Four Tet – There Is Love In You review

Artist: Four Tet
Title: There Is Love In You
Label: Domino
Genre: Broken Beat/Nu Jazz
Format: 180 gram vinyl gatefold 2xLP, Digital, CD
Buy From: Juno Records (CD, vinyl), Juno Download

It’s been almost five years since Four Tet’s last LP. However, you could never accuse Kieran Hebden of being lazy, having spent the years since 2005’s Everything Ecstatic working on a number of EPs, collaborations and mixes, not to mention enough remixes to keep any student going throughout their perpetual revision period.

His fifth studio album to date forms a combination of minimal dance and amalgamations of sounds and ideas from his career so far. It serves a timely reminder of the joy of genre mashing in what is one of the first important releases of the new decade.

After the delicate and disjointed vocal-led opener “Angel Echoes” we move into the album’s first single, the hypnotic nine minute colossus that is “Love Cry”. Jazz percussion is layered over a sprawling house sentiment that builds exponentially throughout the saga. The aptly named “Circling” uses hazy synthesizers to progresses from a soft, folk-like beginning to flamboyant end before we are treated to the fantastically warped female vocal that gives the defining factor on “Sing”. Following “Plastic People’s” clap-infused melodic wandering, we reach “She Just Likes To Fight”, which seems to capture the emotional undertones that lay covered throughout the whole LP in a heart-warming sense of utter contentment.

It seems the long wait for an LP was more than worth it as Four Tet guides us through a labyrinth of musical tastes and genres whilst never losing his way in experimentation or self indulgence. Pushing limits, but in an ear-pleasing way, There Is Love In You is yet another reason to jump aboard Four Tet.

Review: Tom Jones