Everything Ecstatic

Performer: Four Tet
Producer: Kieran Hebden
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: Photographers: Simon Foxton; Jason Evans. Kieran Hebden had every right to retreat from the folktronica tag stapled to his Four Tet recordings. Although he was the premier name in the sub-subgenre, and although his productions transcended even the cutest label that could be attached to them, the folktronica term was too clever by half; more importantly, no respectable artist in the indie underground can stand idly by while he's being pigeonholed. Nevertheless, the left turn Hebden has taken into jumpy Krautrock with 2005's Everything Ecstatic will make listeners yearn for the clever, nuanced productions he turned in on Pause and Rounds; fortunately, he hasn't completely forsaken his old ways. Early in the program, Hebden sounds more clearly derivative than he ever has; the spotlight track "Smile Around the Face" has one of Kanye West's chipmunk divas blandly merging into a sunny-day Avalanches production. "Sun Drums and Soil" begins with the menacing bell tones of an Autechre track and ends with the blatting horns of a free jazz workout, but the barrage of a percussion section never relents over six minutes. "Clouding," a criminally short interlude, is a turning point for Everything Ecstatic -- all of the album's best moments occur on the second half (and they are very good). "Turtle Turtle Up" and the shifting epic "Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions" are nominally electro productions, but they're some of the oddest and most attentively produced electro tracks to ever appear on record. (On the latter, the slight influences of the Orb are assimilated into the whole, not pasted on top.) The final track, "You Were There With Me," transforms the sound of Balinese gongs into an isolated, nightmarish production with only a faint heartbeat for a rhythm track. Hopefully, using Everything Ecstatic as necessary distance, Hebden can either return to the sound of his early records or transform his new direction into styles worthy of his production talents. ~ John Bush On 2005's EVERYTHING ECSTATIC, Kieran Hebden (AKA Four Tet) follows up his highly acclaimed 2003 album, ROUNDS, with another set of inventive electronica. Although the spacious, chiming melodies of ROUNDS are still present, Hebden (formerly of British post-rock group Fridge) opts for a deeper, moodier atmosphere on some tracks here, particularly the disc's opener, "A Joy," which combines frantic beats with a low, grinding drone that ends in a chaotic flurry of distortion. "Smile around the Face," however, returns to sunnier climes, with the main melody provided by a sped-up, high-pitched vocal sample that transcends its cartoon-like associations to carry the tune in a surprisingly beautiful way. Hebden's fascination with jazz drumming is highlighted on the driving "Sun Drums and Soil," while the eight-minute "Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions" recalls the multi-layered work of a well-behaved Aphex Twin. Throughout EVERYTHING ECSTATIC, Hebden's organic, glitchy signature sound is a constant, reinforcing his status as an intriguing and innovative electronica artist.

Spin (p.108) - "Sometimes Kieran Hebden's electronic music is dawn-over-the-Buddhist-shrine gorgeous..." -- Grade: B Magnet (pp.92-94) - "EVERYTHING ECSTATIC emphasizes melodic intention in a manner that transcends electronica or the outer reaches of experimental hip hop." Mojo (Publisher) (p.60) - Ranked #20 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2005" - "[The album] made alluring sense of a palette of sampledelic beats, textures and abstruse but nagging melodies."

One of the key artists of the folktronica movement, Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, mixes samples of jazz, acoustic, and psychedelic music with mid-tempo techno and hip-hop beats to create a uniquely warm and organic form of electronica. 2003's ROUNDS is often considered the definitive folktronica recording and one of the best electronica albums of the decade. Hebden is also a member of the British post-rock outfit Fridge.

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