Albums of the year # 1 - Four Tet "There Is Love In You"

Time for a review of some of my favourite albums from 2009. I already mentioned Dungen as being possibly my favourite album of the year, but we'll wait and see...

But for now I'll review a couple I really liked (not that there were too many). Starting with this one, Four Tet's "There Is Love In You".

I bought this pretty much on the fly one day in Tower, I had read about it, it was for sale, I had money - one thing led to another. I really had no expectations about it and I was really pleasantly surprised to find a real gem, a real grower, and something I will love for a long time.

Four Tet is one man, Kieran Hebden, from the UK. He's been putting out records since 1999 as well as DJing, remixing, and working with people like Radiohead and David Arnold. I wasn't really familiar with his work before this album so I had little to base it on - for me this was just a great album out of the blue.

Its old style, fairly simple, chill out electronic music - "dance" for want of a better word. It reminds me of Orbital, the Orb, Susumu Yokota, and lots and lots of other albums I like - it almost takes the best bits from all of them and puts them all together in a new way. A liberal use of female vocal samples gives it a very relaxed ambience; "Love Cry" gallops along for 9 minutes but never gets boring as you find yourself becoming wrapped up in this music, like a warm, comforting blanket, bringing you to a near-trance like state (if you're lucky).

The mood doesn't really change, there are no jarring moments to pull you out of this state. And that's what electronic albums should be - mood albums. Change of pace, sure; but don't shock me with anything while I'm enjoying the mood! Anyway I'm babbling - back to the music. Songs to check out are "Angel Cry", "Sing", and "Circling".

This album is never cold. "Hypnotic warmth" would be a good way to describe it.