Released: 31/03/23
It’s hard for me to hear the words ‘Matthew Herbert’ and not reflexively pronounce his surname out loud – like a knackered, looping tape player – to rhyme with the way a hypnotised Christian Slater says ‘sherbet’ in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. It truly is my cross to bear. Anyway, the British electronica wizard Matthew Hurr-burrt has made some pretty darned great records in his career, such as the excellent Around the House, which contains imaginatively processed samples of washing machines, toasters, and the like. Where that record, and others, is all bubbly exotica-funk EDM, his soundtrack for the much-vaunted 2022 film The Wonder, a period psychological drama in which Florence Pugh plays a nurse trying to get to the bottom of an apparent miracle in a faith community, is another beast entirely with its hauntingly beautiful and dark-ambient compositions that at times border on the industrial. I haven’t seen The Wonder, but this fantastic record means that I will correct this oversight post-haste.