Latest Release
- 1 NOV 2024
- 1 Song
- Loved - Single · 2024
- Pause · 2001
- Baby again.. - Single · 2022
- Talk To Me (feat. Naisha) - Single · 2024
- ten days · 2024
- In My Dreams - Single · 2024
- Beats In Space 126: Tim Sweeney (DJ Mix) · 2024
- Beats In Space 126: Tim Sweeney (DJ Mix) · 2024
- 42KM Run · 2024
- Three + · 2024
Essential Albums
- If Four Tet’s 2001 album <I>Pause</I> marks the first time all the pieces of Kieran Hebden’s sound crystallised into a coherent whole—where harp and acoustic guitar spread, prism-like, over a bristling expanse of breakbeats—<I>Rounds</I>, from two years later, takes a step further into the unknown. The elements are largely the same here: plucked and hammered strings spun into wistful loops and set to a fluttering pulse of brushed snares, jazz samples and psych-rock tambourine. But stranger sounds materialised, too. The odd lick of sitar, stomp box or whoopee cushion occasionally surfaces in the mix, throwing careful arrangements thrillingly off balance; these small, provocative details keep the mood of enveloping, almost overwhelming gorgeousness from falling back upon mere prettiness. Looking back upon his catalogue, it becomes clear that <I>Rounds</I> is where Hebden began mapping out the intersection of electronic textures and avant-garde techniques that would come to define Four Tet. The opening “Hands”, a crucial antecedent for the fractured boom-bap of Los Angeles’ beat-music scene, builds up to its groove sneakily, deploying Rhodes keys and free-jazz drumming like a smoke screen. Ethereal miniatures like “First Thing” and “Chia” are forays into glitch and microsound; meditative tracks like “And They All Look Broken Hearted” and the 10-minute “Unspoken” lay out Hebden’s fascination with spiritual jazz, ambient drone and the transcendent potential of extended duration—ideas that would inform his work for the next two decades. Yet for all the album’s searching, in songs like “She Moves She”, “My Angel Rocks Back and Forth” and “As Serious As Your Life”, <I>Rounds</I> also delivers some of the most memorable and emotive riffs of Hebden’s whole career. More sedate than his club-oriented work of the ’10s, it’s a contemplative touchstone of his inimitable style.
- 2017
Music Videos
- 2021
- 2020
- 2019
- 2003
Artist Playlists
- From hip-hop to jazz and house—the most adventurous dance floor you've ever visited.
- A singular style of beatmaking yields bold new sounds.
- Channelling abstract beats into unexpected shapes and styles.
- Lean back and relax with some of the mellowest cuts.
- A kaleidoscopic look at the producer's brain-bending beats and samples.
Compilations
Appears On
More To Hear
- Kieran Hebden selects the 5 Best Songs on Apple Music.
About Four Tet
Four Tet has shifted the frame around dance music so many times that it’s hard to keep track. Born Kieran Hebden in 1977, the Londoner got his start in the post-rock trio Fridge in 1997, and with breakthrough solo albums like 2001’s Pause and 2003’s Rounds, he began countering the era’s chilly, technology-besotted leftfield trends with an opalescent sound rooted in acoustic samples and homespun breakbeats. His signature palette has never really changed, yet over the years, Hebden has expanded his stylistic range to include not just meditative downtempo but also floor-filling techno, long-form ambient, shape-shifting live albums and ecstatic samples of Indian film music. His collaborators include the late free-jazz drummer Steve Reid, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and atmospheric bass musician Burial, whose idiosyncratic career has taken cues from Hebden’s DIY path; he’s also brought his formidable DJ skills to the table in sold-out stadium gigs alongside Fred again... and Skrillex—proof that despite his consistency, Four Tet never ceases to surprise.
- FROM
- London, England
- BORN
- September 1977
- GENRE
- Electronic