Two days back, Four Tet hit Tokyo's Hostess Club Weekender for a fabulous afternoon session, which he has done the good graces of recording for everyone else. Fans of the producer won't be surprised, but the effort is a textural masterwork of bubbling ambient and delicate house, perfect for any afternoon.
Transgressive North and Scottish Love in Action have put together a masterful collections of artists for very admirable cause. The Everything Is New project was created to aid the Dalit, better-known as the "untouchable" children of Southeast Asia, releasing two separate projects. The first of which is the 11-track Sun Choir album curated by English band Marram, which also features help from the likes of Jarvis Cocker, Owen Pallett, and more. The project was recorded over a span of six years on three different continents.
The second piece of the project is the utterly-massive 29-track BOATS, which features Four Tet's "Gillie Amma, I Love You." That track (available below) and the rest of BOATS are individual tracks built from samples of the Light Of Love Children's Choir featured on the aforementioned Sun Choir, in which the artist can choose to do with what they wish.
The lengthy artist list included on BOATS include; Four Tet, Gang Gang Dance, No Age, Dan Deacon, Bear in Heaven, Rustie, Son Lux, YACHT, Califone, Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), Sun Airway, Taken by Trees, Capybara, Deerhoof, doseone, El Guincho, Keepaway, Lucky Dragons, Julian Lynch, Matthewdavid, Max Tundra, Physical Forms, Ramona Falls, The Ruby Suns, rRoxymore, Slanter, A Sunny Day in Glasgow, and White Hinterland.
Watch a video on the project, read up on the effort, and listen to "Gillie Amma, I Love You" below. BOATS will be released January 20.
Taking on the Rinse FM airways for an eight-hour session yesterday, Four Tet debuted this long lost collaborative effort alongside Burial. The untitled track features, as some may recognize, a seminal vocal sample actually from Mariah Carey's "My All," filtered with the two producer's muddled, hypnotic rhythms and samples.
Included in Four Tet's 2003 album Rounds, "Unspoken" was augmented on the final release when Kieren Hebden couldn't legally produce the original version. That 2003 version, which contained a sample of the Tori Amos song "Winter," is now available in its full-fledged form courtesy of Hebden's Twitter. Stream and/or download the track below.
Not a few hours after revealing on Twitter that Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich's Atoms For Peace have worked a remix of "Pyramid," Four Tet debuted the new piece on Soundcloud. Checking in at nearly eight minutes, the new version is split with chaotic vocal loops, sped up to hyper-imaginative speeds, but not overwriting the original's supreme minimalism. Check it out below.
Released as part of Non Plus Record's fourth anniversary compilation Think and Change is this new house- oriented cut from Four Tet. The new track may be getting a little less play than his remix of Justin Timberlake's "Suit & Tie," which also hit waves today, but for Kieren Hebden fans there's never too much to go around.
Before the reissue of his celebrated 2003 LP Rounds, Four Tet and fellow British duo RocketNumberNine have released this calmed, percussion-laden "Roseland."
The track will be released as its own 12" in the near future, via Four Tet's Text Records. The 12" will feature the track "Metropolis" as well.
Kieran Hebden seems like a really nice guy. Earlier today, Hebden (better known as Four Tet), released this 38-minute plus mix titled the 0181 LP on his Twitter. The work comes from unreleased cuts during his early production years (1997 - 2001). It's a must listen, which you can download as well below.
The latest from Four Tet's steady stream of singles, "128 Harps," is the usual Hedben output; lush strings coupled with romantic contrast, lined up with subtle mechanics. Check out the stream below.
This new Four Tet mix "Jupiters", from the 12" A-Side of the same name, landed a few days ago. Check out the ambient working burst by a wall of silence below.
It's just good to know that Burial and Four Tet will work together on anything, given their other-worldly abilities. Listen to the duo's newest mix, "Nova," below, via Four Tet's Soundcloud page.
At the end of every month forever until I inevitably die - maybe - Bears and Bullets will run an Albums of the Month column. Right now, we'll take it easy early on with three top albums, but hopefully the list will continually expand.
September 2011 marked the release of a handful of anticipated releases, many of which collided on the same day; September 13, including: A.A. Bondy, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Das Racist, Mates of State, Memoryhouse, St. Vincent, and Wild Flag. That being said, the month was marred by disappointing releases as well. So, after all, what were this months standouts?
3. Four Tet - Fabriclive 59
Kieren Hebden, better known under his Four Tet moniker, released Fabriclive not as a studio set, but as part of the Fabric series, that will conclude at the end of this year. It begins as a generally mum post-90s trip-hop push colliding with the soft undertone of crowd noise, which to my knowledge has some sort of purpose. After the easy play-in, it courses through modern-Euro house and then seamlessly through more crowd loops into pure Four Tet-sound. It's that endearing core of the mix that sticks out further than many of September's other notable outputs.
2. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
What are Girls? The super-hyped San Francisco buzzband don't fit into the 2011 mold quite as well as their acclaim would seem. Upon the release of Father, Son, Holy Ghost's first single "Vomit," it would seem that they were wedged into some hybrid Beach Boys that are much more sensible to the Jesus and Mary Chain crowd. Confusing? It should be.
Regardless, there's something incredibly endearing about Father, Son, Holy Ghost that doesn't seem like faux-wave lo-fi that frequents the Pacific coastline. Those surf-sensibilities are there, but aren't juxtaposed as an overwhelming theme - letting Christopher Owens' songwriting take the necessary lead.
1. Mastodon - The Hunter
The metal band I simply hype more so than any other marked the end of September with the release of The Hunter, an album which was received by some to be too far off a departure of the band's hard-nailed previous works. And, well, they aren't wrong. Tracks like "Curl of the Burl" and "The Hunter" are easily the most accessible in the band's catalog. For some, though, that as a detraction is in hindsight. The Hunter jabs through blinding, clenching numbers like "Spectrelight" while allowing itself to web a different pattern. For me, that puts in on top.
While I may not be paying too much attention to the 14,000 e-mails I get about SXSW (I can't be the only writer not there), I did catch Burial and Four Tet's collaboration with Thom Yorke. The two tracks on the trio's 12" are already well-sold out, but you can listen to them both here, via Gorilla vs. Bear.
