Herbert: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Matmos
• Si Begg
• Mouse on Mars
• As One
• The Horn
• Reflection
• Voice Stealer

• Larry Heard
• µ-Ziq
• Chic
• John Cage
• Michael Hoenig
• New Order
• Tangerine Dream

• Hot Chip
• Micachu
• Andreas Heiszenberger
• Empty Set

• Björk
• Dani Siciliano

Birth Name:

Matthew Herbert

Genres:

House Music, Techno Music, Acid Jazz Music, Club Dance Music

Decades Active:

1990's|2000's

Artistic Quality

High

Cultural Impact

High

Popularity

Medium

Ratings Guide

Although his methods may provoke more discussion than his music (at least among chin-stroke types and the British and American dance music presses), Matthew Herbert is an experimentalist of a subtle stripe, combining his love for all styles of dance-based electronic music with a desire to push their modes of expression into new areas. Although Herbert studied music formally, much of his creative impetus has been provided by the compositional potential of digital sampling technology, which he liberally applies to genres such as house, electro, ambient, and techno, fashioning tracks of detail and originality from such mundane objects of everyday life as kitchen flatware, crockery, even his own body. Although the first of his tracks to be released on 12-inch came out through the Universal Language associated with Global Communication, the Horn, and Herbert's own Wishmountain project, he's since released a flood of material on the Clear and Phono labels, as Doctor Rockit and Herbert, respectively. With Doctor Rockit, Herbert focuses on old- and new-school electro-funk and housed-up techno, fusing clangy, rattling beats with humorous melodies and left-field samples and vocal snippets. With his eponymous project, Herbert releases the unlikeliest of experimental house tracks, working within the genre's feel-good, four-on-the-floor arrangements while drastically tweaking its modus operandi. His signature approach has given post-rave house's stale comportment a badly needed shot in the arm, and has (somewhat inexplicably) been widely embraced among mainstream and underground house audiences alike. While continuing to record for both Clear and Phono (almost a full dozen of his tracks appeared on Phono's two-disc compilation The End of the Beginning), Herbert also applied his remixing skills to a number of notable artists, including friend Jonah Sharp of Spacetime Continuum, Harold Budd, Atom Heart, Moloko, Motorbass, Super Furry Animals, DJ Food, Hardfloor, and Presence, among others. Vocalist Dani Siciliano joined Herbert for the 1998 LP Around the House. His first mix album, Let's All Make Mistakes, appeared on Tresor in 2000. [See Also: Doctor Rockit, Wishmountain]

- Sean Cooper, All Music Guide