Indoor Fireworks (Re-Release)

Another album of amazing tracks that bear the unmistakable prints of Herbert's notoriously grubby sampling fingers, Indoor Fireworks ranges from jazz-house to classical to dance-pop to invisible soundtracks to drum'n'bass — all with some semblance of a groove despite the kooky environmental samples. Herbert ranges from the kitchen to the backyard, from his father's automobile to a French café, from an answering-machine message to a trip from his home to his studio. With all this phlegmatic audio detritus, Herbert fashions a series of incredibly funky tracks, like the distorted groove piece "Roman Candle" and the mellow jungle of "Metro." Herbert excels at breezy pop too, with the vocal piece "Summer Love" (vocals by Dani Siciliano) and a self-explanatory track titled "The Whistler." Indoor Fireworks also includes what may arguably be a few of the least danceable tracks ever produced by a dance producer: a quintessentially British showtune named "Hymnformation," a piece named "Music From a Film" performed entirely by the Irish Film Orchestra, and a few tracks scattered throughout that sound surprisingly close to The Rocky Horror Picture Show or the Bonzo Dog Band ("This Is the End," "Song with Words"). You often wish Herbert would stick to the dancefloor grooves, considering he's so good at them, but Indoor Fireworks is simply too much fun to argue with on anything but a superficial level.