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Matthew Herbert, "Plat du Jour"
Thisalbum is the sound of Matthew Herbert nailing his long list of protestto the door of the food industry, composed and constructed by samplesof food. Each track highlights a different aspect of what Herbert seesas a wasteful business. This way of working couldeasily result in tedious, academic-sounding music but I found it veryenjoyable to listen to both as an album and as a more serious statementon what we are ingesting.
Magic and Accident
Herbert tackles issues like animal farming, the coffee industry’sinvolvement with Agent Orange, waste management and celebrityendorsements. Additionally, there is a strong political motivation toseparate the government’s role in the food industry. “TheFinal Meal of Stacey Lawton” is a piece based on a convict that hasbeen believed to have been wrongly convicted who was executed underBush in Texas. Lawton's last meal was a jar of pickles. AnotherBush-related track is the album closer “Nigella, George, Tony and Me”where Herbert recreated the meal served to Bush in Downing Street anddrove over it in a tank. This all sounds great on paper and luckily it sounds great on CD.
Plat du Jour has been crafted with an awful lot of forwardplanning and inspired decisions. Every aspect of every song has beendesigned for a reason, even as far down as the beats per minute whereHerbert has chosen significant figures from his extensive reading list.For example, “The Nine Seeds of Navdanya” is 122 bpm because there are122 million people in India without a toilet.
Plat du Jour is very unique sounding thanks to the source of the sounds. Thesamples range from the simple such as a coke can, to complex, likefield recordings of battery chickens and samples of eggs being rolledin Pyrex bowls, to the completely ridiculous situation of over 3000people munching on apples. I'm not sure how much some of the samplesare processed, some of them sound out of this world. I don't know ifthat is a criticism or a tribute to the man. A large chunk of Herbert’sprotest is against the chemicals added to our food. This is reflectedin the beautiful sleeve by Stanley Donwood made entirely from foodcolorings.
This record is truly remarkable, Herbert has thrown up a lot to digest.
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