FOUR TET Schallplatten & CDs

Review: ***B-STOCK: Torn sleeve & creased cOrners, product unopened & in excellent condition***


Released back in 2003, Rounds was the third LP from Kieran Hebden as Four Tet and perhaps the first long player that widely established him as a pioneering voice within electronic music. Though it doesn't feel like a decade since it was released, Domino celebrate the album's tenth anniversary in requisite fashion here, reissuing it in double LP format and slipping in a CD of Four Tet performing live in Copenhagen in 2004. Listening back now, it's easy to understand why Rounds is viewed as an early classic in the Four Tet canon, transferring his love for free jazz records to a beat template that's more palatable on the ear (Fact pickers might want to know that Hebden recently revealed to Pitchfork the LP was made entirely from samples) "She Moves She" still sounds absolutely haunting too!

Review: Released back in 2003, Rounds was the third LP from Kieran Hebden as Four Tet and perhaps the first long player that widely established him as a pioneering voice within electronic music. Though it doesn't feel like a decade since it was released, Domino celebrate the album's tenth anniversary in requisite fashion here, reissuing it in double LP format and slipping in a CD of Four Tet performing live in Copenhagen in 2004. Listening back now, it's easy to understand why Rounds is viewed as an early classic in the Four Tet canon, transferring his love for free jazz records to a beat template that's more palatable on the ear (Fact pickers might want to know that Hebden recently revealed to Pitchfork the LP was made entirely from samples) "She Moves She" still sounds absolutely haunting too!

Review: It's been almost five years since Four Tet's last LP. However, you could never accuse Kieran Hebden of being lazy, having spent the years since 2005's Everything Ecstatic working on a number of EPs, collaborations and mixes, not to mention enough remixes to keep any student going throughout their perpetual revision period.

His fifth studio album to date forms a combination of minimal dance and amalgamations of sounds and ideas from his career so far. It serves a timely reminder of the joy of genre mashing in what is one of the first important releases of the new decade.

After the delicate and disjointed vocal-led opener 'Angel Echoes' we move into what will be Four Tet's next single, the hypnotic nine minute colossal, 'Love Cry.' Jazz percussion is layered over a sprawling house sentiment that builds exponentially throughout the saga. The aptly named 'Circling' uses hazy synthesizers to progresses from a soft, folk-like beginning to flamboyant end before we are treated to the fantastically warped female vocal that gives the defining factor on 'Sing.' Following 'Plastic People's' clap-infused melodic wandering, we reach 'She Just Likes To Fight' which seems to capture the emotional undertones that lay covered throughout the whole LP in a heart-warming sense of utter contentment.

It seems the long wait for an LP was more than worth it as Four Tet delivers guides through a labyrinth of musical tastes and genres whilst never losing his way in experimentation or self indulgence. Pushing limits, but in an ear-pleasing way, 'There Is Love In You' is yet another reason to jump aboard Four Tet.