Kieran Hebden is back with a new record. He is perhaps better known as the head of Four Tet, his electronic playground, and for his many remixes in recent years. Now he has teamed up with William Tyler to break new ground. At the beginning of this century, Tyler was a member of Lambchop and the Silver Jews, who reinterpreted country music at the time.
In recent years, several bands such as the Nashville Ambient Ensemble have demonstrated that country and electronic music are entirely compatible. Here, Hebden and Tyler take an old song by Lyle Lovett, break it down into its individual parts and then reassemble it as if it were a single piece.
I don't want to deprive you of the wonderful original.
2024 was certainly a good year for music and I couldn't commit to a specific genre in this review. There were phases when I listened to a lot of new electronic music, only to return to indie rock in the broadest sense and then favor singer/songwriters again.
Bill Ryder-Jones, an English singer-songwriter from Liverpool, released an album this spring that captivates with its beauty. Excellent songs across the board, reminiscent of the psych-folk of Gorky's Welsh Zygotic Mynci on the one hand and featuring sweet melodies, melancholy piano and strange tempo changes on the other. The album will probably go down as another overlooked masterpiece.
Anyone who thought Dublin's Fontaines D.C. would lose their stature after their fourth album was wrong. Here, too, they manage to write great songs. They have moved away from their early days, their songs are more differentiated and gather more inspiration. In the end, it even sounds as if they have covered an early song by The Cure. A consistently good album that loses none of its fascination even after repeated listens.
Justin Robertson released a few weeks ago Moon 1, the debut of his new project Five Green Moons. He moved away from his house controls and has dug deep in the sounds of PIL, Gang of Four, On-U Sound and Sabres of Paradise. He takes us to a dystopian disco where we share memories of dark post-punk echos.
Another album that stands out was the twelfth album by Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet Three. It touches on the many musical styles that he has already crossed before: Hip Hop, Down Beat, House. In the intro to ‘Skater’, my favorite number from ‘Three’, you can hear the rolling, drowned out by a looped guitar that meets synths reminiscent of 80's film soundtracks and voices somewhere far in the background, more echoes than vocals.
20 years ago when bands like The White Stripes with their reduced to basics sound were popular two guys from Norway brought us a different kind of music. Also reduced to simple acoustic guitars Erlend Øye and Eirik Bøe made the sound of that summer for me. I remember that I really liked their acoustic excursions into their kind of songwriting and I have to admit that it took me a long time to get back to Kings Of Convenience. After all these years the songs have still a relaxed mood and fits perfect to watch the sundown somewhere in summer.
Øye later left the singer/songwriter island and moved toward the clubs and dancefloor with his German/Norway electronic dance music project The Whitest Boy Alive. A few years later Øye released a remix-album from Quiet Is The New Loud and some remixes like this one by Four Tet are also worth to give them a listen.
The recent days I heard a song by a collaboration I never thought it would happen. Burial and Four Tet made a jazzy, moody and well tempered song and asked Thom Yorke to lend his vocals for this song. The result is a perfect mixture of Yorke's falsetto with laid back electronic grooves. A surprise for me and a song for winter evenings.
English producer Kieran Hebden better known as Four Tet released a new album these days. As we expected it is a mixture of his very own interpretation of electronic music combined with matching melodies and garage inspired beats. Baby is a collaboration with Ellie Goulding, with a bit of a melancholic mood over sampled beats. Another collaborations Hebden did with great female voices. Another song that keeps me forgetting what happens around me these days when I think that this could be the end of the world as we know it.
Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet released a new track under his alias KD. He tried for years to get the allowance to use Nelly Furtado's track Afraid as a sample. Finally they found an agreement for the copyrights and he Hebden presents us a mass compatible track with very catchy vocals, looped and strapped to an ongoing beat and added with some syhths shining in the back
This afternoon will be seminal to the future of my team. We are in the table still close to relegation and we await our table neighbor from Hannover. To beat them is necessary otherwise the days in Bundesliga might be counted.
