Kieran Hebden’s trademark is cheekily crafting the kinds of skewed-jazzy beats you simply have no way of second-guessing or remembering. He also has a rather tidy knack for creating sparkling, web-like musical threads of such magical peculiarity you could easily mistake them for the work of beat-boxing pixies. So just how long has he been sprinkling his fairy-dust over wares other than his own? Well, too long to remember. In his various and varied roles as artist, musician, live performer, producer, DJ and of course remixer, Hebden’s career thus far has been interspersed with unusual collaborations. Having completed some 40-50 remixes in the past few years (including a crazy, experimental, free-form exchange with Jazz drummer, Steve Reid) his well documented remixing skills have become something of a mainstay in electronica and with those artists who hover precariously on its fringes (as opposed to its fridges).
So, after one of his most prolific professional periods to date it seems timely and appropriate then, that Four Tet’s enviable remix catalogue, spanning a 6-year period, is to be amassed for the first time into a nicely conceived 2 Disc collection of surprisingly rare and uncommon reworkings of other people’s songs, with Disc One mapping Hebden’s favourite remix projects, and those he remains most proud of: Radiohead’s ‘Skittrbrain’, Madvillain’s ‘Money Folder’, His Name Is Alive’s ‘One Year’, Aphex Twin, Bonobo, Beth Orton, Bloc Party and Pole.
Not surprisingly, Hebden is a man who understands his market, accepting that whilst a remix comes about simply because marketing teams choose to commission them as additional selling points, they’re also a sneaky way of championing music that has somehow gone by unnoticed and a way of working to (and beyond) the constraints of an existing product.
Four Tet’s remixing skills remain fully flexed in 2006, having already produced a number of remixes for artists such as Adem, Jamie Lidell, Aluminium, Archie Bronson Outfit, The Longcut and Steve Reich.
Dreamlike, hypnotic and likely to leave your brain buzzing some four tets after it finishes.