Four Tet - New Retro Coordinates.

I've always preferred Kieran Hebdan at his most pastoral. Tracks like "Hands" (Rounds) and "And Then Patterns" (Everything Estatic) have a really subtle elegance that I don't think will ever go out of style.

The new Ringer EP is a major stylistic change for Four Tet. Hebden has always mined the past for ores of futurism in his cut and paste collages, successfully recreating the crushing cymbal cacophony of free jazz drummers and a general stoned tone - like an acid flashback bursting from the spine of an old hippie. And on Ringer he's still looking backwards, only now it's at early electronic composers like Terry Riley and Brian Eno. Ringer is all analog minimalism, sequenced arpeggiators and grainy loops. The twang and scrape of Rounds' acoustic folk-tronica textures have been replaced by the furry sounds of first-generation synthesizers. And Hebden handles the form with characteristic restraint, pacing himself well in tracks that approach and exceed the ten-minute mark.

Four Tet - "Ribbons" [From Ringer]


Four Tet - "Hands" [From Rounds]


Four Tet - "And Then Patterns" [From Everything Ecstatic]