And his new album comes at the same time as his label !K7 goes into overdrive with the release of Voom:Voom’s Peng Peng, their 200th release, DJ-Kicks: The Exclusives and now Herbert’s own album Scale.

As Wyl noted in his review, he’s kept his love of jazz big bands, left wing messages and added some pop-accessibility he found working with Róisín Murphy last year on her album Ruby Blue.

‘The Movers And The Shakers’ continues his anti-war stance. “How can those Christian bones orchestrate Shock and Awe?” sings Dani Sicilliano along with guest singer, Neil Thomas. Sad to report this was the same anti-Bush message when he appeared at the London Jazz Festival with his Big Band back in 2003 (gig of the year by miles with 2 Banks Of 4 in support). I recommend seeing him live as, like Daedelus, he’s got a ‘box’ to sample the ‘live’ band. He’s sampled some coughs here to keep up his leftfield electronica maestro credentials along with his new-old jazz expertise.

‘Harmonies’ shows off Ms Sicilliano vocals and it could have been taken from the aforementioned Róisín Murphy album it’s so up [and down] beat. This track is currently featured on his myspace site (see links below).

This release will certainly bring attention to the album along with his consistent remix work. He’s been a bit quiet of late as he’s been working on the album, but his range can vary from Mancunian indie band, Keith (along with Test Icicles’ former producer, James Ford) to a remix of Cibelle’s ‘Noite De Carnaval’ (out on vinyl 5th May).

So it’s a little disappointing that the new 4 track single from the man himself contains two ‘Radio Edit’ versions together with the two album versions. Oh well, I’ll see if I can get my hands on the album; only UK gig so far announced May at the ICA in London.

Reviewed:
Herbert - ‘Harmonise / The Movers And The Shakers’ (Studio !K7) Cat. No !k7202CD CD5” Germany Release date: 22 May 2006
Tracklisting:
1. The Movers And The Shakers (Radio Edit) (3:50)
2. Harmonise (Radio Edit) (3:44)
3. The Movers And The Shakers (Album Version) (4:15)
4. Harmonise (Album Version) (5:38)

Links:
www.matthewherbert.com
www.myspace.com/matthewherbert
www.k7.com
Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) www.ica.org.uk
www.roisinmurphy.com
Crammed Discs Remix contest: , Cibelle, DJ Dolores, and Apollo Nove will each select the three best remixes of their respective songs; complete information about the contest can be found on CCMixter.org.
www.myspace.com/keiththeband