Herbert
100
lbs reissue (!K7 Records)
In January 1996, Matthew Herbert released three
EPs that would stand as a personal manifesto for the future
of dance music. Wishmountain's Radio and Doctor Rockit's
Ready To Rockit showcased the prolific young Englishman's
odd techno and quirky electro sides. But it was Part One,
the first in a trilogy of house music releases, that best
pointed to the musical heights Herbert would climb in the
coming decade.
Followed by Part Two and Part Three, this
trio of EPs was then collected together into Herbert's debut
album, 100 lbs. Now being re-released with additional
tracks from the same era, the album puts his subsequent musical
growth in context. "I look upon this album as naive and
playful," Herbert says. "I'm definitely not embarrassed
about it, I've just moved on."
He certainly has. In the decade since the release of 100
lbs, Herbert has amassed a hugely impressive and inventive
body of high-quality work under his own name as well as numerous
alter egos. He has also produced and remixed artists as diverse
as Björk, REM, John Cale, Roisin Murphy, Dizzee Rascal,
Yoko Ono and Serge Gainsbourg. But despite his modesty, these
early tracks still sound fresh and full of promise.
"There's a confidence to the vision which I hope still
holds up," Herbert admits. "I had an idea of what
house music should sound like in that period and I followed
that through, with a combination of very dry acoustic sounds
and very clear electronic sounds."
In the mid 1990s, dominated by big beat and drum'n'bass, 100
lbs gave house a cheeky and lively new spin. From nimble metallic
sambas like "Rude" and "Deeper", via the
booty-shaking basslines of "Thinking of You", Herbert
helped make dance music sound warm, witty and intoxicating.
"With techno, breakbeat and the beginnings of jungle,
there was a lot of very male, macho, aggressive music,"
Herbert recalls. " My work was meant to be an alternative
to that. I was trying to do something a bit more homely, with
more humility to it."
The re-release of 100 lbs also comes with a bonus
disc of B-sides, rarities and unreleased tracks, most of them
more club-friendly than the main album. The supercharged acid
squelches of "No More Borders", for example, resulted
from Herbert's only ever experiment with a Roland 303. All
these tracks were composed between 1995 and 2000, when 100
lbs helped launch Herbert's international DJ career.
"I found myself playing at German nightclubs at three
o'clock in the morning, trying to find a way to make this
music fit in," he recalls.
Ten years, multiple musical identities and dozens of releases
later, 100 lbs still sounds like a milestone in mid
1990s dance music. Herbert may have travelled many miles since
these early works, but their youthful charms have not faded.
So turn the record over and let’s disco.
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