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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Rounds, the third album from Four Tet, confirms its maker, London-based laptop musician Kieran Hebden, as one of modern British music's most contradictory characters: a bedroom composer that obsesses over the roughest new UK garage and hip-hop cuts, yet tucked up in his studio writes harp-laden melodic pieces that sound like the gentle flutter of a cherub's wings and have titles like "My Angel Rocks Back And Forth".
Every Four Tet album is inscrutably, sometimes indescribably lovely, and Rounds is no exception. On first listen, it sounds like a near twin of 2001's Pause--a cerebral, organic-sounding journey through vistas of gentle European folk music, Balinese percussion and next-wave hip-hop rhythms. But even Four Tet on autopilot is pretty essential stuff: the opening "Hands" layers shards of stroked acoustic chords and chrome-smooth electronic swishes into a glimmering fog of sound, before tethering it down with crashing drumkit percussion; the bare "Unspoken" sounds like DJ Shadow collaborating with some obscure minimalist composer. In this meditative work, Hebden does so much to dispel the notion that electronic music has to be cold and clinical. Long may he contradict. --Louis Pattison
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Interesting to see how this CD has polarised reviewers' opinion on these pages to such a great degree. `Rounds' is certainly not an album for hardcore musos only, but neither does it give up its treasures immediately.
On the first couple if listens it sounds like a bit of mess. You hear a collage of skittering, cut-up beats, electronic effects and samples of `real' instruments and other found sounds all thrown together with seemingly no overall design.
Listen on and persevere, though, and the picture changes. Threads of melody and structure appear on each and every track and the album turns into a multi-layered treasure trove of sound. `She Moves She' features a frisky beat, gently plucked strings and a chiming percussion melody. `My Angel Rocks Back and Forth' is anchored by a heartbreakingly gorgeous harp string motif, so simple in its execution but so effective.
The quality does not drop throughout. `As Serious As Your Life' has plucked guitars and clapping frisky beats whilst the superb closing track, `Slow Jam' has an aching melody and the best use of a squeaky toy I have ever heard in popular music.
The music is so rich and dense that you genuinely do hear something new on every listed. I suppose `Rounds' fits squarely into the Folktronica genre and this style of music will obviously not be to everyone's taste (it would be a dull world if we all liked the same thing), but it is a shame that those reviewers who have been so negative about this CD cannot at least recognise the extraordinarily fecund creative process on display here.
I have loved music for about 18 years and this is one of my favourite CDs of all time. An absolute beauty if you give it a chance. Don't let the nay-sayers win the day - if you agree with me, vote `yes' below!
On the first couple if listens it sounds like a bit of mess. You hear a collage of skittering, cut-up beats, electronic effects and samples of `real' instruments and other found sounds all thrown together with seemingly no overall design.
Listen on and persevere, though, and the picture changes. Threads of melody and structure appear on each and every track and the album turns into a multi-layered treasure trove of sound. `She Moves She' features a frisky beat, gently plucked strings and a chiming percussion melody. `My Angel Rocks Back and Forth' is anchored by a heartbreakingly gorgeous harp string motif, so simple in its execution but so effective.
The quality does not drop throughout. `As Serious As Your Life' has plucked guitars and clapping frisky beats whilst the superb closing track, `Slow Jam' has an aching melody and the best use of a squeaky toy I have ever heard in popular music.
The music is so rich and dense that you genuinely do hear something new on every listed. I suppose `Rounds' fits squarely into the Folktronica genre and this style of music will obviously not be to everyone's taste (it would be a dull world if we all liked the same thing), but it is a shame that those reviewers who have been so negative about this CD cannot at least recognise the extraordinarily fecund creative process on display here.
I have loved music for about 18 years and this is one of my favourite CDs of all time. An absolute beauty if you give it a chance. Don't let the nay-sayers win the day - if you agree with me, vote `yes' below!
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Mr Hebden has certainly achieved his own style of beautiful and almost haunting melodies and sounds. The 10 tracks on rounds seem to convey feelings such as loneliness and also proactivity. It's quite weird, to tell the truth, but addictive to listen to at the same time. In short what I'm trying to say is that Rounds, as with the other Four-Tet instalments juxtaposes itself in way that doesn't offend but keeps you intrigued and wanting more; a very skilled, and very post modern work, and I look forward to the future of Four-Tet.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Fourtet, who is Kieran Hebden from Fridge, follow up the sublime 2001 album Pause with this, Rounds, a more beat-centred, organic affair. If Pause was music to listen to in the park all summer, Rounds is music to sink into the soil below you with, and let the lush sampled melodies take your soul floating towards the slides. The layers of weird noises might sound disjointed on the first few listens, but when the album comes together it blends together as a whole with its beautiful instrumentation flowing and ebbing towards a distant land. Do not hesitate in buying this album, a record which might lead indie fans into a new world of sublime electronic beats.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Yes! God, yes!
I'd heard a couple of Four Tet songs when I bought this, and I'd liked them a lot, but I didn't really think the album would amaze me as much as it did. Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2008 by Conspicuous
Lovely
Wasn't sure if I should get this album or not as the reviews seemed to sway from 'love it' to 'hate it', but I took a chance. Read more
Published on 20 Jun 2006 by whisperingmatt
modern electronica
2000 had Kid A. 2001 had Vespertine. 2002 had New Everything. 2003 had Rounds. What will it be in 2004. Hotel Morgen perhaps?
Published on 26 Sep 2004 by Walter D. Nervik
Simply an awesome collection of sounds
Futuristic but at the same time warm and atmospheric, this album feels like it could have come from anywhere in the next 100 years. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2004 by Mr. D. J. Alison
Oh dear...
It really must be said that this album is dreadful. Each of the 'songs' follows the same recipe. A mixed bag of shambling percussion, noodling guitar (or 'folky' lute) and random... Read more
Published on 29 July 2004 by Kevin
Whats going on here?
I must admit the main reason I bought this album was the price but also the reviews which hyped this CD up to oblivion. Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2004 by "tintin00"
a delightful exploration of abstract melody & tranquil beats
Kieran Hebden's (for he is Four Tet) latest work is an exploration of abstract melody and tranquil beats. Read more
Published on 21 April 2004 by Man Raised By Penguins
outing into electronica
If you've ever seen an Alexander Caulder mobile, at first sight it appears insubstansial and bafflingly abstract, but then, as you watch, the breeze takes it and the componants... Read more
Published on 6 Dec 2003
Missed the Target
'Rounds' is an album of instrumental music that draws on world influences and is notable I think for its percussion, which rolls along and varies in pace and achieves an... Read more
Published on 2 July 2003 by "abbaabba"
Rounds, Rounds Baby
Much has already been written about Kieran Hebden's previous output as Four Tet, with descriptions centred on 'pastoral', 'lilting' and the unwieldy tag 'folktronica'. Read more
Published on 23 Jun 2003 by William Ayres
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