Transparent Blue Vinyl More

LP FORMAT DETAILS: 2LP Black Vinyl in gatefold packaging.

TRACKLISTING:
A1. Two Doors featuring Joy Morgan
A2. Hypnotised featuring Mel Uye-Parker
A3. Might As Well Be Magical featuring Allie Armstrong
B1. Chain Reaction featuring Bianca Rose
B2. Fantasy featuring Verushka
B3. The Impossible featuring allie Armstrong
B4. Unrestorable featuring Siân Roseanna
C1. Tell Me A Secret featuring Siân Roseanna
C2. The Slip
C3. The Horror featuring Allie Armstrong
C4. The Way featuring Y’akoto
D1. Be Young featuring Daisy Godfrey
D2. Gold Dust featuring Bianca Rose
D3. Let Me Sleep featuring Bianca Rose

OVERVIEW:
Musca is the next in the series of domestic house albums to follow the groundbreaking LP classics? Around The House (1998), and Bodily Functions (2001).

2021 is proving to be a bumper year for Herbert fans who can also look forward to a package of very special 12” remixes later this summer and the premiere of 10-years-in-the-making-documentary, Symphony of Noise, about his work with sound.

After the wide expanse of his last big band album The State Between Us made with more than 1000 musicians and singers across Europe, this album instead is inward looking. Born of both intimacy and collaboration, features eight singers, Verushka, Siân Roseanna, Allie Armstrong,? Bianca Rose, Melissa Uye-Parker, Daisy Godfrey, Y’akoto and Joy Morgan - all of whom Matthew has never worked with before or met face to face. It also features musicians Nick Ramm, Tom Herbert, Tom Skinner, Finn Peters, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian and Leo Taylor, who, like the singers, all self-recorded and in isolation from each other.

Matthew says: “Like presumably many other albums made during the last year, Musca reflects on navigating the challenges and joys of our most intimate relationships whilst the world is in turmoil. Not just with Covid, but with the rise in state and political violence, facebook-friendly fascism, white supremacy and a climate in crisis.”

Matthew has talked about the need to retreat to an earlier, more familiar way of creating music as a form of solace during an unstable year. Having completed his PhD last year about the ethics of composing with sound and with his next experimental project based on more than one billion sounds, Musca is a moment of introspection, a pause. The album takes its name from musca -? the genus part of the latin name for a housefly and includes a variety of sounds from around the farm where he lives, including a synth made from his wife’s dog, one of his pig’s snoring and fox cubs gekkering.

Matthew continues, “The week last year when I wrote most of these songs seems like another era altogether. I have no idea how they will sound a year later now the context has changed so markedly. The optimist in me wants to leap forwards, vaccinated into the sunshine brandishing the NHS logo, but the realist in me is aghast at the wave of death unleashed upon this country by an incompetent and corrupt government. The record probably has ended up with both of those things however - optimism that an alternative way of organising ourselves is possible and anger and gloom that we’re not there yet.”

The 13 track album has been mixed by Matthew and mastered by long term collaborator and Grammy winning engineer, Mandy Parnell (Björk, Brian Eno and Aphex Twin). The artwork is by Sarah Hopper who has done nearly all the artwork for Matthew’s house music output for 25 years.

2021 also sees the release of a special documentary by Enrique Sanchez Lansch about Matthew and listening. Entitled A Symphony Of Noise, the film follows Matthew through 20 or so of his projects as an electronic musician, artist and sound activist over 10 years. The film was produced by Kloos and co and distributed by Rise and Shine Cinema. You can watch the trailer here

A Symphony Of Noise screening dates:
28th May - Premier, Poland
15th August - Premier, Berlin & Hamburg, Q & A’s with Matthew Herbert
2nd September - General Release in Germany Date in Autumn
TBC - Premier, London

Matthew Herbert is a widely acclaimed composer, producer and writer based next to the marshes of East Kent. His most recent album, The State Between Us was a collaboration across borders between 1000 musicians as part of the Brexit Big Band (2019), prior to that he released an album that was a book - the Music (A Novel Through Sound) published in 2018. Before that, A Nude soundtracked 24 hours of human activity through recordings of a single body. Matthew wrote the score for the Oscar-winning Chilean film A Fantastic Woman, the Academy Award nominated documentary The Cave, recent Julianne Moore film Gloria Bell and the acclaimed West End play People, Places and Things. More

