How cool would it be to invent a musical genre? The Chemical Brothers gave us big beat. Saunderson, May, and Atkins brought techno into the world. Chas and Dave blessed us with the Cockney knees-up. More recently, Kieran Hebden, the most critically acclaimed musician of the decade, has fiddled with his boxes and conjured up the appallingly-named folktronica. His fantastic previous albums (Rounds and Pause) have given machine-generated music a warm, acoustic feel and reinvigorated the worldwide audience for electronica.
It would have been easy for Hebden to keep it cozy and produce an album featuring a chilled-out set of beats interwoven with sampled acoustic instruments, sit back, and wait for the applause and the sales. There's nothing worse than a stagnating musician though; thankfully Hebden has moved the goalposts and stepped out of his comfort zone. This is clear to the listener in no uncertain terms as the first track, the aptly named "A Joy," comes storming out of the blocks. There is an undercurrent of aggression courtesy of a rude bassline, ever-changing beats colliding and collapsing over the top until it screeches to a halt in a squall of feedback. The following track, "Smile Around The Face" would be a deviant hit single in a righteous world, taking its deserved place alongside the Windowlickers and Squarepushers.
The most striking feature of this album is that the sounds seem so damn complex. It's very difficult to fathom how someone could produce such an intricate, clattering sound collage without driving themselves insane. That said, this is fortunately no exercise in beatwankery. There is an emotional charge to the tracks and a beauty which is normally associated with more sedate offerings. It is nothing but a hard-edged majesty, upfront and in your face, the product of a burning soul. Hebden's recent live outings confirm this, man and machine united in their focus, a steely look of determination on the face of a man possessed, determined to drive himself and his music to new limits. Recent work with Steve Reid has also been an influence, echoes of his free jazz drumming shining through these reconstructed beats.
It almost seems pointless to single out particular tracks when each one represents a soundworld consisting of micro-melodies and shifting themes, none more so than the astonishing "Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions". There is a breathtaking splendor to this awe-inspiring epic which is reflected throughout the album. If ever a song title cast a mirror on the author's lifestyle, this must be it. The set then closes with "You Were There With Me," windchime and glockenspiels combining to take us, and Hebden, home. Perfection in music is unattainable, superlatives in writing are tedious, yet this is an awesome, magnificent, incandescent, trailblazing record.
1. A Joy
2. Smile Around The Face
3. Fuji Check
4. Sun Drums And Soil
5. Clouding
6. And Then Patterns
7. High Fives
8. Turtle Turtle Up
9. Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions
10. You Were There With Me
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