some preliminary album info and a quote from Bethancourt on the track.

Please enjoy:

Interstellar Smoke Records brings forth a musical offering from the open mind of Mathew Bethancourt. The Josiah (and once Kings of Frog Island) frontman looks to the spaces between spaces for creative inspiration, evoking a sense of all things fornicating, all the time. Make of this what you will as you experience Mathew’s Hidden Museum. Limited Edition LP/CD/MC available to pre-order from Interstellar Smoke Records now. Album to be released February 3rd 2023.

“An ode to the season of decay. Naked & Rolled In That Rotten Dirt speaks to my love of Autumn. In all its dying, lay an inherent beauty. Senses filled with the sent of sweet damp rotting flora and the sight of burning leaves setting the sky a flame. Mycelium earth magick guides us across narrow paths, through blackening woods to call at Lady Winters door. The earth, the dirt, enriched by death will summon new life.”
Mathew: 31.10

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Tags: Interstellar Smoke Records, Josiah, Mathew Bethancourt, Mathew's Hidden Museum, Mathew's Hidden Museum Self-titled, self-titled

This entry was posted on Friday, November 4th, 2022 at 6:24 am and is filed under audiObelisk, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.