Forever ahead of the curve, Matthew Herbert dropped this 3 track EP on Classic all the way back in 1996 and every track featured sounds like it could easily have been released yesterday. Such is the genius of Herbert, always managing to be one step ahead of most other producers, whether it's producing slamming house like 'You got to be moving', rolling emotive electronics like 'Fat king fire' or subtle, shifting percussion confusing jams like 'Housewife' all of his tracks retain this fresh energy that can't be pigeon holed. 'Classic Herbert' is exactly that, a 3 tracker that defies genre, celebrates the eclecticism of it's producer and still manages to be slamming (& classic) in the process! Essential stuff! This EP has always been tough to track down, proving to be a very sought after gem in the vinyl digging world. A repress was definitely needed!
'Classic Herbert' has been legitimately re-released with the full involvement of Matthew Herbert for 2017 and remastered from the original sources specially for Mint Condition. 100% legit, licensed and released. Dug, remastered, repackaged and brought to you by the caring folks at your new favourite reissue label - Mint Condition! More

Including limited silk screen artwork. Reissue of this 20y old timeless classic with new Linkwood remix on the b-side.

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One of Matthew Herbert's more demented, concrète-technoid aliases, Wishmountain gives up its first album in a decade - think Pierre Bastien meets Thomas Brinkmann at a DIY store. Back in the late '90s Wishmountain 'fessed to the tuffer side of Herbert's concrète house principles and was a key part of the movement toward minimal techno that endured for many years after. 'Stonework: 1000 metres down' pits Herbert back in the minimal techno mines to hammer out 10 hypnotic, jiggly rhythmelodic workouts full of barebones but colourful percussion and mechanically recalled electronics that patently manifest Herbert's innovative ear for intriguing sounds and knack for drivingly playful, club-ready arrangements. Made for close listening as well as harder working DJs who like to get busy with long blends and the EQ's, a familiar palette of foley-like tones subtly shift permutations of tempo and pattern in the album's cyclical carousel. The panel-beating canter of 'Tap' and clipped tattoo of 'Tool' hail why Wishmountain's work has long been name-checked by everyone form Ancient Methods to Pangaea, while the offbeat swang and grind of 'Headrush' and experimental trample of 'Dig' or the lo-slung swang of 'Deep' join dots between Brinkmann and likes of Kirk Barkey's Bambooman. The best, however, is saved for last with the nine minute 'Walk' evoking analogs to Muslimgauze's more locked-in, tripped-out, unyielding loop-based tekkerz in its Arabic-toned drums and atmospheric workshop noise. More

Following his debut on the label with last year’s ‘The Pob Routine’, Jerome Hill returns to AccidentalJnr with another absolute stonker of a release which we’ll let him describe in his own words...

“After my last EP for Jnr I spoke with label boss Matthew Herbert and he challenged me to write a track for the next EP, containing only sounds I'd recorded 'in the wild'. I was about to spend a little time on an organic Vegetable farming co-op just outside Munich, 'Kartoffel Kombinat' which I'd previously nicknamed Potato Land, so I brought my recorder and during my stay made lots of recordings, carrots being bitten and snapped, various gardening tools clattering around, voices and even the big tombola-like machine that cleans the freshly picked vegetables. The resulting track was Potatoland and the only non-organic noise in it is the kick. Various 'Potatoland’ elements also make guest appearances in the other tracks, although they are less easy to spot.

'Quibble’, was also written specifically for the label and was influenced by Herbert who I've been a huge fan of for decades... I wanted to make something suitably wobbly and humorous that shuffles along but then really slams when the kick comes in. Add in the Dance Mania influenced ‘Chicken’ and the final track ‘Bleeper’ and that's the EP... Very happy to be back!!” More

The Accidental label pushes on in it’s 21st anniversary year with ‘Thanet House EP’, a no nonsense, no pretention house 12” from renowned sound artist and designer Yuri Suzuki. Born in Tokyo in 1980, Suzuki studied in Tokyo and London, exploring the relationship between music and technology. His design and sound work is widely lauded, with examples of his practice being found in, among others, Tate Britain, MoMA and Mudan. In 2016 he was recognized by Design Miami, receiving their Designer of the Future award and in 2018 became a partner at the world’s largest independently owned design studio, Pentagram. More

Stalwart German producer Jackmate signs to Herbert’s Accidental Jnr for his new EP 'Werk' out on July 3. More

Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Jnr imprint are back with their second release of the year, this time inviting rising London based star Third Son into the fold. The Polymath label boss has been causing quite a stir in the house music scene with releases for 17 Steps, Skint and Sincopat as well as clocking up remix credits for among others Marc Romboy and Maya Jane Coles (under her Nocturnal Sunshine alias).

