Matthew Herbert – Scale (K7/ Inertia)

Mathew Herbert’s last album was an opus, a protest against globalisation, against some of the unsustainable and abhorrent practices used in the delivery of food. Entitled Plat Du Jour it was constructed solely from sound sources associated with the food industry, its careful layering and manipulation of field recordings effortlessly filling the gap between sound art and the dancefloor. And lets be honest, it’s a pretty big gap. Scale though is a very different beast. Stylistically it fits somewhere between his Big Band effort and the more straight up Around the House, embracing melody, pop and more overt often dancefloor friendly styles. He’ back writing songs, referencing everything from disco to house music and huge Hollywood string orchestras.. He’s renowned for his jittery percussive sensibilities and is much in demand as a remixer, even taking on production duties for Moloko singer Roisin Murphy’ solo debut last year. He can play it straight, yet still indulge in enough cheeky experimentation to keep things interesting and remain incredibly seductive. And that’s what’s happening here. Dani Siciliano has returned and provides her breathless vocals to ten of the eleven tracks. Herbert himself voices the last track. There’ a chamber orchestra, and 723 other objects including live drums recorded under the sea, in a hot air balloon, in a car travelling at 100 miles per hour and other assorted stupidity. Yet it’s incredibly smooth and polished even with his trademark quirk lurking throughout the tunes. And whilst some of Dani’ lyrics are overtly political and critical of our collective governments thirst for shock and awe, it does feel like a backward step from the bold approaches employed in Plat Du Jour. Yet the reality is that whilst his style is much more accessible, his designs haven’ wavered. In a word: Seduction. In the hope that once people accept the sounds they might just be inclined to do a little digging. And whilst Plat Du Jour strained his seductive modus operandi considerably Scale for better or worse is bang on the money.