The Matthew Herbert Big Band - Fiction

Matthew Herbert is a musician and producer working predominantly in the field of electronic music. He is most known for his minimal approach to house and taking the scene by storm with some serious smoothness. He has had a few other personas to reflect his other musical moods and for this album, Goodbye Swingtime, he has gone with The Matthew Herbert Big Band, and for good reason.

This project caught me way off guard but didn't totally surprise me. Yes, it's big band. He cuts and chops from existing recordings, but, he has an honest to goodness band. A set up of 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 4 saxophones, piano, bass and drums. Working with arranger Pete Wraight, much of what was written ended up more as a jazz orchestral work rather than a big band. But this was just the beginning.

In his search for sounds he pulled out the stops - they include: forty people banging anything they could find, political texts read and used to generate additional percussion noises, and clippings sent to Herbert's label from around the world about the imminent invasion of Iraq were also used along with recordings of people dropping their local phone book from various heights. Clever, no? He also enlisted other artists to complete his swing vibe - such as Arto Lindsay, Dani Sicliano, Jamie Lidell, Mara Carlyle, Shingai Shoniwa, Plaid and Mouse on Mars. This is Herbert's largest project to date - and it shows. He again proves that he can do no wrong as is not willing to settle into any one thing. Yay!

The now ever so rare BONUS - The Battle



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