‘Bag O’ Bones’ opens up proceedings with its clattering toybox percussion, throbbing kick drums and dissonant lead stabs. The track has a brittle, dry quality to it, but Third Son’s ear for the dance floor is clear as the arrangement smoothly rolls along at firm a pace. More of the same is served up in ‘Chime Salad’, with layers upon layers of wonky, shifting percussion, building up into a tower of sound that feels as though it should come crumbling down, but somehow always stands firm.

The B1 ‘Phase Of Going Through Life’ brings the energy back down to earth with its slightly sparser arrangement and clips of bird songs, while still maintaining the off kilter pace of the previous pieces. The record then closes with the feel-good club work out, ‘The Brain Named Itself’, where we find Third Son administering a last-minute, sharp injection of groove. The dissonant synths that opened the record are replaced by brilliant, euphoric chord sweeps and pounding drums that are sure to move any dancefloor. More

The Accidental Jnr label has just passed it’s second birthday mark… so at 2 years and 15 releases in it only seems appropriate for the next 12” release to come from the artist that kicked the label off and has made it his home for the past 2 years… Bambooman, with a remix from label boss Matthew Herbert himself on the b-side. The track can really speak for itself as this one is something special for the dancefloor, the only difficulty is choosing which version to play... More

Gerry Read launches his new campaign to look at Preventing Violence Against Ears in all of its forms. In partnership with the Accidental Jnr corporation, Gerry hopes that this campaign will not just raise awareness but will actively work to prevent these alarming new practices. We urge you to take notice and to assist us by making sure that your peers, foes and family alike listen closely to this important movement. Relevant recordings have been produced and are available now via both 12” vinyl and digital mediums. More

Civilistjävel! returns with Brödföda, the successor to 2022’s Järnnätter and his fourth release for FELT. The record features collaborations with Laila Sakini, Mayssa Jallad, Thommy Wahlström, ELDON, and Withdrawn.

Tomas Bodén is a revered figure of the aural murk, known primarily for his work as Civilistjävel. It’s an alias that has spawned a catalogue of self-released peculiarities, featuring music that scorns traditional form, instead opting for unfussed symphonies of ice-hued minimalism; soft murmurs that emanate from his studio in the High Coast of Sweden.

On Brödföda, his latest album for Fergus Jones’s FELT imprint, subtle new developments in mood prevail. Across its 75 minutes, Civilistjävel! unveils a breadth of emotions that on previous releases seemed distant. He also invites collaborators on record for the first time: Beirut-based singer Mayssa Jallad mournfully croons on “IV”, “VIII” hosts Coldlight’s ELDON & Withdrawn for an abstracted session of dub-hop murk, Laila Sakini offers a hallucinogenic monologue amidst melodica, sticks & bells playing on “IX”, and Thommy Wahlström floats scant acid dub stylings on “VI”. These additions and developments bring a forlorn intimacy to the music, and suggest an ambition that few artists of his ilk strive for.

FELT’s (un)reliable cast of audio ghouls routinely summon the odd, with Civilistjävel! often its primary culprit; Brödföda gently modifies this path to pursue some of his and the label’s most quaintly beautiful music yet. More

Repress!

Deadbeat and Om Unit combine forces to explore their shared love of dubbed-out electronics.

Starting a thread from Montreal to Bristol, this mini LP is rooted in the tradition of dub and techno, but with tinges of roots and acid as well as the etheric ambience they are both known for.

Root, Stalk, Leaf and Bloom is contemplative but heartfelt, with a sense of momentum and positive purpose.

Written and produced by Scott Monteith and J.Coles
Artwork by EPOD
Layout by Graeme "Gramrcy" Bateman
Mastered by Cristobal Urbina
Cut by Simon from The Exchange
(P) & (C) Midnight Shift Records c/o The Singapore Music Cabinet 2021 More