It’s mellow, soulful, cute, cozy—all those Four Tet words in my mind. Full of those tracks that I’d put on a mixtape I make for someone I love.
Four Tet – Three +
Four Tet – Sixteen Oceans
Another collection of beautifully sophisticated downtempo electronics from Four Tet. At certain points I tend to think this record loses some of the uniqueness that I attribute to Four Tet, but at the end of the day these songs are still so full that love and soul that I feel pouring out of the headphones while listening to them. And in that sense I distinctly feel that I’m still listening to a Four Tet album.
Love Salad plays all the notes that I’m looking for here, this is what sounds like Four Tet in 2020 for me: long minimal beat prologue, heartfilling melody, shows the past, represents the present. There can be Bibios and Apparats out there playing along similar strings but this guy still takes it home best for me. Also and maybe most importantly the upbeat airiness that I feel so well in this track is what defines his sound right now, and it’s quite a long journey from when As Serious As Your Life was my favorite track in 2003. The triphop heavy thoughts and blue moods are overshadowed (or overlit rather) by a breeze of fresh air and the ease of motion that enables a carefree dance. Even in a track called Something in the Sadness it’s just rolling and moving and jingling and it’s dropping the burden and not carrying it around. I love this Four Tet now.
Anna Painting – Four Tet
It’s a second Four Tet in a day, but I just did a catch-up on Spotify, and this one also needs to be pinned up here. Title track and Lahaina Noon both make my head wobble.
Four Tet – Only Human
Sampling Nelly Furtado, suprisingly dancefloor beats from Kieran Hebden, this is a wow. Play, repeat.
Four Tet – New Energy
In a way the most accessible Four Tet so far, sometimes odd mostly for the house beats, but still magical like always.