Four Tet Ringer by: Dan Osmolowski Fri:16-May-08 Label: Domino Year: 2008 WB rating 69 out of 100

Kieran Hebden is a busy guy. In 10 years, under the pseudonym Four Tet, he has released five LPs, two mix CDs, dozens of remixes and three full-length collaborative efforts with legendary jazz drummer, Steve Reid. In that same time, Hebden has put out five albums and five EPs with post-rock outfit, Fridge. While others sit around, waiting for inspiration to strike, Hebden digs in and strikes while the iron is hot. With each release, Hebden has attempted to shift his modus operandi, gradually moving away from what critics first coined, ‘folktronica’ to craft electronic music that incorporates more diverse and challenging elements such as industrial noise, free-jazz and now, minimalist techno.

On his two previous albums as Four Tet, Rounds and the patchy Everything Ecstatic, Hebden chopped and collaged his broken, rolling, break beats and, in the main, married them with melodies that pushed their way to the fore. Here, on Ringer (a four track EP), he plants four-on-the-floor and weaves a range of atmospherics (some old, some new) in and around a simple, blunted kick drum – melody takes a back seat. The title track is underpinned by an oscillating robotic string swell and an ‘arpeggioed’ synthesizer that is punctuated by all manner of incidental pings, pops, burps and bubbles. At the track’s climax, the Four Tet of old reappears as Hebden rides the crash cymbal and snaps in some funky snare work. It is a fleeting glance over the shoulder, however, and it seems almost intentionally baiting on his behalf – it’s almost like accidently bumping the scan button on the radio and flicking to a completely different song. It’s the junkie in Hebden attempting to go cold turkey before abusing again and then slapping himself in the face for being so weak as to fall back on old habits. An experiment that he doesn’t quite pull off on this occasion, it comes across feeling like a sketch as opposed to his usual technicolour creations.

The rest of the EP fares much better, however. ‘Ribbons’ sampled synthesizers and glissando tranquillity possess an aquatic quality, almost as if the notes themselves are played underwater and float to the top like bubbles courtesy of a deep-sea diver. Hebden picks up the pace as a typical techno beat is introduced amid hesitantly repetitive, but bright, arpeggios and hyperactive individual notes. The flat-line siren, steady beat and skittering percussion that anchors ‘Swimmers’ lends a hypnotic quality that can be similarly found in the work of Australian free-jazz exponents, The Necks. It’s the sort of stripped-back aural meditation that Pantha Du Prince and The Field wielded with such gravitas on last year’s This Bliss and From Here We Go Sublime. It’s in this sort of approach that Hebden sounds most vital and relaxed, letting textures unravel themselves and be marked by restrained and simple instrumental flourishes.

The prevailing feel of Ringer is one of almost Darwinian metamorphosis. Hebden has displayed that he is ready to shed a former (well-worn) skin in favour of a direction that has the potential to be equally as rewarding. This is Four Tet testing the waters of public reaction instead of foolishly ploughing ahead and releasing Metal Machine Music 2.0. Think of it more as a statement of intent than an intent to make a statement; a warning shot across the bow of expectation that, given the right gestation period, could bring another genre-defining album to better his 2003 high-water mark, Rounds.