Label: Domino
Release Date: 25th January, 2010
Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) has been making his own brand of electro experimental music for some time now. Back in 1998 he had his first venture under the moniker Four Tet with the craftily titled single ‘Thirtysixtwentyfive’, which was, yes, 36 minutes 25 seconds in length. Since then a swathe of EPs and five LPs have followed. His resume as a remixer is long and impressive, covering a wide range of genres. Manic Street Preachers, Beth Orton, Aphex Twin, Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Sia, Kings Of Convenience, Battles, Badley Drawn Boy and even Black Sabbath have had their work remoulded in Hebden’s hands. A double CD of his remixes came out in 2006.
There Is Love In You, out through Domino, marks his first long player release since Everything Ecstatic in ’05 and it has been well worth the wait. The soundscapes have never sounded better and the whole album lends itself beautifully to a variety of listening experiences, be it late night chill time, as a soundtrack to walking city streets with headphones or a hung over Sunday session, it suits them all. Hebden honed these tracks during a DJ residency at the London club Plastic People (after which he has named one of the tracks) tweaking his music after judging the response from the patrons. ‘There Is Love In You’ is a stripped back pure experience. Tracks range from reflective and cerebral to hypnotic and jubilant.
Kicking off with a tap on the cymbal and a simple beat ‘Angel Echoes’ opens the music box that is There Is Love In You. A female voice drifts in on a clipped sampled loop and floats along for four minutes of bliss, overlappping onto the next track ‘Love Cry’. A crackling and droning intro builds the anticipation and when the beat kicks in at 1:06 you know straight away this track will get multiple plays and stay on repeat in your head all day. It builds and builds with the brilliant and sexy vocal loop entering the mix at a restrained four minute mark, halfway through the track. At 7:10 the vocals drop away as the killer beat continues and the track moves into third gear. This nine minute epic brings us back for a soft landing with some sweet guitar to round it off nicely. It’s clear to see why this track made the number one position in the first Top30 list for the year. ‘Sing’ has an optimistic, upbeat feel to it and more female vocals adding to the mix. ‘This Unfolds’ does just that, with a complex mix of sounds, showcasing Four Tet’s sophisticated take on the electro genre. Each track sits perfectly alongside the next, and as a whole There Is Love In You is a soothing and heady experience.
James Stocker – February 13, 2010
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