Customer Reviews

Plat Du Jour

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I admire Matthew Herbert. The man has a distinct style and, with this album especially, gets the listener involved. You really shouldn't listen to this without reading the liner notes for each track. When you read the liner notes while each song plays, you understand the whole idea behind this album. I can sum up the main idea in one word: Consumerism. I think Matthew's intention was to educate people on issues of consumerism. Issues such as teen dieting, food treatment and production, the environment, our screwed up government (i'm using too nice words), and celebrities endorsing products that make people fat. But you would probably never know that he wanted to bring these issues to your attention if you never read the liner notes. So read them! By reading the notes you'll also learn all the crazy things he used to make sounds: chicken coops, empty cans of Slimfast diet drinks, frying sausages, underground sewer sounds, a knife scraping toast, and I could go on and on and on. Again, most of these sounds you wouldn't even realize he used unless you read the notes. You would realize that the music here is energetic, playful, and unusual.

There is alot of statistics that deal with food and drink (i.e. there are 10 teaspoons of sugar in a can of coca cola) which made me think twice about what I eat, but then a few minutes go by and I go to the freezer for some ice cream. I know that soda is bad, and fried chicken is not exactly a healthy choice, but I consider myself to be health conscious and I see nothing wrong with moderation. But seriously, Herbert gets into more than just what's healthy and not healthy. He digs deeper and is much more cultured and politically minded than I'll ever be.

There's only ONE track with vocals (by vocals I mean, Dani, a female vocalist singing in the "Celebrity" track), so if you are wanting vocals you may be disappointed. If you are one who must have vocals I would highly recommend an album that M.H. produced: Roisen Murphy's "Ruby Blue." That one is more addicting than a tub of Ben & Jerry's.

I'm not especially enjoying Plat Du Jour. After Bodily Functions and Goodbye Swingtime, I really feel disappointment when hearing the direction Matthew has gone in with this LP. Most of it feels like background electronica I might hear while viewing a musical documentary like a collage of scenes spliced together in an art film or something by Nils Peter Molvaer.

After hearing Roisin Murphy's new album I though for sure that Herbert's next LP would be revolutionary, something that set the stage for a new genre that fully mixed electronic music with the syncopation and sound of 20's & 30's ragtime/swing. Unfortunately (in his own work) Herbert no longer seems to be championing the sound that made his production immediately recognizeable.

It's every artist's right to evolve, even if it's not in the direction some of their fans hope for. For those of you who identify with the sound I alluded to above (and who loved Roisin's "Ruby Blue") there are a couple artists that i think exude qualities that make up the Herbert sound. Unfortunately they are listed only on Amazon's French site, but you can still have a listen (and have them imported): One of my favorites is an artist called Nôze. Their album "Craft Sounds and Voices" is awesome: www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00081TXTK/

For those of you that love smoother vocals in the forefront, try French singer Camille's album "le fil" she uses organic samples of her own voice throughout the CD with electronic and folk influences. www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007DAYBA/.

I'll be the first one to say that I am the ultimate Matthew Herbert fan--admiring his uncanny ability to manipulate everyday sounds into beautiful and sometimes funky musical arrangements. I mean, the man took household sounds (dishes clanging and alarm clocks ringing) and bodily functions (baby girgles, flatulence and God knows what else) and created the impressive and enigmatic "Around the House" and "Bodily Functions". He also, from my understanding, took a notebook being banged on a microphone and created a song on Roisin Murphy's "Ruby Blue". But Plat Du Jour--I don't know--is a bit hard to swallow...First, I understand the concept...and it may actually be a good one--I do acquiese that a lot of stuff that we as consumers buy are bad for us and are highly overrated (Starbucks coffee does come to mind)...Only it's overdone throughout the entire release and not done in an easily accessible manner, one in which your average Slimfast, Coca-Cola or Dasani bottled water drinker would understand. C'mon, Herbert--where are the catchy basslines...the instruments...the hypnotic vocals (except, of course from Dani Siciliano on the egregiously sarcastic "Celebrity"--"Go, Beyonce--Go, Beyonce!!")? It sounds like everything here is done with some pedestrian, and in most cases, ridiculous sounds--i.e. farm animals...people biting apples...water bottles...coffee beans...sugar...etc. Plat Du Jour is supposed to address commercialism and the overuse and abuse of certain consumer products. Unfortunately, unless you read the liner notes, you aren't immediately aware of that. Perhaps segues or more vocals would have made this release more of a public service, unfortunately I'm left terribly unsatisfied and unconvinced that some products are bad for you based on this material. I will remain a loyal fan of Mr. Matthew Herbert with the hopes that in the future he releases something a little more "digestible!"

