Four Tet

"Sixteen Oceans somewhat reconfigures the Four Tet sound. New Energy reached back to the folksy style of Hebden’s early output, its tuned percussion and stringed instruments spilling out over the sides of his beats. There’s a little less of that here, something evidenced by Sixteen Oceans’ lead singles. The aforementioned ‘Teenage Birdsong’ appears once again, its lilting downtempo hip-hop drums and chirping lead-line coming off like a more cerebral Gold Panda joint. Meanwhile ‘Baby’ is a crisp two-step garage jam built around the chopped-up vocals of none other than Ellie Goulding. These tracks hark back to the crisp techno cuts Hebden was producing around the time of Pink and There Is Love In You.

However, the new-age sonics that dictated New Energy are far from done away with on Sixteen Oceans. ‘Insect Near Piha Beach’ contains a similar drumbeat to ‘Baby’ but treats it with cerebral string tones derived from Laraaji. There are also plenty of occasions here where Hebden does away with the beats entirely to really lean into the more weightless sides of his sound - ‘Green’, ‘Harpsichord’, ‘Mama Teaches Sanskrit’ and ‘4T Recordings’ are all gorgeous ambient tracks helmed by dawn-chorus electronics."

2LP / Text Records