first impressions: four tet - there is love in you

* this first impression comes courtesy of mr. keiran hebeden himself, who is streaming his gorgeous new album in full at his own website.

we're roughly five years removed from the release of hebeden's last album of new four tet material. such a long hibernation may have been wise if not necessary to distance himself from those pesky "folktronica" labels that kept following him around no matter which musical direction he opted to take after 2001's pause. fortunately, the moment of pause is long over and the future of four tet is here. there is love in you is a sublime slice of ethereal dance-floor bliss...



notes upon first listen:

• "angel echoes" is probably one of the most beautiful things i've heard in recent memory. deceptively repetitive, its looping vocal clips and synth shards keep layering over each other little by little as the song progresses to a positively hypnotic crescendo.
  
• i still think i slightly prefer joy orbison's take* on "love cry." won't hold that against the original though.
• i swear "circling" is a dead ringer for "one for you" by the knife, only with harps in place of xylophones
• speaking of the knife, the vocals that crop up in "sing" sound a lot like karin's
• "plastic people" is a nice reminder that kieran pre-dates axel "the field" wilner by a good few years.
• "she just likes to fight" is the obligatory throwback song, and it's still one of his best.

well played, mr. hebeden, well played. there is love in you comes out this tuesday via domino. there are also a few four tet live dates on the horizon, but alas, none in philly.

*and here, so you can hear what i mean: