Performer Notes

Personnel: Neil Thomas (vocals, background vocals); Peter Wraight (flute, bass clarinet, flugelhorn); Phil Parnell (piano); Leo Bubba Taylor (drums); Diego Magallanes (palmas).
Recording information: Country Witness (11/2005); EMI Abbey Road Studios, London, England (11/2005).
Photographers: Lenka Clayton; James Price Herbert.
Arranger: Peter Wraight.
U.K. house producer Matthew Herbert is perhaps most noted for his playful approach to digital sampling technology. Composing his songs using sounds as varied as kitchen utensils and human skin, Herbert has bridged the worlds of conceptual and populist art unlike any other musical artist. His 2006 effort, SCALE is an audacious pop album of quixotic proportions. Steeped in lush harmonies reminiscent of 1950s vocal jazz, Herbert and cohort Dani Siciliano wrap bitter political messages inside candy-coated lyrical double entendres. Underscoring a commitment to politics on a global scale, Herbert provides real-world context by sampling objects such as: coffins, gas pumps, and an RAF Tornado bomber. Such highbrow conceptual hijinks might leave the impression that SCALE is dry art-school fodder--but make no mistake, this is pure pop music. And while much of SCALE is worthy of filling more discerning DJ crates, it's the songs with a more experimental take on texture and tone that indicate it's scope beyond sweaty dance floors. On the dark ambient track "Just Once", muffled voices and shortwave static create an air of foreboding--suggesting a scarier world just outside the dancehall.

Professional Reviews

Q (p.118) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] pleasure, featuring some of his most swinging music...and a series of addictive melodies sweetly vocalised by his partner Dani Siciliano."

The Wire (p.56) - "[A]n attempt to straddle experimentalism and mainstream dance music. It's also his most song based effort to date...."

JazzTimes (p.113) - "[Y]ou will be happy with SCALE if you're a fan of Prince, disco, art rock and experimental electronica....The rhythms groove but it's the melodies and voices that dominate."

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Album: Scale
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Something Isn't Right
2)	Movers and the Shakers, The
3)	Moving Like a Train
4)	Harmonise
5)	We're in Love
6)	Birds of a Feather
7)	Those Feelings
8)	Down
9)	Movie Star
10)	Just Once
11)	Wrong

Album: Scale
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Something Isn't Right
2)	Movers and the Shakers, The
3)	Moving Like a Train
4)	Harmonise
5)	We're in Love
6)	Birds of a Feather
7)	Those Feelings
8)	Down
9)	Movie Star
10)	Just Once
11)	Wrong