Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, chooses to open his addition to the DJ Kicks series with the twisted electronica of David Behrman, and follows that with the altogether funkier Syclops. Hearing those two tracks segue into each other is a reminder of how glorious mix albums like this can be in the hands of someone as skilled as Hebden.
DJ Kicks has been going since 1995, and this album is the 26th title in the series. Hebden, once third of post-rockers Fridge, recorded it in a brief period of time, feeling that the collection should be a marker of the music he’s listening to now. And the brother got taste.
Curtis Mayfield’s ‘If I Were Only A Child Again’ switches the tempo of the mix early on. Hebden keeps us on our toes though, sliding from Mayfield to the avant garde jazz of Heiner Stadler. ‘The Professor’s Here’ brings back the electro-funk, and just a few songs later the Londoner takes one So Solid Crew beat and stretches it for a minute or so. In doing so, he proves that buried under all the hype and posturing, there was something to UK garage after all. There’s one new Four Tet track here, ‘Pockets’, and it’s another highlight, a rich, melody-driven tune that organically shifts gears halfway through.
This is a collection that challenges as much as it reinforces, with sudden switches of tempo and genre. Hearing so many eclectic selections together does tend to strip individual songs of their power though. Sometimes the transition is a little too uneasy, as when he switches from the easy hip-hop of Group Home to the dissonant intro to ‘Flutter’ by Autechre, but Hebden mostly holds it together, for a mix that makes for intriguing, if sometimes uneasy, listening.