Londoner Kieran Hebden, best known as Four Tet, stands as a trailblazer in indie electronic music. In 1997, Hebden ventured into his solo career as 4T Recordings, debuting with "Double Density." He later introduced the Four Tet project with the 1998 single "Thirtysixtwentyfive," a captivating, jazzy composition foreshadowing the innovative soundscapes he would explore. The debut album, "Dialogue" (1999), showcased Hebden's adept blend of organic and electronic elements.
As Four Tet gained prominence, Hebden's remix on Warp's "Warp 10+3: Remixes" compilation and collaborations with Rothko and Pole highlighted his versatility. In subsequent years, Hebden evolved his sound, collaborating with Burial and exploring minimal techno with the EP "Ringer" (2008). "Moth 12" (2009) and "There Is Love in You" (2010) revealed a club-friendly side, appealing to a broad audience. The mix "Fabriclive.59" (2011) and "Pink" (2012) showcased Hebden's DJ prowess and penchant for singles on Text. "Beautiful Rewind" (2013) reflected immersion in pirate radio culture, while "Morning/Evening" (2015) featured two 20-minute tracks, demonstrating versatility.
Through 2018 and 2019, Four Tet released live sets and festival anthems like "Only Human." "Sixteen Oceans" (2020) solidified Hebden's genre-defying reputation. Collaborations with Yorke and Burial, along with the 2021 collaboration with Madlib on "Sound Ancestors," displayed Hebden's editing and arranging skills.
Hebden continued pushing boundaries, collaborating with Skrillex and Fred again.., performing at Coachella, and releasing "Mango Feedback" (2022). As Four Tet captivates audiences with his evolving sound.
Review: Kieran Hebden, better known by his moniker Four Tet, has graced us with his first full-length album in nearly three years. "Three," released on his own Text Records imprint, is a meticulously crafted exploration of sound, weaving together elements of electronica, downtempo, and folktronica influences. The album strikes a balance between organic and electronic textures. Tracks like "Loved" showcase Hebden's signature ability to manipulate found sounds and samples, creating a shimmering sonic tapestry. "Gliding Through Everything" leans more towards the downtempo side, with its gentle piano chords and woozy atmosphere. However, Four Tet doesn't shy away from exploring the electronic realm. Tracks like "Daydream Repeat" feature driving uptempo rhythms intertwined with ethereal piano melodies, showcasing his talent for building tension and release. "Storm Crystals" injects a dose of ambient energy, while "Skater" leans into playful, almost chiptune-like melodies. The closing track, "Three Drums" (another pre-release single), brings back the energy with its pulsating bassline and infectious groove. Not to miss!
Review: British electronic musician Kieren Hebden aka Four Tet's latest offering "Three Drums" is a captivating track that showcases his versatility and creativity as an electronic musician. The song starts with a gentle synth melody that gradually builds up to a crescendo of drums and bass. The drums are layered and complex, creating a rhythmic and hypnotic effect, with an overall pastoral and epic feel, as if it was inspired by nature and adventure. While the song is a contrast to Hebden's recent collaborations with Skrillex and Fred Again, it still proves that he can master any style.
Review: Acclaimed British producer Kieran Hebden returns under the Four Tet alias with two new tracks on his Text imprint. The result is "Mango Feedback", a hypnotising house journey presented in his idiosyncratic style where a sublime sitar melody plays centre stage, underpinned by an infectious UK garage rhythm. For something a bit more different, the second offering "Watersynth" is an exploration in downbeat ambient sounds that will have you in a state of blissful freefall.
Review: Twenty years later and we're given another fresh reminder as to why Four Tet is still the guy. Released back in 99, Glasshead, in its original 11-minute form (with bizzarro breaks), sees Kieren Hebden pay tribute to some of his treasured inspirations in the jazz saxophonies of Robin Kenyatta, neu elektronik deutsche musik of Amon Duul and the early mainstream electronica of experimental pioneers Perrey and Kingsley. A future funk classic of freeform fusion, big beat jazz and electronica gone wild, get lost in the ragtime future beats of a legendary artist's formative years.
Review: Get to really know the Four Tet you know now with this Misnomer EP, originally released back in '99. Dating back to a time when Four Tet was more of a side project for Hebden than his prevailing alias - thanks to Trevor Jackson's Output label - these four tracks are thrown back into the spotlight and may come as a shock to some in the way they dive deep into noise music and experimental sound sourcing. Most overtly heard in the wild jazz of "Fume", there's something easier to handle in the title-track. With eastern themed motifs gracing "Charm" and "Aying" too - allow yourself to revel in the early days of Four Tet, when trip hop, big beat and post rock was a thing.
