There Is Love In You

Four Tet, aka UK electro-guru Kieran Hebden, has been churning out studio albums, DJ mixes, remixes, live albums, and EPs since 1998. Hebden’s impressive output has covered an array of styles that would likely bring a smile to the face of genre forefather Brian Eno: jazz, hip-hop, trip-hop, folk, electronic, and yes, folktronica. On There Is Love In You, Hebden delivers his most satisfying brew of beats, blips, and other noises to date. Like many great electronic musicians, Four Tet’s strength lies in his ability to layer the right sounds over the right beats, as highlighted by the nine-minute standout “Love Cry,” taking the listener through galloping dubstep percussion, hypnotic female vocals, and, if you listen closely at around the halfway mark, some mysterious subliminal lyrics. The densely hypnotic “Circling” flourishes in many of the same ways, with Hebden waiting until the very end to unleash a full swarm of bells, chimes, and vocal samples. “Sing” hits its stride behind a sticky electronic beat and “Plastic People” would do well as an instrumental interlude somewhere in Kid A. Although There Is Love In You sits nicely amongst contemporary noise connoisseurs like Burial, Battles, and The xx, Hebden has clearly carved out his own electronic niche.