Four Tet Albums (5)
What The Critics Say
Kieran Hebden had every right to retreat from the folktronica tag stapled to his Four Tet recordings. Although he was the premier name in the sub-subgenre, and although his productions transcended even the cutest label that could be attached to them, the folktronica term was too clever by half; more importantly, no respectable artist in the indie underground can stand idly by while he's being pigeonholed. Nevertheless, the left turn Hebden has taken into jumpy Krautrock with 2005's Everything Ecstatic will make listeners yearn for the clever, nuanced productions he turned in on Pause and Rounds; fortunately, he hasn't completely forsaken his old ways. Early in the program, Hebden sounds more clearly derivative than he ever has; the spotlight track "Smile Around the Face" has one of Kanye West's chipmunk divas blandly merging into a sunny-day Avalanches production. "Sun Drums and Soil" begins with the menacing bell tones of an Autechre track and ends with the blatting horns of a free jazz workout, but the barrage of a percussion section never relents over six minutes. "Clouding," a criminally short interlude, is a turning point for Everything Ecstatic -- all of the album's best moments occur on the second half (and they are very good). "Turtle Turtle Up" and the shifting epic "Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions" are nominally electro productions, but they're some of the oddest and most attentively produced electro tracks to ever appear on record. (On the latter, the slight influences of the Orb are assimilated into the whole, not pasted on top.) The final track, "You Were There With Me," transforms the sound of Balinese gongs into an isolated, nightmarish production with only a faint heartbeat for a rhythm track. Hopefully, using Everything Ecstatic as necessary distance, Hebden can either return to the sound of his early records or transform his new direction into styles worthy of his production talents. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
For his solo projects, Fridge's Kieran Hebden is a lo-fi experimentalist who, had he been recording 15 years ago, would've been cranking out songs on a four-track recorder instead of a laptop. As demonstrated on his third record, Rounds, he's one of the few musicians capturing all the promise inherent in computer science -- being able to summon, manipulate, and mix any sound imaginable. The record offers something to nearly every audience that could approach it, with a bit of a groove for electronic fans, an obtuse sense of music-making for experimentalists, and a dreamy melodicism sure to endear it to indie-pop fans. The opener, "Hands," is especially breathtaking; it begins with a few seconds of drum samples, surgically inserted and ill-timed, but opens into a warm, melodic production with a simple frame-kit beat outlining Hebden's guitar-and-keyboard atmospherics. "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth" features a music-box melody playing against softly shaded backmasked guitar and a subdued, grating percussion line reminiscent of an iron lung. The nine-minute "Unspoken" alternates guitar and piano playing the same beatific melody, over another simple beat and tambourine claps. Though Rounds is experimental by nature, Kieran Hebden's gift for melody and emotional shading allows his records to be enjoyed by an audience wider than merely experimental listeners. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
On his second full-length as Four Tet, producer/mixologist/computer kid Kieran Hebden further f*cks with the notion that turntablism and electronica are essentially "nothing more than" computer music. While it's true that all the rhythms, melodies, and harmonies here are collaged samples combined with turntable wizardry, uninformed listeners would be hard-pressed to find anything but a few drum loops that sound as if they were composed and recorded by a band. For starters, on his opener, "Glue of the World," acoustic guitars, zithers, harps, and string basses wander around a minor-key riff that is augmented by a slip 'n' slide hip-hop rhythm with a sharp, in-your-face, drum-'n'-no-bass interlude. The track is a weave; it blends new age, acoustic jazz, and flamenco music in a golden braid that is heavenly. On "Twenty Three," steel drums, bells, and African and Balinese rhythm instruments open the way for an electric piano and acoustic guitar riff aided by a set of congas and bongos to come charging in DJ Shadow style. Just as the West African folk music theme settles, Hebden kicks it with hip-hop and a front line of trumpets, playing a long, slow, languid melody line, turning it into who knows what, but it's cool. It's also beautiful that there are small interludes of found sounds, like typewriter keys re-sequenced against an electric piano to create nothing but an ambient rhythm track that sounds as much like somebody shuffling things around on a desk as anything else -- until you pay attention. On tracks like "Untangle," where the percussion sounds a little less organic, Hebden demonstrates with flashes and cross-fades how rhythms from all over the world can be unified by the turntablist's skill -- or perhaps by musicians themselves willing to play together, which would be ideal. When the guitars and the bajo sexto kick in with the drums and the loops, it's the freakin' United Nations on stun, kickin' up a grand-style peace whoop. Four Tet's Pause offers more proof that DJ culture still has plenty to offer, and that Keiran Hebden is just getting started in his experimentation with transcultural electronica. Organic as dirt, and full of an acid-head's sense of space, this one's a winner from start to finish. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Some people might think it's easy to explain Fourtet: "It's electronica." It might be easiest to wince at these people and concede, "Yes, well sort of." Fourtet, the one-man DJ project of Fridge's Kieran Hebden, doesn't fit so easily into any one category. True, there are beats, samples, and other aspects of turntablism to his music, but there are also live instruments and very real sounding drum tracks -- "organic electronic" might be one way to describe it. Dialogue is Fourtet's first proper album (a slew of remixes and 12-inches have come before and after). Sometimes the record is jazzy: Heavy acoustic bass and scattered drums, but alternately, tabla and sitar, are the key focus of the final track. It seems that Hebden is quite happy in any musical setting he creates. None of the album sounds contrived, and there's an underlying earnestness that provides real credibility. Some of the record sounds, at times, like the more sampled passages of Fridge, but not as austere. If you're feeling fed up with stale, predictable electronica, or feeling ready to brave the shores of the electro-isle, this is an excellent album. ~ Marc Gilman, All Music Guide