Review: Before Domino, Late Night Tales and Skrillex back-to-back sets there was the original Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet. Back some 20 years ago the storied producer was associated with an electro-acoustic style of freeform jazz, broken beats, ambient and electronica that was given full and early support from Trevor Jackson's Output label. Dialogue presents Four Tet's first official studio album (released in 1999) conjuring up a montage of guitars, horns, big beat drums and other instrumentals alongside humming rhodes, electrified bass, and deeper, old school classics like "The Butterfly Effect". Enjoy this on the back of Four Tet's newest album, Sixteen Oceans (2020
Review: On his first new album in three years, Kieron Hebden aka Four Tet proves why he is such a rare talent. Tracks like "School" and "Baby" see him merge ambient and electro-acoustic sounds together with vocal samples and tight dance floor rhythms, while on "Love Birds" he delivers tight drums and melancholic keys. What makes this so impressive is the fact that the dividing line between the organic and the electronic is imperceptible. Of course there is an accessible side to Hebden's style - the effortless warbles of "Teenage Birdsong" and the evocative "Harpsichord" being the stand out tracks - but in the same way that he blends the organic with the synthetic, Four Tet never lets this album dip into rampant commercialism.
Review: If you were judging Kieran Hebden's 11th Four Tet studio album merely on the way it's presented, you'd immediately think he'd spent the last two years immersed in early '90s ambient house albums. While it's unlikely he's done that, it's fair to say that New Energy does owe a debt to classic electronica sets from that period. For all the exotic instrumentation and subtle nods to post-dubstep "aquacrunk" experimentalism and chiming, head-in-the-clouds sunrise house, the album feels like a relic of a lost era. That's not meant as a criticism - New Energy is superb - but it is true that his choice of neo-classical strings, gentle new age melodies, sweeping synthesizer chords and disconnected vocal samples would not sound out of place on a Global Communication album.
Review: Released back in August, "Kool FM" was Four Tet's ode to pirate radio and laid down a suitable primer for what to expect from his LP Beautiful Rewind. After the single comes the remix! If you've taken a walk through the content farm, listened to the Hessle Rinse show or seen a Four Tet DJ set in recent months you should be more than familiar with both remixes here. The first remix from Butterz lad Champion is an exercise in simple dancefloor mathematics, implementing the kind of deranged bass line that destroys crowds and demands rewinds. A recent interview with Container revealed the U.S. noise/techno experimentalist to be a big fan of Frak and you can certainly hear their influence on his accompanying remix of "Kool FM" which retains mere remnants of Hebden's original - the distortion from the 2:30 mark onwards is particularly edifying.
Review: Given that Four Tet's recent 0181 LP was comprised of material from Kieran Hebden's archives, and last year's Pink was largely compiled of tracks from the previous 18 months of 12" releases, it seems fair to say that Beautiful Rewind is his first proper album since 2010's There Is Love In You, and as such, it arrives with some degree of expectation. The past few years have seen the producer engage increasingly with the dancefloor, and these rhythms are most definitely present across the LP, particularly in the jungle breaks of "Kool FM", pirate radio-influenced techno of "Buchla" and hesitant dubstep style rhythms of "Parallel Jalebi". For the most part however Beautiful Rewind is as varied as the likes of Rounds and There Is Love In You, with the minimalist kosmische of "Ba Teaches Yoga", analogue gurgles of "Crush" and dawn chorus sounds of closer "Your Body Feels" all as beautiful as his most enduring tracks.
Review: We're not going to lie - it's always super-exciting when a new Four Tet record drops and even more so when it's been pretty much unannounced. Here, our main man Kieran Hebden has unearthed a collection of jams dating back to the late 90s and early 00s - back in the days of the 0181 greater London telephone code, but these electronic excursions are in no way a reference to the past and in fact, they sound damn near futuristic. In all honesty, this is basically a livejam mix of Hebden's unreleased material, a near 40 minutes of dreamy harmonics and cutting-edge drum breaks, soaring to depths and highs of all sorts - jazzy vibes, peaks of electronica and much more. Giving you a detailed account of the affair just wouldn't do it justice, there's simply too much musical diversity and sonic experimentation right here, but, what we will tell you is that this release contains all the ingredients which make Four Tet's music so brilliant. A must have.
Review: The "Jupiters" remixes are finally available on digital format and this time it's a strictly UK affair, with Happa and Jamie XX on remix duties! Happa's re-interpretation of "Jupiters" is a thumping beast of a track, where a startling bass drum churns its way across a militant percussion - violent hi-hats and snares all round, coated graciously by the most ominous synth stabs to have ever appeared on a Four Tet record! Jamie XX's take on "Lion" is a calmer, sub-heavy parade of swinging drums and mutating bass lines, growing in ferocity with every new bar.
Review: Primarily comprised of previously vinyl-only tracks released by Kieran Hebden on his own Text imprint over the past 18 months, you'd be forgiven for wondering if Pink should be treated as a proper Four Tet album or not. The answer is an emphatic yes; although several of these tracks are more dancefloor focused than we've seen previously, the melodies and textures are unmistakably Hebden. "Locked" for instance has the loose rhythmic structure and bass weight of dubstep but the kind of acoustic textures of his Rounds era material, while "Lion" combines Border Community style minimal techno with the unmistakable Hebden glockenspiel. "Jupiters" experiments with swung garage beats in an unmistakably UK Bass style, while "128 Harps" is a whipcrack MPC workout given his light melodic touch and "Peace On Earth" is a beatless 11 minutes of analogue kosmische. But it's the centrepiece of Hebden's Fabriclive mix, the brilliantly moody "Pyramid", and the loose limbed jazz-house of "Pinnacles" that really set this album apart from his other long-playing efforts, two examples of timeless dance music which demonstrate why after nearly 15 years in the game Hebden is only improving with age.
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