Friday 22 February 2013

Music - Part 51 - Four Tet





I listened to this in the bath and I really enjoyed it.  I enjoyed the album as well.

2013 could well be the year of ‘doing a Bowie’ as artists make new releases with little or very short notice.  Putney’s very own Kieran Hebden, has unleashed new album , 0181, on the world with very little notice, and, has uploaded to Soundcloud for a free download.

It truth, it’s not really a new album, it doesn’t even have a tracklisting.  It’s more a collection of old tracks and bits ‘n’ pieces, which have been connected an almost continuous stream of loveliness.

The music was produced prior to the wonderful Rounds album, and, is in a similar vein.  Starting very slowly and with a distinct chill-out feel, the ‘individual’ pieces are short but cohesive enough to keep you interested, slowly rising to more substantial percussion before fading off again from whence it came.  It manages to keep alive by the sheer change of style and sound, every little click and bleep is a joy with its slight rough edges adding to the overall charm.

 So many instrumental albums fall into the trap of over pretentiousness and ridiculously long tracks, but, 0181 cleverly avoids falling into that trap.  At times, you find yourself drifting off, at others your feet start uncontrollably tapping and you find yourself wanting to jig across the floor.

There is, you would imagine, a danger of an album of snippets and even more snippets being disjointed, but, you couldn’t be further from the truth.  There has clearly been a lot of thought and care into the structure of 0181, loops and beats are expertly synchronised and the whole effect is an album which, is possibly more worthy of being a free download (it will shortly be released on vinyl) though possibly not a ‘full’ release. 

Think somewhere between Chemical Brothers (Come With Us) and Death In Vegas (Trans-Love Energies) and you won’t be far wrong.  Good company indeed.

Listen to, or, download 0181 here.  I’m off for another bath.


Four Tet’s website is here or you can follow on Twitter here.



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