Here we go, one of the most anticipated electronica releases of the past year from veteran knob tweaker and mood sculptor Four Tet. With various stints like releasing a techno record, touring with Steve Reid, and a few months sabbatical spent DJing in London, we had no real idea where he would land next. Turns out our best indicator was the kinetic Moth/Wolf Cub split with former schoolmate Burial. The new full-length There Is Love In You, returns to the glory of that twitchy dub jam, but with all of the perennial elements of Hebdan’s work from 1999’s Dialogue to present. The pulse beat of a heart, a motif of his since early albums, is recreated by the hum of organic sounds carefully cut and expanded, orbiting around an invisible core like a mobile of samples. Voices curl and multiply, even the most obviously synthesized sounds are kneaded into an uncannily human vibe that only Four Tet can diffuse from the circuitboard. Tracks like “Circling” blend warm, blinking arpeggios into a late-night cocktail that could have sat happily next to Squarepusher’s ambient cuts used on the Lost in Translation soundtrack.
Indeed, nostalgia runs all throughout the album, for both his own body of work and in general. Love’s finale “She Just Likes to Fight”, with it’s contemplative guitar riff and toy percussion recalls the closing number “Slow Jam” off of his magnum opus Rounds. But even more than being an articulate reflection of past work, this new album has proven to be a clever predictor of what the scene would sound like upon it’s completion. With the emergence of new-school dub steppers like Joy Orbison stealing the spotlight with their organic, staccato spin on a flat-lined genre, Four Tet re-emerges with a complete vision that anticipates this trend, and expands on it in ways only a seasoned producer could. The results are lucid, immersive, and unless Boards of Canada emerge from the fog, will undoubtedly remain the crowning achievement of popular electronica this year. I’ll eat those words if necessary, but I doubt it.
There Is Love In You is available this Monday through Domino Records and comes highly recommended.
MP3 :::
Four Tet – Plastic People
Four Tet – She Just Likes to Fight
