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Four Tet Sells Out Two Shows in One Night |
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Written by HILARY LINNEWEH / Photos by BARRY BRECHEISEN
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Tuesday, 02 March 2010 |
Recently at the Empty Bottle, Four Tet played to a sold out crowd. In fact, he played to two sold out shows in one evening. Keiran Hedben originally broke into the music scene as part of the group Fridge, but has since gained notoriety as a solo artist under the name Four Tet. His songs have influences from everything from electronica, jazz, folk, techno and hip hop. This mixture of trance music with all the aforementioned types of styles has caused many in the music industry to call Four Tet’s creations Folktronica, in an effort to categorize his sound. Although this label makes many of his earnest fans cringe because they feel pure and simple, his sets are just really good, innovative music.
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Four Tet
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Empty Bottle
Chicago, IL
February 19, 2010
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The excitement of the crowd was palpable as Keiran took to the stage with a small nod, barely acknowledging the crowd the entire set, as he got down to business . The show started super strong, gently easing into fairly simple but well done digitized, techno drone music. Each song was fairly long and the show never slowed because he transitioned well from one song to the next. He effectively connected the songs, while giving the crowd a satisfying break when he finally faded out the ongoing track.
The crowd shouted and put their hands in the air when he launched into Angel Echoes, a song with an ethereal female voice floating and echoing over the top of gentle xylophone and techno beats. There didn’t seem to be much sampling of hip-hop in this set but more of an emphasis on IDM type beats. At one point, Keiran pulled out his iPod and used it to make digital keyboard sounds with each finger stroke. The room was eager to hear the song Love Cry, which was a definite crowd pleaser and when you looked around you could tell people were just enjoying being enveloped in the music. The song had a slow build-up at the beginning and you could feel the tension of the onlookers as they waited for the song to develop. A fast paced, strong drum beat came in with a great tech sounding sample, as a woman repeatedly sang, “Love cry.”
The first half of the set was a bit stronger than the latter half and couldn’t help but hope that he would do one song that sampled hip-hop since the set overall was a bit on the mellow side. But then again his subtle tracks are part of his recent album, There Is Love in You’s appeal. The strongest point of the show and where the crowd seemed most involved is when he transitioned into She Just Likes to Fight. The song was a bit of a departure from the rest of the set and quite a nice one. The track starts with a clear, beautiful guitar playing clear tones over a quiet beat. The song is reflective of much of the set, a gentle transition from one sound to the next. This seemed to be the crowd favorite, and I think the simplicity and minimalism of this track is refreshing and hypnotic.
Overall, Four Tet seems to do it better than many of his contemporaries and the crowd and Empty Bottle agreed. When he ended his hour long set and finally looked and acknowledged the crowd for the first time, their applause signaled their approval.
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