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HERBERT
Scale Accidental ****

Until the inevitable Best Of comes along, Scale will serve as an apt summary of Matthew Herbert's sonic span to date as producer, composer and activist. The pop sparkle to Scale might surprise some, but remember: there was a similar if somewhat more old-fashioned blur to his big-band adventures on Goodbye Swingtime. While Herbert certainly hasn't lost either his political edge or his idiosyncratic approach to source material - the cover features some 37 of the 723 objects sampled - the results are far funkier than anything that appeared on 2004's Plat du Jour. The shapely, infectious grooves that drive Something Isn't Right and Moving Like a Train onwards possess a real disco dimension, a sound that harkens back to his work on Moloko lass Róisín Murphy's solo album last year. Throughout, both Dani Siciliano (Herbert's regular vocal collaborator) and the recalled big band musicians keep the sound swinging and on-track. www.magicandaccident.com Jim Carroll