Four Tet: Pink (Text Recordings)
DL
Out Now

This new album by Kieran Hebden is not exactly ‘new’ in the strictest sense of the word as it collects together the hitherto vinyl-only singles that he’s been releasing over the last couple of years. Philip Neeson’s been listening to the album for Louder Than War & has concluded that it’s a variable beast consisting of distinct highs & lows. Read on for his full appraisal.

This new Four Tet record, strangely not on Domino for once (instead it’s out on his own Text label) has been noted for its long tracks (five of the eight on here run over the six-minute mark) as well as its prevalence for a more club friendly, 4/4 feel.

Listening to this LP push along, as much as it was enjoyable in some areas it also became a bit ‘back-round music’ in others, which isn’t really how I remember Four Tet (Kieran Hebden to his mates) when listening to his earlier output (especially such LPs as 2001′s Pause, and Rounds from two years later). Maybe it’s also the case that the surprise factor has gone a little which, as much as it is a shame, it is also, to a not inconsiderable extent, expected.

Yet there are times during Pink where you can tell he is also doing something a little more contemporary, such as Ocoras, and Lion, where you can hear people like Jus Wan and Falty DL, with a 4/4, slightly off-centre and blurred brand of psyche-techno. There are other unmistakably Four Tet signature sounds though, such as tracks 128 Harps, which not surprisingly features a harp (he does like a harp does Mr Hebden), and the LP high point for me, the opener Locked (see unofficial video below); a nice steady and tight bit of beat-and-rhythm electronica that slowly builds, adding different elements as though a camera’s panning outwards from the centre to reveal a wider picture. It’s also pretty much effortlessly beautiful – like Four Tet at his best in fact.

<embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=29733799" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="300"></embed>

Four Tet – Locked from ZacGk on Vimeo.

End cut Pinnacle on the other hand, is a bit too bright and widescreen, and with that big heavy piano touch that occasionaly drops putting me in mind of chin-stroking dinner party music. I didn’t much care for Pinnacle, and wouldn’t really mind if I never heard it again if honest.

In conclusion then, it is by no means his finest LP, but if it happens to be subtly crafted, slow building electronic summery beauty you’re after then this record is there to be enjoyed certainly, even if it’s maybe too streamlined and clean for its own good, while some of it does go on a bit too long.

All word Phillip Neeson. You can read more of Phillip’s work here. Phillip’s website is called duklapragueawaykit and finally he tweets as @duklapgeawaykit.