Mondophonic manifesto

>> Mutek guest Herbert thumps his bible--literally

by CHRIS HATHERILL

"It's so bloody easy to be original with a sampler. I don't understand why we're not using it to its full potential," says Matthew Herbert, sounding more matter-of-fact than angry. "We've been given the greatest musical instrument of all time, yet we're still using the same old samples. We have an opportunity to be original, and it's very easy to be original. It's a gift we've been given that we have to use."

Though he uses the word "We," Herbert is far from guilty. Over the years he's pushed the limits of sampling found sounds, capturing the sonic emissions of vacuum cleaners, mice, books, books, bottles, bodily functions and a thousand other everyday noises. While there's nothing new about this, and many other people doing the same thing, nobody's turning these sounds into tracks quite like Herbert is.

His methods and albums could be termed "experimental" but that doesn't change the fact that it's also great dance music. Witness the sheer energy of "Radio," a monster dancefloor track constructed entirely from the sounds of Herbert dismantling an old radio. Without any extra bass or drums, it manages to knock any other recent anthem on its ass, perfectly illustrating Herbert's policy about drums and drum noises.

"It's a very modern idea that you need drum noises at all," he says. "My dad called me the other day and was like, 'Why has all modern music got drums in it?' And I was like, 'That's a very good question, dad.' You can totally use anything. Then by changing the EQ you can make it sound like a kick drum--so why on earth would you use a kick drum? Why not take your favourite book and hit it with your microphone? You get an amazing kick drum, trust me, and then that kick drum has a history to it."

Because he's serious about this stuff, Herbert's music actually has a detailed history--a list of every single sample he's ever used, and how. While he admits the archive is a bit messy, he wants to eventually publish the list, as much to satisfy his fans' curiosity as to inspire others to grab a recording device and get out there.

"Just take a microphone and hit whatever's nearest to you," he advises. "It's a damn sight more original and personal than ripping off your record collection. Why use a sound that's been used by everybody else, that's probably being used by the guy in the studio next door? It's just got to that point where I think it's time we started having a debate about sampling, really."

It's a debate he seems well prepared for. Not content to just shoot his mouth off about how things should be done, Herbert has actually written out a Dogme-style manifesto entitled Personal Contract For the Composition of Music, or PCCOM for short. The 10 rules that make up the contract ban things like drum machines and the sampling of other people's music, and even go so far as to regulate technical things like factory pre-set sounds and effects. Like the Dogme filmmaking agreement, it's a challenge to do things differently.

"Parts of Dogme gave me an idea of what form I should present it in," he says, "But I think we're dealing with slightly different things. I've always written music with those rules in mind, but I never made it known to anyone that I was doing it, which meant that when I broke them the only person I was cheating was myself! It's very tempting to cheat sometimes, so it's stopped me falling into those easy traps."

With Thomas Brinkmann and Dimbiman, as part of Mutek at SAT on Sunday, June 3, 9pm, $25