Kieran Hebden
(born 1977 in Putney, London, England, United Kingdom) is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist under the moniker of Four Tet
.
Hebden's music typically eschews the traditional pop song format in favor of a more abstract approach—his sound and melodies incorporate elements of hip hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk music with live instrumentation.
Alongside recording his own material, Hebden has also performed remixes for a number of artists including Aphex Twin, Anti-Pop Consortium, Bonobo, Beth Orton, Explosions in the Sky, Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Matthew Dear, Sia, Nathan Fake, Bloc Party, Andrew Bird, Kings of Convenience, Battles, Madvillain, and Black Sabbath. Hebden's recent output includes a number of improvisational works with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid, and a collaboration with Burial.
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History
Kieran Hebden began releasing material as Four Tet in 1998 with the 36 minute, 25 second single
Thirtysixtwentyfive
on
Trevor Jackson's
Output Recordings label. Later that year, he released a second single, the jazz-influenced "Misnomer". 1999's
Dialogue
, again on Output, was Four Tet's first full-length album release and fused
hip hop drum lines with dissonant jazz samples. This was followed by the
double A-side single "Glasshead"/"Calamine", which was to be Four Tet's last release on Output.
In late 1999,
Warp Records released
Warp 10 + 3: Remixes
, a tenth-anniversary compilation of remixes of Warp tracks; Hebden contributed a remix of the opening track of
Aphex Twin's
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
. This relatively high profile exposure attracted new interest in Four Tet from fans of
electronica and
intelligent dance music, genres in which the Warp brand has a preeminent status.
In 2001, Four Tet's second album
Pause
was released on
Domino Records and found Hebden using more folk and
electronic samples, which was quickly dubbed "
folktronica" by the media and press in an attempt to label the style (often also applied to artists such as
Isan and
Gravenhurst).
Rounds
was released in May 2003. It was Hebden's most ambitious album to date, incorporating diverse samples such as the
mandolin on "Spirit Fingers" and a
rubber duck on the closing track "Slow Jam". Three singles were released from the album: "
She Moves She", "
As Serious as Your Life", and "
My Angel Rocks Back and Forth". This last single was released as an EP featuring remixes by electronica duo
Icarus and
Isambard Khroustaliov along with additional Four Tet tracks "I've Got Viking in Me" and "All the Chimes". An accompanying DVD featured all of Four Tet's videos to date. In addition, the closing track "Slow Jam" was featured in a U.S.
Nike commercial in 2001 and 2002; Hebden edited the track on the back of the bus with his laptop while on a tour with
Fridge.
At the beginning of 2003, Four Tet opened for
Radiohead on their European tour. A remix of the song "Scatterbrain" from Radiohead's sixth studio album
Hail to the Thief
was included on their 2004 EP
COM LAG (2plus2isfive)
. Furthermore, Hebden was among the people thanked by Radiohead in the
booklet accompanying their 2007
In Rainbows
"discbox" release. A
live album named
Live in Copenhagen 30th March 2004
was released in April 2004 as a limited edition, available only through the Domino Records website.
In March and April 2005, Four Tet performed two shows of improvisational music, in collaboration with
jazz drummer Steve Reid, in
Paris and
London. He also appears on Steve Reid Ensemble 2005 album
Spirit Walk
. This collaboration was extended into a series of international tours, and the release of two albums,
The Exchange Session Vol. 1
and
The Exchange Session Vol. 2
over the course of 2005 and 2006.
His fourth studio album
Everything Ecstatic
was released on Domino on 23 May 2005. The video for the lead single, "Smile Around the Face", features actor
Mark Heap. The album brought with it another shift in style, leaving behind the breezy "folktronica" of
Pause
and
Rounds
for a darker, more complex sound. On 7 November 2005, Domino has released a DVD version of
Everything Ecstatic
featuring video clips for each track of the album plus a CD with new material.
Hebden has also remixed, under the Four Tet name, tracks by a wide range of artists including
Madvillain,
Andrew Bird,
Bloc Party,
Super Furry Animals,
Beth Orton,
Badly Drawn Boy,
The Notwist,
Boom Bip,
Battles,
Kings of Convenience,
Lars Horntveth,
Bonobo,
Rothko,
Thom Yorke and
Radiohead. On 25 September 2006, Domino Records released
Remixes
, a two-disc compilation of Four Tet remixes. The first disc contains twelve Four Tet remixes selected by Hebden, with the second disc comprising of every official remix to date (both by Hebden himself and by other artists) of Four Tet tracks, many of which had previously been available on vinyl only.
[1] A new EP,
Ringer
, was released on 21 April 2008.
In 2008, Hebden collaborated with composer
David Arnold to write "Crawl, End Crawl", the song used for the end credits of the film
Quantum of Solace.
[2]
In 2009, Hebden worked on a secret collaboration with
Burial. The
two track 12" was released with a mysterious black cover with no liner notes or details contained on the vinyl, only that the tracks were called "Moth" and "Wolf Cub".
Selected discography
Albums (as Four Tet)
- Dialogue
(Output Recordings, May 1999)
- Pause
(Domino Records, 28 May 2001)
- Rounds
(Domino Records, 5 May 2003)
- Everything Ecstatic
(Domino Records, 23 May 2005); #59 UK chart
- Remixes
(Domino Records, 25 September 2006)
- Ringer
(Domino Records, 21 April 2008)
Mix albums
- Late Night Tales: Four Tet
(Azuli Records, 4 October 2004) (DJ mix album compiled by Hebden)
- DJ-Kicks: Four Tet
(Studio !K7, 26 June 2006) (mix album in the DJ-Kicks series)
Albums (as Kieran Hebden)
- The Exchange Session Vol. 1
(with Steve Reid; Domino Records, 27 February 2006)
- The Exchange Session Vol. 2
(with Steve Reid; Domino Records, 22 May 2006)
- Tongues
(with Steve Reid; Domino Records, 19 March 2007)
- NYC
(with Steve Reid; Domino Records, 4 November 2008)
References
- Four Tet to Release Remix LP
- http://www.mi6.co.uk/news/index.php?itemid=7146&t=mi6&s=news