Four Tet
Ringer EP (Domino)
By John S.W. MacDonald
Published: May 7th, 2008 | 10:15am
If Four Tet were a rock band, not the nom de plume of British electronica-mastermind Kieran Hebden, and used guitar and bass, instead of laptops and turntables, then Ringer would be Hebden’s back-to-basics, recorded-in-five-days, garage-rock album. Compared to the free-jazz freak-outs of 2005’s Everything Ecstatic or the narcotic folk-tronica on 2003’s breakthrough Rounds,Ringer is an album of minimalist techno — four songs of simple synthesizer arpeggios and fat downbeats.
Hebden has made a dance record — maybe the first of his nine-year career.
This is not to say there aren't scads of meaty, interesting things going on, or that you need glow sticks and a pocket full of pills to enjoy yourself. Ringer is still, ultimately, a Four Tet record. The title track comes on like a classic Ibiza rave-up with pulsing synths and bass beats before exploding at the eight-minute mark with a manic burst of Keith Moon percussion. The third track, “Swimmer,” is a study in sustained tension — a dance track on Percocet. Hebden holds a single woozy synth tone over a steady kick drum and distant washes of chiming guitar. If it weren’t for its throbbing bass, “Swimmer” would be a pleasant piece of ambient electronica. But with it, Hebden plants his feet — and ours — firmly on the dance floor.
In a sense, Four Tet’s new direction makes perfect sense. Though Hebden’s ultimate allegiance is with the avant-garde — as his recent work with legendary jazz percussionist Steve Reid makes clear (see The Exchange Session volumes 1 and 2) — he’s always managed to make these influences eminently palatable like Rounds’ brief role as the soundtrack to everyone’s dinner party.
With the Ringer EP, Hebden gets us to take our Kraut-rock medicine and like it too. Throw in a club-land beat and it goes down real easy.
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Four Tet's Official Website
Issue #35
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