Four Tet

Four Tet

Kieran Hebden (born 1980 in Putney, London, England, United Kingdom) is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist in his own right under the moniker Four Tet.

Hebden's music typically eschews the traditional pop song format in favor of a more abstract approach - his rich, organic sound and harmonious melodies incorporate elements of hip hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk music with live instrumentation. His work as Four Tet shares some stylistic similarities with other musicians, such as Prefuse 73, who use computer editing techniques that give the music a staccato, cut-up feel.

Alongside recording his own material, Hebden has also performed remixes for a number of artists including Aphex Twin, Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Matthew Dear, Nathan Fake, Bloc Party and Black Sabbath. Hebden's recent work includes a number of improvisational collaborations with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid.

History

Kieran Hebden began releasing material as Four Tet in 1998 with the 36 minute and 25 second single Thirtysixtwentyfive on Trevor Jackson's Output Recordings label. Later that year, he released a second single, the jazz-influenced "Misnomer". 1999's Dialogue, again on Output, was Four Tet's first full-length album release and fused hip-hop drum lines with dissonant jazz samples. This was followed by the double A-side single "Glasshead"/"Calamine", which was to be Four Tet's last release on Output.

In late 1999, Warp Records released Warp 10 + 3: Remixes, a tenth-anniversary compilation of remixes of Warp tracks; Hebden contributed a remix of the opening track of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II. This relatively high profile exposure attracted a lot of new interest in Four Tet from fans of electronica and IDM, genres in which the Warp brand has a preeminent status.

In 2001, Four Tet's second album Pause was released on Domino Records and found Hebden using more folk and electronic samples, which was quickly dubbed "folktronica" by the media and press in an attempt to label the style (often also applied to artists such as Isan and Gravenhurst). The acoustic guitar track "Everything Is Alright" is the theme music for the National Public Radio talk show On Point, produced at WBUR in Boston, Massachusetts.

Rounds was released in May 2003. It was Hebden's most ambitious album to date, incorporating diverse samples such as the mandolin on "Spirit Fingers", and even a rubber duck on the closing track "Slow Jam". Three singles were released from the album: "She Moves She", "As Serious as Your Life", and "My Angel Rocks Back and Forth". This last single was released as an EP featuring remixes by electronica duo Icarus and Isambard Khroustaliov along with additional Four Tet tracks "I've Got Viking in Me" and "All the Chimes". An accompanying DVD featured all of Four Tet's videos to date. In addition, the closing track "Slow Jam" was featured in a U.S. Nike commercial in 2001 and 2002; Hebden edited the track on the back of the bus with his laptop while on a tour with Fridge.

At the beginning of 2003, Four Tet opened for Radiohead on their European tour. A remix of the song Scatterbrain from Radiohead's sixth studio album Hail to the Thief was included on their 2004 EP COM LAG (2plus2isfive). Furthermore, Hebden was among the people thanked by Radiohead in the booklet accompanying their 2007 In Rainbows "discbox" release.

A live album named Live in Copenhagen 30th March 2004 was released in April 2004 as a limited edition, available only through the Domino Records website.

In March and April of 2005, Four Tet performed two shows of improvisational music, in collaboration with jazz drummer Steve Reid, in Paris and London. He also appears on Steve Reid Ensemble 2005 album Spirit Walk. This collaboration was extended into a series of international tours, and the release of two albums, The Exchange Session Vol. 1 and The Exchange Session Vol. 2 over the course of 2005 and 2006.

His fourth studio album Everything Ecstatic was released on Domino on 23 May 2005. The video for the lead single, "Smile Around the Face", features actor Mark Heap. The album brought with it another shift in style, leaving behind the breezy "folktronica" of Pause and Rounds for a darker, more complex sound. On 7 November 2005, Domino has released a DVD version of Everything Ecstatic featuring video clips for each track of the album plus a CD with new material.

Hebden has also remixed, under the Four Tet name, tracks by a wide range of artists including Madvillain, Bloc Party, Super Furry Animals, Beth Orton, Badly Drawn Boy, The Notwist, Boom Bip, Kings of Convenience, Steve Reich, Lars Horntveth, Bonobo, Rothko and Radiohead.

On 25 September 2006, Domino Records released Remixes, a two-disc compilation of Four Tet remixes. The first disc contains twelve Four Tet remixes selected by Hebden, with the second disc comprising of every official remix to date (both by Hebden himself and by other artists) of Four Tet tracks, many of which had previously been available on vinyl only.

Hebden has also produced two tracks on Chrome Children Vol. 2 for Guilty Simpson and Aloe Blacc.

Selected discography

Main article: Kieran Hebden discography

Albums

• Dialogue (Output Recordings, May 1999)
• Pause (Domino Records, 28 May 2001)
• Rounds (Domino Records, 5 May 2003)
• Everything Ecstatic (Domino Records, 23 May 2005); #59 UK chart
• Remixes (Domino Records, 25 September 2006)

Mix albums

• Late Night Tales: Four Tet (Azuli Records, 4 October 2004) (DJ mix album compiled by Hebden)
• DJ-Kicks: Four Tet (Studio !K7, 26 June 2006) (mix album in the DJ-Kicks series)

Albums (as Kieran Hebden)

• The Exchange Session Vol. 1 (with Steve Reid; Domino Records, 27 February 2006)
• The Exchange Session Vol. 2 (with Steve Reid; Domino Records, 22 May 2006)
• Tongues (with Steve Reid; Domino Records, 19 March 2007)

References

• Guardian interview
• TheMilkFactory interview
• Sound On Sound interview
• Four Tet chooses his nine most influential records

External links

• Four Tet website
• Four Tet / Kieran Hebden at MySpace
• Kieran Hebden RBMA video lecture session
• Four Tet artist page from the Domino Records website
• Template:Amg
• Four Tet discography at MusicBrainz