Matthew Herbert - 'Score' (!K7) Released 26/03/07

"Attencion! Music, Maestro". 'Score' is the soundtracking of obscure Independent European movies by House conceptualist and genius of experimentation Matthew Herbert. Having explored internal / external body noises for his slawart 'Bodily Functions', food processing and orchestrated vegetation for 'Plat du Jour' or to the big band of 'Goodbye Swingtime', 'Score' comes across as a more conventional play on sound production yet maintains those Herbert idiosyncrasies on previously unavailable material and a unique ballet collaboration.
 
'Funeral' from 'Vida Y Color' makes full use of an orchestra with pastoral strings and woodwind having a twilight beauty with squelchy bits on 'End', like a contemporary check on the 'Kes' soundtrack. Tracks from 'Le Deli' bring the biggest blasts with the big band back for the Italianate Riviera feel of 'Rivoli Shuffle' with muted trumpet leading the fray, the 30's jazz era of 'The Apartment', and the dismantled swing on the old standard 'Singing In The Rain' with its skipping beats and electro-noodle, the brass section makin' ya wanna sing it loud. 

'Cafe De Flore' was originally a club hit recorded under the Doctor Rockit moniker and came possessed of a geographical location, it's wheezing accordion bolstered here by a melancholic piano painting a Parisian sidewalk drenched in rain for the movie 'Le Deli', and 'Closing Theme' from 'The Intended' has the same sombre beauty of the lone walk home through the wet streets. Rareties include the 'Rejected Music For Manolete' - 'Blood and Hair' and 'Bull and Cloth' with Spanish guitar figurative feel steeped in history, the latter with sonic discourse - if anyone knows of a good home...