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The thing with Herbert, apart from being so damn clever at producing great music, he’s so honest. He told XFM’s Nick Luscombe, “I don’t listen to my old stuff… but I’ll have to knock out another dance track soon to get some money in.” Now if anyone else said that, you’d probably have a strongly negative reaction but as 100lbs proves, none of his tracks are just bashed out.

Some of the early tracks might sound a little dated in Herbert’s own electro techno Detroit house, like the opener ‘Rude’ and ‘Desire’ but what is the funky chill (funky chill?) of ‘OO Licky’ all about? It’s not as obvious as you first think (a Herbert trait that) and definitely one for Hawthorn fans.

My favourite is ‘Friday They Dance’ as an anthem of techno-dub-breaks but the title track is probably the most dance friendly of the lot on a heavy bass train theme.

And if one CD isn’t enough, check the bonus CD, I particularly like some of the Schwarz qualities on ‘Mistakes’ and ‘The Puzzle’. Also getting into the old skool 4/4 synth of ‘No More Boarders’ (squiggly Rebirth heaven) and the almost jazz-funk ‘Fischcoteque’. Not sure why it’s called the ‘bonus’ as that usually means ‘rubbish’, which this definitely isn’t.

What would have been impressively cool would be a ‘bonus’ Henrik Schwarz mix CD of these tracks; no that definitely would not be rubbish.

Mr. Herbert is definitely one of the UK’s Kings of Techno and a multi-talented one-off. And long may he remain so. Did I ever tell how good the Big Band was at the London Jazz Festival? I think I did.

Hectic Mix nomination: ‘Friday They Dance’, ‘100lbs’, ‘OO Licky’, ‘Fishcoteque’

Herbert — 100lbs (!K&/Accidental) Cat. No. !K& 209
CD Release Date: November 2006

Links:
www.matthewherbert.com
www.magicandaccidental.com
www.xfm.com XFM Flo-Motion Tracklisting 12-11-06
Herbert - Friday They Dance (K7)
Herbert - Fishcoteque (K7)
Herbert - Desire (K7)
Herbert - Trafalgar Road (K7)
Herbert - Something Isn’t Right [Cassh Remix] (K7)
Herbert - Trafalgar Road (K7)
Henrik Schwarz - Jon [Live In London] (K7)