Data Breaker

Listen to the first Herbaliser album, 1995’s Remedies,
and then to the latest one, Same as It Never Was (their
!K7 debut after a long run on Ninja Tune), and you can
detect subtle changes, but nothing monumental. The British group’s
evolution has been gradual, with a predilection for hiphop (and
its ’60s/’70s jazz/funk foundation), whimsy, and the
glamour of Connery-era James Bond flicks being the common
thread.

In the early ’90s, Ollie Teeba (drum programming, scratches)
and Jake Wherry (programming, bass, keyboards) planted the seeds
for the Herbaliser and quickly became a key crop in Ninja Tune’s
fertile farm of blunt-tastic funkateers and library-music junkies.
Albums like Remedies and 1997’s Blow Your Headphones (starring butter MC What What, aka Jean Grae) surfaced
during triphop’s bleary-eyed heyday, but they only bore superficial
resemblance to that phenomenon. Teeba and Wherry kept things more
active and lighthearted than triphop’s more typical languid sensuality,
though some of their tracks are pretty damned sexy (see “A Mother [for
Your Mind]”).

Since then, the Herbaliser have continued to grind out albums every
few years with solid if unspectacular results. On 1999’s Very
Mercenary (with raps by Blade, Roots Manuva, and
Bahamadia) and 2002’s Something Wicked This Way Comes (featuring MF Doom, Phi Life Cypher, and Dilated
Peoples’ Rakaa Iriscience), the duo honed their hiphop production
techniques to as fine a point as nearly anyone on the British scene.
It’s a testament to the Herbaliser’s taste and skills that they could
snag such highly evolved MCs as the ones noted above.

With Something Wicked This Way Comes, the Herbaliser began to
incorporate samples from their own instruments; they also developed a
live show that pumped up crowds with a flamboyant brass section,
scintillating percussionists, and improvisational tangents that
revealed all those hours listening to the Impulse! catalog hadn’t been
wasted.

The Herbaliser departed Ninja Tune after 2005’s Take London,
released a partycentric, hiphop-flavored mix disc for the vaunted
FabricLive series in 2006, and then issued the extroverted, joyous
Same as It Never Was in 2008. They appear to be following in the
Cinematic Orchestra’s formidable footsteps, going for a spectacular,
big-band funk and jazz approach in order to unleash hedonistic
impulses.

You have to admire the extra effort. It can’t be cheap bringing
overseas a seven-piece ensemble—including
Winehouse/Duffy–esque vocalist Jessica Darling and the
Easy Access Orchestra—although doing soundtrack work
for Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, PlayStation 2 game Tony Hawk’s Underground, and ESPN’s Sunday Night
Football theme probably helps to balance the books. From orchestral
funk to jock jams: Now that’s versatility.