Premiere: Herbert “Get Strong”

Let’s pretend for a moment that during all those years of converting pig grunts, plastic bag crinkling, and shrapnel explosions into music, hypomanic British electronic composer Matthew Herbert was not secretly stockpiling an arsenal of club-leaning tracks. Let’s pretend to be surprised, then, by Part 7, the latest installment in the Parts 1-5 series born in the 1990s and resurrected last month via Part 6. Let’s pretend that the timing of these releases – arriving just as fans were peak-clamoring for more “classic” Herbert following his 130-song career-spanning box set, Herbert Complete – is just one of life’s happier coincidences.

Let’s pretend Part 7’s addicting R&B-inflected ditty “Bumps” doesn’t make us miss sentimental favorite Dani Siciliano (no offense to Heijara’s perfectly competent Rahel); or that the whack-a-mole punch on “Sucker” doesn’t have a delirious “Q-bert on crack” ring to it; or that the seesawing Morse-code on “Pretty Daddy” isn’t a distress signal from over-tickled synapses. Let’s pretend that the polyrhythmic clatter and counterpoint pinging on “Get Strong,” premiering on VIBE today, isn’t one of the most muscular bits of microchip techno to kick sand in EDM’s face.

Let’s pretend for a moment that none of this matters, because really the only thing that does matter is that Matthew has taken Herbert for another twirl around the dance floor – and that has always been a good, if fleeting, reason to give our bodies up and lose ourselves in the moment. After all, there might not be a Part 8. Right?

Part 7 by Herbert is out on vinyl September 8, and digitally on September 14. A word to the collector: Part 6 vinyl sold out in under 14 days.

Part 7 Tracklisting
1. Bumps
2. Sucker
3. Get Strong
4. Pretty Daddy