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Doctor Rockit

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<a href="http://accidentalrecords.bandcamp.com/album/one-one-2">The Unnecessary History Of Doctor Rockit by Accidental Records</a>
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  • Mar 13 2007

    AUDIO OFFERS DELIGHT

    Vinyls? Yes Vinyls! You read it correctly the first time.

    Now I know that they take up alot of room and there is no such thing as a handy portable vinyl player, but that doesn’t mean that we have the right to neglect them and let them be turned into a stomping ground for spiders.

    Let’s embrace them once more with this rather nifty special offer we have for you vinyl fans. They should be cherished and loved once again.

    Although I do know someone who once used an old vinyl to eat off when they couldn’t find a clean plate to use, back in the wonder years of being a student.
    Oh ok, yes, it was me! And No! I don’t remember what title it was.

    3x Vinyl Singles for £10 or 3x Vinyl Albums for £20

    If you order the album bundle we will let you choose 3 from this list.
    Doctor Rockit: Indoor Fireworks
    Soft Pink Truth: Do you Party
    John Matthias: Small Town Shining
    Mara Carlyle: The Lovely

    Singles will be a different beast altogether and it will be more of a lucky dip, but the choice of releases varies from Doctor Rockit to Matthew Herbert to Micah.

    Magic Time= Vinyl Times

    VISIT THE SHOP NOW!!!

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  • Oct 25 2006

    100lbs

    In January 1996, Matthew Herbert released three EPs that would stand as a personal manifesto for the future of dance music. Wishmountain’s “Radio” and Doctor Rockit’s “Ready To Rockit” showcased the prolific young Englishman’s ambient techno and jazzy electro sides. But it was “Part One”, the first in a trilogy of house music release, that best pointed to the musical heights Herbert would climb in the coming decade.

    Followed by “Part Two” and “Part Three”, this trio of EPs was then collected together into Herbert’s debut album, “100 lbs”. Now being re-released with additional tracks from the same era, the album puts his subsequent musical growth in context.


    An exclusive Mp3 can be downloaded via the 100lbs e-card. simply follow the link HERE.

    Re-released through !K7 records.

    31st October - International
    8th November - UK
    23rd January - USA

    Heavy!
     

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Biography

The first Doctor Rockit releases were found on Clear, an influential label from the mid-nineties that was part of the movement away from club music towards more electro and jazz-influenced music. What started out as an Electro-based project soon became something else entirely as Herbert attempted to take the concrete ideas of the Wishmountain project and add musical elements to create more laid-back but heavily swinging tracks. The project developed considerably after live shows in Germany on a combined tour with Patrick Pulsinger's Cheap Records in 1996. Clear released 'The Music of Sound' album in 1997, by which time the music had become an explicit diary of Herbert's life. Recordings were, amongst other things, taken from places relating to Herbert's childhood ('The Walk', 'Runner on Hastings beach') and restaurants and hotels visited in Austria with Patrick Pulsinger ('Motel Rhythm' and 'Café Beograd').

Doctor Rockit took an extended leave of absence in 1998 as Herbert concentrated on his project with Dani Siciliano but he returned in 2000, releasing 'Indoor Fireworks' on his new self-owned label, Lifelike. The record continued the diary theme and contained recordings of Herbert and friends in Barcelona for New Year ('Welcome'), his father's old car, Sydney's traffic lights ('Metro') and twenty of Herbert's friends after a warm up session in the pub ('Hymnformation'). The latter was Herbert's first explicitly political piece of music with lyrics informed by Noam Chomsky and John Pilger and referring to Rupert Murdoch and his expanding "news" industry and to Saddam Hussein and the bombing of Iraq, the central premise of the song being 'We require more information'.

Doctor Rockit's first known appearance came as a race horse on TV in 1995 and he finally disappeared in 2004 with the release of the compilation, 'The Unnecessary History of Doctor Rockit', a CD which for the first time collected music from the early EPs on Clear to the final single on Lifelike. The decision to dispose of the Doctor came with Herbert's realisation that the borderlines between his recording names were beginning to overlap and re-integrate themselves. There may indeed come a point in the not too distant future when all of Herbert's music is recorded under his own name.