Good news: Neneh Cherry is back and she announced the release of her new album. The first single Kong is out now and as hoped for nothing big has changed. For this song she has obliged two dimensions of the electronic music as producers: Kieran Hebden alias Four Tet who already primed "Blank Project" with his impressionistic Electronica and Robert "3D" Del Naja, Well, one of the foundation members of the TripHop institution Massive Attack. Together they have created a hypnotic night music in downtempo about which Neneh can spread out her voice - which still gets under skin. Also the text touches; a difficult balancing act between empathy and fury about the European refugee crisis.
Love forsaken, risk worth taking
Spearmint flavors, all my palate shudders
I’m a member of shattered illusions
And am I needless to say?
Another song, this is nothing new
But love is big in every man
Every nation seeks its friends in France and Italy
Today's another example for London's never ending spring of dancable music. Kerala Dust is a three piece formation based in South London combining classical songwriting with doleful electronic music. That they know the music history is shown by the influences of Talking Heads and Four Tet. This deep house based song could be one of your favourites for the upcoming summer.
On their label I found a description abut their music that might be true:
“The members within the inclusive isolation of this project would like you to dance while also wondering if there’s really a point to anything. The realisation that there is no point will merely be liberating”.
Todays selection of eclectic albums feature some artist making songs without words. It is music I use to listen to when it was later in the evening to get grounded after a long working day.
First one is Moon Duo that released their Occult Architectures 1 and 2 also this year. After four records it seems like they found the sound of their own. Corroded guitars, loopy keyboard lines, krautrock rhythms, and psychedelic strains conjuring both the whirling cosmos and droning abyss. Some might say they sound too sinister but I am always ready if they take me out for a ride.
Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet is a long time traveller in electronic music. During many years he tried to combine different types of sound into his music and with New Energy he finally put them all together in one album. You can find his warm downtempo sounds as well as his free jazz adventures on this record. Not music for everyone but I often find new particles in his sound.
Since a few years I listen often to the output of Yorkshire musician and producer Mark Osborne aka Mono Life. He released his latest album called Sandalphon this year and it is still on a high level. Some might say it is only electronic music but I say it is different to many other artists trying to a job like this. Mono Life is able to create a carpet of sound filled with a downtempo rhythm and great melodies.
I cannot resist to feature a new German band that I listened often to this year even if they speak some words. Die Wilde Jagd enjoys with a warm percussive sound. Sadly I miss them while they play live at my place during my holidays.
... is the name of the new album by Kieran Hebden aka Four Tet. I follow him since a long time and it doesn't matter if he's in dance music or folk inspired electronic music. Two Thousand And Seventeen is the healing sound for a year that was embossed by political madness, tragedy and frustration. It is a little piece of magic with its reduced rhythm and melancholy and hopeful sound.
With SW9 9SL he shows references to the Bristol sound and to all-night ravers. More electric than eclectic and a wonderful piece of electric music.
You Are Loved shows another side of his abilities of creating music. Close to the sound of Selected Ambient Works he mixes breaks with synth sweeps that you can get lost in them.
I know that this is not the music for everyone but if you find some time to listen intensive to this songs you might see the magic that is inside them.
Found this fantastic piece of music throughout the last weekend. A high quality can be already expected, if Jon Hopkins remixes a song from Four Tet. And he fulfilled this expectations with a little gem. There is a simple piano theme added together with a steady blubbering beat and breathy vocals. It has something meditative.
Another sunny Sunday with a clear blue sky in Southern Germany. Nothing planed so we decided to go to a wellness lounge a few towns away. Sitting inside the hot cabin sweating out the whole stuff makes me feel so well. While I sit there sweating I can think about nearly everything and often I get out with a clearer mind. There were some decisions to make these days and so I hope I get something done. Todays track is from a British DJ team that made a couple of very good records all over the years. I like this great bass line and the way they produced this songs.
