RSSKieran Hebden and Steve Reid [extended]
- Rhythmatism [Mustevic, 1977] B+
- Rounds [Domino, 2003] A-
- Everything Ecstatic [Domino, 2005] A-
- Tongues [Domino, 2007]
- NYC [Domino, 2008] **
- There Is Love in You [Domino, 2010] *
- Pink [Text, 2012]
- Three [Text, 2024] **
See Also:
Consumer Guide Reviews:
Steve Reid: Rhythmatism [Mustevic, 1977]
Here's what happens when you oblige jazz artists to record themselves. The music is terrific; personally, I prefer this sampling from the forceful alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe to David Murray's work on Low Class Conspiracy, probably because it's simpler. Leader Reid, a drummer, always provides what the title promises, and like so many of the new players Blythe isn't limited to modern methods by his modernism--he favors fluent, straight-ahead Coltrane modalities, but also demonstrates why he belongs on a tune for Cannonball. But the sound is really lame--the drums are mixed up front without any gain in clarity or presence, and the horns could be coming through the bathroom door. A label like Blue Note, say, hasn't first-released any music this solid in years; I wonder how much just one album a year of it would cost. B+
Four Tet: Rounds [Domino, 2003]
Charming, civilized, childish, Kieran Hebden imagines an aural space in which electronic malfunction is cute rather than annoying or ominous. Keys and strings go their own merry way toward the same pretty, toylike goal, and though the drums grumble sometimes, they can be counted on to help their friends the glitches in a pinch. The computer as music box--which is what guys like Hebden think it is, after all. A-
Four Tet: Everything Ecstatic [Domino, 2005]
Kieran Hebden does pack a lot of ideas, or maybe they're really just sounds, into a song, or maybe the term is album cut. But he's always lyrical. There's never that Conlon-Nancarrow-meets-Squarepusher sense of machine-scale speed exploited to evoke the workings of a mind that should take it easy already. Rounds was so lyrical, in fact, that it drove genre obsessives to the neologism "folktronica." Many such folks are disquieted by Hebden's constitutionally protected decision to dabble in the usages of drum'n'bass, which are every laptopper's roots, after all. The drums get busy at times, but never fear--this sounds more like Rounds than it does like anything else. Just a little funkier. A-
Tongues [Domino, 2007]
"The Sun Never Sets," "Our Time"
NYC [Domino, 2008]
With New York drummer Reid in the driver's seat, "folktronica" turns frantic, dark, urban ("Lyman Place," "1st & 1st"). **
Four Tet: There Is Love in You [Domino, 2010]
Formerly naturalistic soundscaper begins with "Angel Echoes" and privileges pretty throughout ("Plastic People," "Sing"). *
Four Tet: Pink [Text, 2012]
[2013 Dean's List: 25]
Four Tet: Three [Text, 2024]
Electrophonic background music in his all too well-established mode, though I do have a weakness for the cat, I think it is, who sneaks into the studio while he finally finishes the thing off ("Daydream Repeat," "Loved") **