Plat de Jour is a concept album, the concept being the appallingly brutal way that much of what we eat is produced. It's the musical version of Jamie Oliver's School Dinners. Given that most of these songs are instrumentals, unless you are lucky enjoy to possess ears that are able to distinguish between, say, the sound of 30,000 broiler chickens in a barn and that of 24,000 minute old chicks in one room of a commercial hackery, you will have to rely on the sleeve notes to fully discern what is truly Mr. Herbert's intention behind these great sounds. Who would have thought that the sound of bottled water would be so effervescent? To be fully appreciated, though, Matthew's concept had to be experienced live. I was lucky enough to see Plat de Jour being performed twice, and what fantastic performances they were. Apart from Matthew's loops, most of the sounds were produced by musicians playing various types of food and packaging. And Matthew certainly had the right idea in sitting down during the concert to tuck into a meal. In case you had failed to grasp Matthew's concept, the point was emphasised by some really very amusing video footage, Matthew driving in a tank over a recreation of the meal that Nigella Lawson cooked for Tony Blair and George Bush being a highlight. The best tunes here are the truncated life of a modern industrial chicken, these branded waters, sugar, celebrity, an apple a day and the nine seeds of navdanya. I'd order it

It's probably premature to call _Plat Du Jour_ Matthew Herbert's triumph (seeing as how he's still making music), but of his works thus far, this is far and away my personal favorite. It works beautifully as a piece of conceptual, political art -- that you can dance to! Who knew that chickens and tapped eggs could result in the funkily sublime "The Truncated Life of a Modern Industrialised Chicken"? Sure, it's not pure musique concrete (Herbert admits freely to fiddling with the sampler knobs), but that freewheeling spirit lives on in the whistling water bottles of "These Branded Waters" or the bouncing, grinding beans of "An Empire of Coffee." Dani Siciliano makes an appearance on the droll "Celebrity" -- anyone who namechecks Beyonce and Gordon Ramsey is ok in my book. The politics of the pieces only emerge in the context of the liner notes, which makes Herbert's accomplishments seem all the more masterful. See, for instance, what went into the making of "Nigella, George, Tony and Me," and you can better appreciate its craftsmanship -- and humor. He also manages melancholy in "The Final Meal of Stacey Lawton" -- all the more tragic once you know the story behind the track. Groovy, musical, and meaningful -- all in one album. It's a real feast.

I'm in love with this album, it doesn't sound like Around the House or Bodily Functions, so if you are looking for Around the house part 2 or Bodily functions part 2 you will be disapointed! It's a great album to be listening with closed eyes and an open mind! A must have!

Plat du Jour is proof that even brilliant, talented, creative people like Matthew Herbert can have an off day. What was he thinking? Herbert gets so wrapped up in the message that he is trying to convey that the music, and I use that term loosely to describe this disc, is prententious, self-absorbed and self-righteous. Having 100 people bite into 100 different types of apples is just stupid, unless you're doing it live as a performance piece. Playing water bottles filled with different brands of water is pointless.

This is a concept album that would have worked better as a live performance piece or a video. It's only worth listening to for the awesome track Celebrity, the only real song on here.

I will stick to Around the House or Bodily Functions.