Four Tet, Rounds

Rounds, the new CD by Four Tet, is another beautiful instrumental hiphop album–if that is not too much of an oxymororn–in a year that has had several great ones already (notably those by Prefuse 73 and by DJ Krush). Four Tet mixes seemingly organic noises and folk-like harmonies with a full repertoire of twisted beats, micro-glitch soundings, and Satie-esque melody lines.The result is something that I can only call magical (despite my fears about the triteness of such an adjective). This is an album of strange encounters and quicksilver transformations.It seems lighter than air, and it is suffused with an oddly impersonal warmth (I insist both on the sense of impersonality, and on the warmth, oxymoronic–again–as these may seem in combination with one another).

Rounds, the new CD by Four Tet, is another beautiful instrumental hiphop album–if that is not too much of an oxymororn–in a year that has had several great ones already (notably those by Prefuse 73 and by DJ Krush). Four Tet mixes seemingly organic noises and folk-like harmonies with a full repertoire of twisted beats, micro-glitch soundings, and Satie-esque melody lines.The result is something that I can only call magical (despite my fears about the triteness of such an adjective). This is an album of strange encounters and quicksilver transformations.It seems lighter than air, and it is suffused with an oddly impersonal warmth (I insist both on the sense of impersonality, and on the warmth, oxymoronic–again–as these may seem in combination with one another).