herbert - what do you reckon?

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
michael said:
But otherwise he's someone I consider worthy, but don't like listening to.

And ain't that the rub.

I gave up sometime ago listening to people I think of as worthy purely on that basis. It's the reason don't listen to Crass - interesting ideas but shit music.

And mostly when people talk Herbert all they talk about is how interesting his politics and found sound stuff are conceptually. Well, that's all well and good but surely that will only take you so far?
 

jimet

Active member
I've heard little of the early stuff. I saw the Big Band live a couple of years back - and it was the first time I'd heard him - and they blew me away. Really funny, accessible, tough set. I don't like the food stuff as much, I find it a bit flimsy; I keep thinking about Matmos, who do that kind of conceptual found sound electronica better. Ruby Blue is one of the records of the year, tho'.
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
i picked up a copy of "around the house" several years back when everybody was going on about herbert

but i didn't like it -- found it tedious, boring, and mannered

and so i sold it off fairly quickly

haven't bothered to check anything by him since

but in general, i'm fairly hostile to the herbert/daniel bell/matmos axis
 

minikomi

pu1.pu2.wav.noi
i pulled the dub mix of the last beat and some charles webster remixes off of audiogalaxy back in the day... and was well impressed. got around the house and was kinda dissapointed. must get around to acquiring 2nd hand sounds some day
 

mms

sometimes
he's got an interesting label - accidental
he's always been a bit too slight for me although he has done some ace stuff
the stuff he did like 3/4 d and b on clear records was really ace fun, that album is good but god knows where i is in my flat, i had all that clear stuff but stupidly got rid of alot of it in a fit of skintness.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
stelfox said:
thanks to the pepe braddock thread, i've just started thinking about herbert. i absolutely adore around the house and bodily functions (the latter being one of my favourite albums of all time, right up there in the top 10), have got quite a bit of pleasure from his Dr Rockit output and really admire him as a remixer.
his work as radioboy i actively don't like, however, and, after initially quite enjoying it it, the big band stuff leaves me pretty cold. i think a lot of my lack of enjoyment comes from knowing about the artist and the aims and objectives of the work.
i can't help feeling that the hailing of herbert as a great political thinker is somewhat ever-egging the pudding given that what he actually says is pretty sixth-form and not especially sophisticated. As for the his Personal Contract For The Composition of Music, while being quite interesting in a Dogme kind of way, um... well... what is the point, really, other than appealing to the worst enthusiasms of the wire-reading crew?
don't get me wrong, i really like a lot of what he's done, but that plat du jour project hasn't done a great deal for me at all. it's not that i don't like music that's overtly politicized, either, it's just that something seems to be missing here, it feels pretty sterile, polite and ineffectual.

Herbert should ditch the bullshit and go back to making House music. Or at least ditch some of the bullshit. The recent Food in Music thing, jeez I winced when I saw that. Ditto you on Bodily Functions and Around The House (the Shantel LP was the perfect twin to Around The House)

I think he's probably got a hell of alot to offer, but he should reign in his conceptual leanings, because he doesnt seem to have the mental chops to pull it off. conceptual art has to be austere and watertight.
 

D84

Well-known member
100lbs was the 1st Herbert album I bought and of the two (Around the House is the other) that's the one I prefer - yeah, it's more of a straight up house album/ EP-collection.

I always dug "This Time" from Around the House. I'll have to dig it out to remind myself which one "So now" is.

That housey Dr Rockit EP on Clear was cool too.

But yeah I kinda lost it with the Cafe Flore album when it sounded like he was going all Cafe-core and develop a post-electronic muso style, if that makes any sense.

I've been to at least a couple of his DJ gigs though which were great nights.
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
that roisin murphy album is spectacular and i can't for the life of me think why anyone would be "hostile" to daniel bell. he's one of the best djs i've ever had the pleasure of checking out live and the button down mind strikes back is way up there in my personal list of the world's best mix cds.
 
Last edited:

Manuel

Member
i'm kinda surprised no one has mentioned herbert's djing...

i've seen him twice and it was great, lots of maurice fulton-ark-krikor-mr oizo-spymania, basically clicky-bassy-bouncey house, and some dancehall, grime and classic shit thrown in for good measure ('abracadabra', 'show me love')...rough mixing sometimes, though, and his let's all make mistakes spirit is kinda hit or miss in this context (he trainwrecks and scratches up on purpose), but fun overall
 

labrat

hot on the heels of love
on the same Wishmountain EP as Rose is Radio thats a belting thing.
all the Clear stuff as DR Rockit is great playful without the wackiness that was to follow.
 

bassnation

the abyss
stelfox said:
that roisin murphy album is spectacular and i can't for the life of me think why anyone would be "hostile" to daniel bell. he's one of the best djs i've ever had the pleasure of checking out live and the button down mind strikes back is way up there in my personal list of the world's best mix cds.

losing control by dbx is an all time classic in my book - he basically invented josh wink (seeing as wink has ripped off this one idea about a million times).
 

AshRa

Well-known member
bassnation said:
losing control by dbx is an all time classic in my book - he basically invented josh wink (seeing as wink has ripped off this one idea about a million times).

"i'm woozing wonkrol"
 

soundslike1981

Well-known member
'Scale' took a while to grow on me, but at this point I'm prepared to call it my favourite album of 2006. And the Big Band thing has suddenly jumped up in my estimation upon reevaluation after some time. Still dig the Dr. Rockit stuff. 'Bodily Functions' remains amongst my favourite albums of the last 20 years, top 100 all-time.

