Text 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Oh yes, it's time for another slab of Text wax by Juno HQ favourite, Four Tet! Saying that it's been a good year for the London artist would be an understatement and it's safe to say that everything this man puts out if brimming with excellence. The beauty of "Jupiters" is that it struggles to fit into one specific genre, where those shuffling drums almost feel alive amid that growling bundle of sub-bass wizardry and elegant synth line madness. The B-side features "Ocras", a brilliant whirlpool of semi-house beats, deranged modular melodies and Four Tet's familiar experimentations into psychedelic atmospherics.

Review: Given that Four Tet's recent 0181 LP was comprised of material from Kieran Hebden's archives, and last year's Pink was largely compiled of tracks from the previous 18 months of 12" releases, it seems fair to say that Beautiful Rewind is his first proper album since 2010's There Is Love In You, and as such, it arrives with some degree of expectation. The past few years have seen the producer engage increasingly with the dancefloor, and these rhythms are most definitely present across the LP, particularly in the jungle breaks of "Kool FM", pirate radio-influenced techno of "Buchla" and hesitant dubstep style rhythms of "Parallel Jalebi". For the most part however Beautiful Rewind is as varied as the likes of Rounds and There Is Love In You, with the minimalist kosmische of "Ba Teaches Yoga", analogue gurgles of "Crush" and dawn chorus sounds of closer "Your Body Feels" all as beautiful as his most enduring tracks.

Review: Released back in August, "Kool FM" was Four Tet's ode to pirate radio and laid down a suitable primer for what to expect from his LP Beautiful Rewind. After the single comes the remix! If you've taken a walk through the content farm, listened to the Hessle Rinse show or seen a Four Tet DJ set in recent months you should be more than familiar with both remixes here. The first remix from Hyperdub and Butterz lad Champion is an exercise in simple dancefloor mathematics, implementing the kind of deranged bass line that destroys crowds and demands rewinds. A recent interview with Container revealed the U.S. noise/techno experimentalist to be a big fan of Frak and you can certainly hear their influence on his accompanying remix of "Kool FM" which retains mere remnants of Hebden's original - the distortion from the 2:30 mark onwards is particularly edifying.

Review: In advance of his forthcoming album Beautiful Rewind, Four Tet drops this limited white label offering a hint of what's to come. "Kool FM" is the producer's ode to pirate radio, constructing a stripped back club track bolted together with junglist breakbeats, a hyperactive MC sample, a full-bodied bassline and copious in-built rewinds. On the flip, the "Bliss Mix" strips out the beats and bass for a eerily serene version leaving only wispy pads and spectral vocals. As always with these surprise Four Tet drops, supplies are limited...

Review: Keiran Hebden knows his way around a good remix, be it the 200 odd official remixes done as Four Tet (not to mention a raft of illicit ones) or the many superb remixes he's commissioned from other artists (with the classic Joy Orbison remix of "Love Cry" from 2010 our favourite) Winding down proceedings on his Beautiful Rewind album from last year, Hebden here assembles a fine cast of rising production talent to put their own spin on tracks from the album. Any 12" that features production input from Detroit prodigy Jay Daniel, gritty funkateer Seven Davis Jr. and London-based producer PhOtOmachine is worth some time investigating and it's the gooey take on "Buchla" by Mr Davis Jr. that has proved to be the Juno office favourite this week.

Review: Keiran Hebden rarely does things by halves, though it's still surprising to find that Morning/Evening, his eighth full-length, consists of two contrasting 20-minute explorations, each inspired by a time of day. "Morning" is, as you may expect, warm, bright and evocative, with intoxicating Eastern vocals, dreamy chords and various bursts of melodious instrumentation riding a rolling, jazz-flecked, soft touch deep house groove. It is, of course, intensely beautiful. Hebden largely disposes of the beats entirely on "Evening", delivering 15 minutes of picturesque electronic melodies and sunset-friendly ambience, before introducing a jazz-flecked house rhythm for the final five minutes. It, too, is a thing of great beauty.

Review: A couple of months into 2014 and Kieran Hebden seems to be in the most productive phase of his long career thus far at the moment, swiftly following up the material that comprised 2012?s Pink compilation with the Beautiful Rewind album last year. Having first teased the notion of some tracks with veteran grime producer and Hyperdub regular Terror Danjah a few months back, they finally arrive in physical format in the shape of the two track 12" Killer/Nasty. Possibly the best Four Tet collaboration since that famed Moth/Wolf Cub 12? with Burial from 2009, both "Killer" and "Nasty" combine grime, jungle, funky and techno into a enjoyably twisted pair of club tracks.

Review: We live in post modern times, so post modern in fact that Joy Orbison's wonderfully acerbically titled "Big Room Tech House DJ Tool - Tip!" has been trumped before it's even released. And it would be Four Tet responsible for such a manoeuvre, as the producer swiftly follows up his unannounced free album with THAT track. What track you say? "The Track I've Been Playing That People Keep Asking About And That Joy Used In His RA Mix And Daphni Played On Boiler Room". Depending on how you consume music at the moment, you'll either immediately know what's on this one sided 12" or be slightly flummoxed by such a long title. For the uninitiated, this track's beauty is in its raw simplicity, commencing with sampled African chants of unknown origin which gradually get consumed by a bumping house beat.