FOUR TET - Pause

Back in 1996, Putney, South London, was the scene of the birth of post-rock experimentalists Fridge, brainchild of Kieran Hebden, Adem Ilham and Sam Jeffers. With a distinctive blend of guitars and electronic, the band established themselves very quickly on the music scene, receiving critical acclaim for their three albums and numerous Eps. However, Kieran Hebden started releasing his own material from 1997, under the Four Tet guise. After a string of 12” and a first album, Dialogue, released in 1999, at the tender age of 21, he is back with his second album, Pause.
After touring with Fridge, as Badly Drawn Boy’s live support band, remixing people as diverse as Aphex Twin, The Cinematic Orchestra or the µ-ziq/Speedy J Slag Boom Van Loon project, Hebden escaped the British weather for a while. Spotted in Toronto exchanging ideas with Manitoba’s Dan Snaith, he quietly put the finishing touch to Pause, before joining his mates to record the forthcoming Fridge album, Happiness, due to be released on Hebden’s own Text Records imprint. Obviously drawing experience from his work with Fridge, Hebden offers with Pause a somehow very different side of his inspiration. Guitars are here simple particles in a much bigger picture, only providing a sound base for his genuinely cooling melodies. All along, the album reminds of Manitoba’s slick ambiences. However, Pause is more constrained than Start Breaking My Heart. There aren’t any excursions into wild sonic soundscapes here, as Hebden remains in more conventional surroundings than his Canadian counterpart. This doesn’t mean however that Pause is an album to ignore as he creates some gentle, melodic, atmospheres, with astonishing ease. The guitar-breeze over Glue Of The World, Everything Is Alright or You Could Ruin My Day cools down the burning bites of the sun.
If not a revolutionary record, Pause is clever enough to grab the attention of the listener and not let go. Four Tet is more than a side project for Kieran Hebden, as he continues to explore the realms of electronic music.