Herbert

Scale

[!K7; 2006]

Styles: downtempo, house
Others: Zero 7, Hot Chip, Mr. Oizo

Just going off the press that follows Matthew Herbert, he should be one of my favorite artists. He’s political as hell (knowing full well what Dick Cheney is up to as the real man in charge) and eccentrically eclectic beyond Martin Hannett’s darkest dreams. For example, Matt’s last full length, 2005’s Plat Du Jour, was made entirely of sounds collected from and used in protest against the food industry. His live Big Band show – where he samples and rearranges instruments being played behind him – has been described by my friends and the media as being nothing short of mind-blowing. Yet pretty much everything I have ever heard from the man has been less than cathartic, as it is again with Scale. Despite the drumming recorded in caves, under water, and in a speeding car and with hidden sounds of a coffin being buried and gas pumps, there’s just something tangibly cheesy about most of this album. In many cases, it’s merely the vocals and/or lyrics, featuring one Dani Siciliano in all but one track. No matter how rich the brass, wind, and strings are in the opening "Something Isn’t Right," the typical house vocals exacerbate the unsavory qualities of an otherwise listenable track. All the elements of "Moving Like A Train" channel pure early ’80s disco-funk, of which I’m not a fan. Even with Dani, however, the glitchy techno of "Harmonise" is totally mixtape-worthy and her voice actually contributes somewhat to the lightly skittered downtempo of "Those Feelings" as well as the more Zero 7-like "Birds Of A Feather." All considered, though, if Dani appeared on a few less tracks here, Scale may have been one of the year’s finest.

1. Something Isn’t Right
2. The Movers And The Shakers
3. Moving Like A Train
4. Harmonise
5. We’re In Love
6. Birds Of A Feather
7. Those Feelings
8. Down
9. Movie Star
10. Just Once
11. Wrong

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