Audio, 30th October 2009
Keiron Hebden (AKA Four Tet) is a man of many talents. Over the past decade he’s arranged Hollywood film scores, released music under numerous pseudonyms and has remixed tracks for the likes of Beth Orton, Bonobo, Radiohead and Battles. So what made all these artists (who all have matchless creative reputations themselves) come to Hebden? Perhaps it’s his reputation for thinking outside of the musical box or his profound ability to take the simplest of musical concepts and turn it into something you’ve never heard before. Annoyingly (for a reviewer at least), it’s this boundless eclectic nature that makes him so difficult to categorize. Having been affiliated with Warp records (among others) since 1998, you could be mistaken in thinking that he is just another one of those ‘bleepy bleepy’ DJs whose music is impossible to dance to. But tonight’s packed out show proves that he still has one foot on planted firmly on the dance floor.
The set opened with some unexpectedly chilled house tunes that induced a wave of lazy shuffling amongst the crowd. Any right-thinking IDM aficionados would have taken this as an attempt to get the people warmed up before dropping a sonic bomb of displaced beats and ultra hi-res production. But alas, the moment never came.
Instead, the same lulling mid-tempo loops were churned out of the speakers and the crowd just kept on dancing. Good for them I thought. They’re having a good time. But I was here to get a taste of the edgy, experimental and irrefutably avant-garde ideas for which Four Tet is known around the world and unfortunately I was left somewhat disappointed.
Objectively speaking, it was a Friday night and people were there to drink, dance and possibly pull a mysterious stranger and Hebden was merely providing the soundtrack to many a partygoer’s weekend pleasures. Of course, it would be stupid to assume that people would want to throw shapes to some pretentious Free Jazz Electronica, but I was hoping to experience something that caused a few confused faces, something with just a more little class. I guess I’ll just have to make do with the albums for now.
Written by James Watts
Photography by Ed Isaacs
myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden
