Monday, 14th of January, 2002

Matthew Herbert’s music (whether as Herbert, Radio Boy, Dr Rockit or Wishmountain) has always been too housey for my taste - the rhythms are just stilted and tedious, despite the fact that he gets called “funky” all the time, and despite the fact that he’s an unargued innovative genius with the sampler… [Nevertheless, his recent Bjork remix on the Pagan Poetry single is fantastic!]
His politics, though, I can’t fail him on, and his latest Radio Boy album project is fascinating. Go to The Mechanics of Destruction website to find out all about it. He uses sounds from various questionable sources to create a kind of anti-globalistation audio polemic, without the use of lyrics. Sound sources include McDonalds, Starbucks, the Sun newspaper, etc etc… And the album is conceived to be non-profit. It gets given away (at cost price) at gigs. Might be worth going to see him just to pick up a copy!

Here’s what Herbert wrote in the current Wire magazine’s 2001 Rewind section:

You are either with us or against us, stated George Bush. 2001 was the year of choices: whether you bought the 11 September merchandise or not; whether you wrote to your MP about Afghanistan, Iraq, Columbia, Turkey or the creation of a Palestinian state; whether you continued to use Esso petrol when they destroyed the Kyoto treaty; whether you boycotted Pret A Manger now that it is part of McDonalds; whether you cheered when Jeffrey Archer went down; whether the mainstream music industry continued to reward mediocrity; whether you thought “Get Ur Freak On” and “I’m A Slave 4 U” by Britney put a bite-size hole in the underground club scene; whether you guessed which editors, journalists and broadcasters had removed the politics from our interviews; or whether you still believe this organised noise we call music can change it all; or whether you did nothing. I’ve decided… if you’re asking me to choose, George, I’m against you.

I’m with Herbert…

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