Matthew Herbert is not a fan of the newspaper, announcing to the audience, “Today we are reading from the Herald-Sun”, before tearing the paper apart in front of a microphone. You don’t usually see that kind of dedication in capturing a sample, let alone capturing one in front of a live audience, but Matthew Herbert made things clear – he isn’t just another electronic artist. Herbert was in town to reveal his Matthew Herbert’s Big Band concept, bringing sequencers, mixers, and samplers together with a sixteen piece swing band and vocalist Eska Mtungwazi. With a set based around his latest album There’s Me And There’s You, Herbert and his team created a sound that was familiar yet very unique.

With the band making their entrance first in black tuxedoes to applause from the audience, they are joined by a conductor and Mtungwazi. When Herbert finally hit the stage in full tails the crowd cheered with approval, before getting straight into his set. The band follows instruction from their conductor – trumpets are blown, drums are hit, piano keys are pressed down. The music sounds enormous in Hamer Hall, and gets better as they go through each song. But the music from the band is ultimately controlled by Herbert, who loops and chops individual instruments as they are played, adding in the odd beep or sound effect to keep it fun for traditional electronic music fans. Singer Eska Mtungwazi cannot escape it either, as her vocals are ran through filters and looped, quite often resulting in vocals from one song appearing in another. It even gains laughs when Herbert continuously loops the name of a band member during the band’s introductions mid-set, resulting in a bit of playful teasing from fifteen band members towards a now blushing trumpet player.

More must be said about Eska Mtungwazi. Reminiscent of other current soul singers like Sharon Jones or Shirley Bassey, she is able to present the audience with booming vocals or soulful melody depending on the song. She gets in on the newspaper tearing as well, making herself a pair of pom-poms that she shakes around during The Yesness. While the band taps on their orchestra stands with pencils, Herbert himself is pacing back and forth between his synths and mixer, almost performing a bad dance in the process which draws a few comments from around the audience. Those thoughts disappear when Herbert asks the crowd to sing a note in D for the encore, because the crowd is a bit too focused on getting the note spot on with one member even starting a few seconds too early, providing everyone on stage with a few laughs. When the song wrapped up and the house lights came up, most people weren’t chatting about what dance moves they saw, but were remarking about the show they just participated in. Yes, its big band music, its jazz, its swing – but its manipulation should be applauded for how brilliant it really is.