Artist:Four Tet
Album: Rounds
Year: 2003
Genre:Electronica, Downtempo
Folktronica, Experimental
Country:United Kingdom
Kieran Hebden (born 1980 in Putney, London, England, United Kingdom) is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist under the moniker of Four Tet.
Hebden's music typically eschews the traditional pop song format in favor of a more abstract approach—his sound and melodies incorporate elements of hip hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk music with live instrumentation. His work as Four Tet shares some stylistic similarities with other musicians, such as Prefuse 73, who use computer editing techniques that give the music a staccato, cut-up feel.
perfect mix of subdued chill-out music and up-tempo beats
*****Reviews*****
"It's never easy to retain your status as a pioneer. Think of the way Massive Attack and Portishead patented a sound, only to find it had become aural wallpaper.Kieran Hebden's first album as Four Tet digitised his love of free jazz. His second, Pause, birthed "folktronica", a conflation of broken beats and fragile acoustics that, in many ways, became the new trip-hop. This new one, Rounds, is an exquisite synthesis of both. As much influenced by hip-hop and R&B as folk, Rounds invents its own dizzying, unlikely genres. Spirit Fingers, for instance, plays a violin jig at the pace of happy hardcore, complete with sibilant hi-hat, until it blurs into a hypnotising stillness.A trove of bewitching melody and subtle invention, Rounds succeeds not only as a meticulously conceived piece of art but also as a moving expression of human warmth."(arts.guardian.co.uk)
"It’s an incredibly romantic album, hypersensitive of breathing and decay and growth and glow, as one might be on a long November stroll with a beloved -- not speaking, fingers barely touching. In fact, the entire album is incredibly tactile, from tracks that seem like aural incarnations of touch, like "And They All Look Broken-Hearted"'s messy tangle of guitar threads, and "Slow Jam", which is all fingers running lazy over skin, to the titles themselves: "Spirit Fingers" and "Hands". "Hands" opens the album with a texture like a constantly shifting sidewalk on a blustery day. The plucked, scuttling staccato of guitar strings is the portrait of a single panel of cement as leaves and scraps settle into brief perfect patterns, before being kicked into new ones by gusts of wind. "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth", surely a contender for sweetest song title, contains a recurring piano motif that is lovely in its twirling float, gracefully drifting from the air to the ground. The slow, staticky beats beneath are exhalations of first frost on a clearly delicate day."(splendidezine.com)
"Rounds is a work of sonic bricolage. Unlike lesser artists, Four Tet manages to combine a jumble of sounds into beautifully-interlocking, natural, immediately comprehensible music, without any kitsch or clubby insipidness. Rounds is amazing."(Steve Kim)
listen--->My Angel Rocks Back and Forth
