Getting into the swing

UK producer Matthew Herbert has always worked to his own set of rules. Originally winning recognition for re-wiring house music’s blueprint with releases on Phono and Classic in the mid to late ’90s, Herbert’s love of wiry, offbeat rhythms and arrangements preceded the current craze for minimalist house.

Herbert also brought an experimental dimension to other projects. These include the ever changing Dr Rockit guise – which most recently yielded an album’s worth of indie rock – and his Radio Boy project, whose last release, ‘The Mechanics Of Destruction’, saw the UK producer record his interaction with everyday objects to create an edgy yet insightful look at modern consumerism.

Unsurprisingly, Herbert’s latest project, the Matthew Herbert Big Band, is also driven by his love of following unconventional musical paths. Focusing on the jazz sound, Goodbye Swingtime sees the maverick talent assemble a full band – including trumpets, trombones, saxophones, a piano and bass and drums – as well as boasting vocal contributions from Arto Lindsay, Jamie Lidell and long time Herbert collaborator, Dani Siciliano and arranger Peter Wraight’s magic touch.

Recorded in just four days, the resulting work is a unique epic that calls to mind the work of jazz greats like Miles Davis and Lalo Schiffrin as well as ragtime ditties and freeform jams, de-and re-constructed to suit modern electronic tastes. Even for an experimental producer like Herbert, it’s an unusual move.

“I was always going to make an album like this, but I had assumed it would happen later on, when I was older,” Herbert explains. “If someone asked me a few years ago if I was going to make an album like this, I would have said ‘no’, but then I realised financially, it would be possible to make it.”

Recorded using the producer’s own funds and released on his Accidental imprint, realising an experimental album’s worth of jazz in the current uncertain economic climate would be an unwise move for most independent labels. However, Herbert insists the current unstable global situation meant that he was duty bound to put out the album

“It felt like the right thing to do, especially since there was a war going on,” he says. “More than ever, people need a voice and a sense of community – a philosophy that seems to be missing in the world – and electronic music is usually an isolated, selfish pursuit. This album involved around 100 people around the world, in the various stages of recording and promotion, so I felt like it has achieved this goal. Some people see music as a lifestyle, but for me, it’s more than that. It defines the artist and their role in society: do people in Iraq nowadays have the freedom to make music?”

Indeed, if Herbert’s anti-war message and de-constructed jazz productions seem like a strange combination, then his attempt to build a global network of like-minded believers to participate in the recording of the album is even more unusual.

“Using our website, we asked people to send in newspaper clippings about the war in Iraq that we turned into shakers that were used in the album,” Herbert says, recalling how he built a community of hundreds of people around the world.

“We also requested that people record the sound of them dropping their phone directory on the ground and submitted that too. All of these sounds were used in the album, so all of these people from all over the world contributed to Swingtime. It’s just another way of expressing the fact that most people in the world are anti-war.”

Of course there’s a danger Herbert’s subtle social awareness message may be lost on the listener, but, rather than force his message, he’s willing to let his audience to take their own interpretation from Swingtime.

“It’s vital these messages are on the album and I hope some people pick up on them, but I’d like the album to generate the same reaction as when someone looks at a piece of art,” he claims. “That’s what I’m trying to achieve with this new album. I have a great life – I own a house and have my friends and my health. I travel the world to perform my music. Then I see all the bad things that happen in this world and that’s why I’m trying to create something beautiful and positive for society.”