7. Gang of Boys 8. Blood and Hair 9.
Bull and Cloth When reading the phrase 'modern composer' in a press release you can either be experiencing the real deal or it can conjure up the whiff of big cheeses reeking of pretension. The whole idea of someone still engaging in such archaic practices as orchestrating big bands, composing film scores instead of songs, deliberating which oboe goes with those shoes in that scene from that film seems oddly out of touch with the world and more than a little questionable mentally.
Luckily this is one of the many fields where Matthew Herbert excels.
His nearest contemporaries would be those other cross-genre clever-clogs Brian Eno, David Byrne, Barry Adamson and possibly Jah Wobble. Just as well Herbert isn't just a composer then, as he has been tickling the eardrums of the people under various maverick disguises as DJ, electronic wiz and fashionable producer to such quirks as Roisin Murphy (ex-Moloko) and Bjork he clearly is no slouch.
This collection gathers up the cream of his first decade of writing film scores and is another step away from his usual sonic attacks with an album of traditional film music, albeit given the Herbert touch.
As all good film music does, these pieces transport you into widescreen epics, bedroom scenes, action adventure and romantic comedies with the subtle interplay of instrumentation and melodies weaving their woozy cinematic thrills. That they get this done in mostly under two minutes is more than most pop songs can muster.
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