The only body parts usually involved in house music are the twirling fingers of the producer, tweaking samples with a twist of knob or dial, or the swaying, sweaty bodies grooving to the finished product on the dance floor.
This makes "Bodily Functions," the new album from British DJ and electronica artist Matthew Herbert, as much a conceptual statement as an album title. Instead of the usual synthesized, four-to-the-floor rhythms associated with house, Herbert has based much of the album on the noisy, idiosyncratic cacophony of the human body and other found, rather than created, sounds.
"I think house as a genre is in need of a good kick up the butt," said Herbert during a recent stop in Tokyo.