Globus Mix Vol.5: letsallmakemistakes

A former jazz keyboardist who studied electro-acoustic theory at university, Matthew Herbert’s late nineties work—1998’s gorgeous Around the House, his sumptuous remix the following year of Moloko’s “Sing It Back”—lolled around like mercury on a waterbed, the approach of his 2000 mix CD Let’s All Make Mistakes was more angular. Here he explores how much texture you can wring out of a simple groove. Picking the simplest tracks by a surprising array of artists—pothead savants Nightmares on Wax, electro revivalist Si Begg, minimalist godhead Plastikman—Herbert thrived on opposites interacting, e.g. the strutting disco bass line and menacing rattlesnake shake of Auto Repeat’s “Def Jam”; the air compression chamber speaking in Morse code of Traktor’s “Master Traktor”; and the foursquare-funky riff of Begg’s “Test Tube Baby,” which breaks through Traktor’s aural dust clouds just as you think you’re going to start choking. At the end is Hombre Ojo’s “La Musica,” a flute-kissed comedown that, after all the prior quick cutting, is like watching the sunrise over the ocean—like, wow.