Anyone picked up the 'Scores' disc?

Got the '100lbs' reissue and while the stuff is certainly dated and not as original as his later work, it's still a lot of fun. The bonus disc would be a landmark album in most top-shelf careers. . .
 

zhao

there are no accidents
oh for chrissakes still on about this herbert who had about 3 good ideas and used them well on his first couple of albums...

oh yes let's sample some objects lying around and make clickety-clack "stumble-house" out of it. add some generic jazz chords and we'll get an entirely non-descript vocalist to do breathy female vocals over the top.

the most recent is AWFUL, that big band stuff is just embarrassing, and the older "good" albums stopped appealing 3 years ago.

and that girl's solo is worthless in my estimation.

I'm surprised that people here who usually have sophisticated pallettes are still going for such coffee-table-at-best ignorable flavor of the month circa 2003. :confused:
 

Mr Jeg

suck your thumb
Quite honestly I couldn't give a toss about all the debate surrounding him. All I know is that "Something Isn't Right" was probably my favourite song of last year, but the album just doesn't live up to the perfection of that single track. Haven't really been able to get into any of his LPs to tell the truth. Quite amusing to see the venom he provokes in certain people!
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
i'm kinda surprised no one has mentioned herbert's djing...

i've seen him twice and it was great, lots of maurice fulton-ark-krikor-mr oizo-spymania, basically clicky-bassy-bouncey house, and some dancehall, grime and classic shit thrown in for good measure ('abracadabra', 'show me love')...rough mixing sometimes, though, and his let's all make mistakes spirit is kinda hit or miss in this context (he trainwrecks and scratches up on purpose), but fun overall

Yeah i saw him playing a blinding DJ set 2 or 3 years ago, he really captured the ebb and flow of the music, proper craftsman style. Fun overkill is a good description of it. I remember some one ridiculously large drop that provided the closest to drugs-feeling i've ever had from music without actually taking anything.

And he just looks like such a huuuuuuuuuuge music nerd it was hilarious. He has this huge egg-head and was wearing a really tailored shirt and was pretty expressionless for most of the mix, but when he nailed a good mix he kinda screwfaced up loads.

Plus he played keys on PAUGS Champagne Dance i read somewhere which is kinda amusing!
 

straight

wings cru
ive just picked up score and from what ive briefly heard its quite a departure, i'll givee it a proper listen this afternoon. im actually stunned at the hate coming out for the man, even with the PCCOM and the a-level politics of some of plat du jour he is still one of the most consistantly interesting house producers.
i cant believe any can sit through scale and not be dancing in their seats with a huge smile on their face. with all the worthless wasting of time discussing funky house as some misunderstood prolaterian artfom i'd have thought some well crafted fun 4/4 would appeal. Plus the fact that he pretty much invented modern minimal house in 1996 with camera and rocks seems to have been glossed over too
 
Last edited:

smn

Well-known member
Yeah i saw him playing a blinding DJ set 2 or 3 years ago...

Me too. He came on after a crazy Jamie Lidell live set and played one of the best DJ sets I've heard. He started off real deep and funky but pushed it and pushed it as the night got wilder and dropped a load of classics: Panikattack, Destination Unknown, Luke Slater's mix of Forklift... And all the time never dropping a beat. Some of the tightest and best mixing I've heard actually.

... Plus the fact that he pretty much invented modern minimal house in 1996...

Exactly. I remember hearing a mixtape from a fantastic club in Madrid called Midday around that time which had Non-Stop (http://www.discogs.com/release/23703) on it. That was a real ear opener for me and paved my way for many a year. It's precisely what minimal house should sound like.

So yeah, I like Herbert.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
i don't hate herbert. used to love the man too. saw him live around 2002 (and that night it was a toss up between him and Acid Mothers Temple), good show. the recycle 2CD had some solid tracks on it and his mix for Kompakt was awesome, etc.

sympathize with the politics, admirable really: reminds me of when DJ Spooky first started writing crap for Art Forum -- HOLY SHIT A HIPHOP DJ WHO QUOTES DELEUZE!!! with herbs it's like HOLY SHIT A HOUSE PRODUCER WHO GIVES A SHIT!!!

just don't like the new records at all. i don't think there was much to be done with his project after the first 2 albums. and have been bored shitless with the yuppie-friendly sound for the better of 3 years -- you see there is this radio station in LA called KCRW, which these clueless westside SUV driving yupster chicks all think is like "the most cutting edge sound on earth". and they used to have a few herbert tracks on constant rotation for a summer or 2... completely killed it for me a couple of years ago when i heard it all the time in cute little boutiques and hair salons.

actually that was when KCRW was bearable. now it's complete utter shit.
 

straight

wings cru
personally i thought plat du jour was quite harsh and chaotic at times, the live performances definitely were and definitely could not be described as yuppie friendly. the experience of having a chef on stage with the heat and smell was incredibly disorientating. Scale is a much more accesible album but there isnt a song on that album that isnt a perfect piece of pop. i wasnt a fan of goodbye swingtime but it was an interesting idea, and you cant say he's ever taken the easy road with his production techniques. there arent many producers willing to take on similar challenges.
 
Top