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 (Domino/EMI)
More classic productions from London’s under-appreciated genius
It’s a wonder that Kieran Hebden, AKA Four Tet, gets a chance to make music at all these days. After all, Hebden is the kind of producer whose talents soon get expropriated by those with fat wallets to pay for remixes (in Hebden’s case, Radiohead, Beth Orton, Bloc Party, and Kings Of Convenience), and when he’s not doing that he can be found working with Steve Reid, America’s premier jazz drummer. Even his girlfriend, Kathryn Bint, AKA One Little Plane, has called on his services to produce her excellent début, Until. So we shouldn’t blame Hebden for not turning out a proper Four Tet album in five years; rather, we should be thankful that he has released anything at all. As a bonus, it’s a good album to boot, albeit one tailored for a specific audience: a good litmus test is whether or not the clever reversed hi-hats and cut-and-paste vocal samples of opener Angel Echoes hold your attention or bore you. (Obviously, I went with the former.) Circling displays his mastery of genre, opening with a wispy California folk lick which soon heads into Lindstrøm space disco territory; Sing may take some time to get where it’s going, but Hebden’s delirious concoction of bleeps and toy percussion is nothing if not charming. While sometimes it feels as though Hebden has kept only his lightweight work for himself, There Is Love In You is, nevertheless, an entirely idiosyncratic and beautiful creation.
****
CHAD PARKHILL
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