Skip to main content

Four Tet

104
Four Tet

Four Tet
Britain's own Four Tet (real name: Kieran Hebden) is easily one of the country's greatest exports. There's a reason he gets over 2,000,000 streams on Spotify per month. Four Tet is probably the hipster's favorite D.J., he surely has made is name known in the indie scene. His debut album, 1999's Dialogue introduced the world to his signature sound of combining acoustic instrumentation with electronic sounds- this sound turned out to be timeless from the get go. His 2003 (and third album) Rounds is one of the best albums down-tempo has to offer. I didn't jump on board (& didn't really become a real fan [even though I had heard his name {which kept popping up}]) until his 2015 release Morning/Evening, which was designed with the classic vinyl-format in mind, with an A-side and a B-side. The project was a two-sided record trying to capture the magic of each the sunrise and the moonlight. And boy, did it work. It had beautiful middle eastern vocal samples. The morning side is one of the most gorgeous pieces of music I've ever heard. He quickly followed that up with 2017's New Energy. There was also this year's [2020's] awesome release Sixteen Oceans. He has also provided DJ mixes for the holy-trinity of DJ-mix compilation labels: Late Night Tales, DJ-Kicks, and FabricLive. There's a reason Four Tet has received widespread acclaim & stuck around for so god-damn long. But first- let's take it back. His first release was the 1998 single Thirtysixtwentyfive. He gained a bigger crowd and higher recognition with a remix of the Aphex Twin track "Untitled [SAW CD1 Track 1]," proving Aphex was a fan. A passing of the torch, if you will. Bigger crowds and higher recognition came with a remix of Radiohead's "Scatterbrain," proving that Thom Yorke and company were fans. There was also a Burial collaboration. He has collaborated with everybody who's anybody. One of my other favorite DJ's, Caribou, has expressed his love for Four Tet, which explains this collaboration. He's also done a remix of another favorite DJ of mine- Jamie XX. Four Tet's signature sound of down-tempo EDM infused with organic + electronic sounds has proven not only to be a working formula but a timeless one at that. His 2010 album There Is Love In You is his vision crystallized and a good place to start for any new-comer. His compositions can be abstract yet melodic with tonally rich & often glitchy electronics... with some real ass acoustic instrumentation! You can't talk about electronic music without mention this dude. He's one of the best.
It's...
Four Tet

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cake

43 Cake Cake What you need is some CAKE. The late 90's were primed for CAKE. When the emotional hangover of the grunge scene was too much, we got CAKE. This isn't a gag joke. In fact- your gag reflexes are in need of some CAKE.  Despite CAKE's quirky surface, singer John McCrea's deadpan delivery and Vince Di Fiore's mariachi trumpet playing, CAKE is as real as it gets. And with more than 25 years as a band and still going strong, they have nothing left to prove. It all started with 1994's Motorcade for Generosity with the single " Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle " which mocked trust-fund rebels. Then came 1996's Fashion Nugget with the all-time classic " The Distance ." 1998 gave us Prolonging the Magic, a high-water mark. I got on board in 2001 with Comfort Eagle . I was big on disco at the time and their cover of " I Will Survive " caught my attention, and then I saw the " Short Skirt, Long Jacket " video o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grouper

 131 Grouper  Grouper Reverb. Echo. Effects. Acoustic. Droney. These are some words you could use to explain Grouper's earlier work. Grouper is the solo project of Liz Harris. Her first album was self-titled & self-released. Grouper's second album was 2006's Way Their Crept . There was something special about that mid-ought's droney-underwater sounding indie. Grouper would go on to release five (!) more albums before I came on board as a fan: 2006's Wide , 2007's Cover The Windows & The Walls , 2008's widely acclaimed Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill & 2011's double-album (but separately released) AIA: Dream Loss & AIA: Alien Observer ... just to be followed up by 2012's double album: Violent Replacement Part I and Violent Replacement Part II . It wasn't until Grouper's more structured-releases that I became a full fledged fan. It was with 2013's The Man Who Died In His Boat that I finally jumped on board as a full-fled...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Band

19 The Band The Band First known as the Hawks, the Band got their initial fame as Bob Dylan’s backing band. Remember when Bob Dylan sold out and went electric, angering fans so much that they called him “ Judas ”? Well, you can thank all of that to the Band. For a band that sounds so fucking American (seriously- no band has done the whole Americana roots music better than the Band) it’s pretty funny most of them were Canadian. After finally branching out on their own in 1968, the Band would release some of the best music ever recorded… and if you thought the Beatles had a hell of a run- check out the Band’s discography: 1968’s Music From Big Pink , 1969’s self-titled The Band , 1970’s Stage Fright , 1971’s Cahoots , 1972’s live-album Rock of Ages , 1973’s Moondog Matinee , 1975’s Northern Lights -Southern Cross , and 1977’s Islands. Lynard Skynard may have taken the crown for greatest southern rock band, but for a band full of Canadians and Americans, the Band really embraces a...
Post a Comment
Read more