Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid Tongues

I sometimes worry that I don't fit into the electronic music scene. A lot of the time I can pull off a passably convincing sage nod that can convince my hipper peers that I'm "digging" the same "groove" as them, when in actual fact, I'm thinking about my garden. But there are a few acts that can surprise me and impress me, those that take it beyond the call of duty. We're thinking Manitoba/Caribou, M83 and the like here, but most particularly we're talking Four Tet.

Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, you see is a hero of mine. Rounds features right at the very top of any best ever list I compile; when you look into it you see a huge pile of leftovers and odds and ends, but they're synchronised so effortlessly and so spotlessly, and so organically that it becomes a genuine, bona fide, actual, factual work of art, which can be said of very few artists or recordings today. In electronic music terms, I have no hesitation in calling the man a genius, a musician for our times who can teeter on the brink of insanity and pull it back into listenable, enjoyable, accessible music for even those lacking the thinking mans beard to scratch.

But, and you knew there was going to be a 'but', didn't you? But, everyone likes to break the mould a little, and since 2003's Everything Ecstatic, Hebden has been on a mission to push his own personal boat out as far as it'll go into a see of improvisation. A bold move for sure, but one not without promise: as those who've seen Four Tet live will attest, it's impressive how such seemingly intricate building blocks have such life about them when they're literally just emanating from a laptop and a sampler. So there's certainly scope for improvisational electronics here, and if anyone's going to do it, Hebden's your man.

The catalyst was Steve Reid, a full-on musical legend. If you've played for Fela Kuti and James Brown, and played on Dancing In The Street, you're allowed to kick back a little, but Reid teamed up with Hebden to record the Exchange Sessions, released in two separate instalments and again for Tongues, released this year. Tongues is a little different from the Exchange Sessions; it sees the pair's work condensed into more accessible 5-minute slots rather than the lengthy and extended workouts from before, and is all the better for it. For whereas The Exchange Sessions' charm wore off fairly quickly for all but the most intent listener, Tongues chops and changes enough to retain the interest.

That said, it's by no means perfect, nor is it anywhere near the standard of Hebden's work as Four Tet. It's lacking the human touch most of the time, ironically enough; it's lacking the accessibility and joy that makes Four Tet so enjoyable to listen to and the parts are not always perfectly executed. It's mostly a highly enjoyable album however, if not necessarily one to turn to of a quite evening with a book and a coffee. There are sublime moments here, and occasionally the interplay is breathtaking. This is pretty rare however, which leaves the rest of the record sounding just as you'd imagine it would, which isn't a bad thing, just not at the levels of creativity we've come to expect.