Review Summary: Four Tet brings a lot to the melting pot here, resulting in a sonically rich and intricate benchmark in experimental dance music.
Kieran Hebden is a beast of his own. Regarded as one of the most enigmatic figures in all of electronic music, his sound can only be described as diverse. The erratic drum layerings, placid atmospheres and instrumental manipulations he orchestrates are unique and inimitable by any artist, resulting in acclaimed records such as
Rounds and
There Is Love In You. His sixth record,
Pink, finds Hebden experimenting with his sound even more, whilst crafting a sonically astounding and accessible album.
Since most of
Pink's tracks were singles released prior to the album's inception, it seems like more of a compilation of past efforts than an actual LP. Hence, the album's sound spans multiple genres such as house, ambient, trip hop and jazz infused with Four Tet's signature live instrumentation. His organic production acts as a nexus between all these texturally different tracks, with each of them possessing a roomy ambience and a seamless integration of different styles. This amalgamation of genres shouldn't work, but it does, and the effect of each track becomes even more startling with reference to the album's context.
Pink seems more like an embrace of Hebden's new style, and testifies the artist's knack for exploring different territory.
The one-two punch of
Locked and
Lion acts as a terrific opener to the album; the former incorporates funky interspersed percussion layers along with jazzy, laidback guitar and flute interplays, before eventually transitioning into a warm synth affair at the end. The latter pays homage to the glory days of techno, utilising plenty of skittering beats with jungle undertones. A placid yet effective synth loop dominates most of the track, while other funky samples are brought into the mix. Elsewhere, the album's shorter, more fervent tracks such as
Ocoras and
128 Harps see Hebden delving deep into EDM territory, with pulsating bass rhythms, trepid dubstep backdrops and piano tinkerings.
Jupiters, meanwhile, feels more like a deadmau5 track with its waterlogged synth melodies and its beat structure. Kieran keeps things interesting while never steering too far astray from his old sound, be it the familiar organic feel of the melodies in
Locked or the ponderous ambience of
Ocoras.
However, the three final tracks see the album excel even more.
Pyramid features a buildup consisting of Kieran's odd vocal delivery, a groovy bassline and a traditional house beat. But the track shines around the middle with a stellar synth break before traipsing back to its maddening first section. The penultimate track
Peace For Earth is an exercise in minimalism and pure ambient soundscapes, very reminiscent of Autechre's early days. It's a fine track, though it could be cut a little short of its staggering duration of eleven-and-a-half minutes. Finally, we have
Pinnacles, an aptly titled jazz-house fusion extravaganza. It sums up the album's best qualities with a killer groove, a jazzy ambience, watery synths and infectious dance rhythms. As the final track fades away, you realize that Kieran has done it again, delivering another strange yet terrific album that solidifies his position as one of electronic music's most daring and proficient individuals. One could argue that the album has too much going on and seems like a convoluted clusterf***. Even then,
Pink is a brilliant and unique clusterf*** of a record.
