Fourth day of Tet, aka Kieran Hebden, is a busy guy this year, he released an album of 16 tracks, Sixteen oceans, as well as 4BILLION record EP and Baby Alone. Earlier in the year, Hebden teamed up with Thom York and Burial to collaborate on the single Her Revolution and His rope and he has plans to work with Madlib for Sound Ancestors. As if that weren’t enough for a year Kieran decided to release not one but two new albums at once over the Christmas holidays.
The new album Four New Year is titled Parallel and 871. Both are over an hour long and both are equally unique. Parallel is a ten-song audio exploration that begins with an epic 26m46s track, Parallel 1. The pretty amazing audible beauty that Kieran Hebden has created is something to behold. Hebden takes you through gentle curves and subtle shifts, subtly changing direction and rhythm with a deft, cryptic touch.
The surrounding nature of Parallel 1 makes it easy to hear with extended and stretched notes and it’s restrained using any vocal introspection. The humming sounds of the music and the softly unfolding background music are sometimes hypnotic. Parallel 2, as well as Parallel 8, moves the beat up a few notches and is more choreographic while maintaining a vague surrounding core. This is more Bonobo territory than Brian Eno. Parallel 4 touches the same ground with deep bass beats, high keys and occasional backing vocals Parallel 6 is a completely lighter piece, has a percussion structure and has almost no bass line at all.
The album was closed by Parallel 10, Its second half resembles a gentle arrangement of free-form jazz played on piano. The combination of musical textures was used on Parallel alone was impressive but when you combine that with his previous work and the other album he released on the same day, you can’t help but be blown away.
871 is a very different album from Parallel. The album consists of 20 songs, numbered from 0000 871 0001 through the 0000 871 0020, which is largely still instrumental and very experimental but favors the use of conventional instrumentation. At times the album Four Tet has a post-industrial sound. Track one could be Einstürzende Neubauten and track three could be Donovan, the album isn’t one you can pin easily but the better for it. Above 871 tracks range in length from 18 seconds (A string of ringing bells) to more than 9 minutes (The Quiet Post-Apocalyptic Soundscape). Some are under arrest and some are gentle and relaxed (0060) but all are creative and different. Parts of 871 like listening to noise from space (0019), you might even be forgiven for thinking that ‘0014’ has Clangers while other tracks, including 0016, quite harmonized (In a word like industrial noise!)
With 871 and Parallel Kieran Hebden has created two distinct, very different albums that are both challenging and rewarding to listen to. The sonic journey that Hebden takes you on is never predictable and is almost always inspirational and forward thinking. Hebden is not an artist to stay comfortable in one place for long and with his latest releases he has once again pushed things forward with his experimental discoveries in music.
