Four Tet – Everything Ecstatic

This is a much more aggressive release than I expected from Keiran Hebdan, the reigning king of folktronica, which is obvious from the first track “A Joy,” a big beat banger aimed somewhere between the beginning of Chemical Brothers’ “Come With Us” and Squarepusher’s more ambient insanity. Only “Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions” goes a little overboard when it busts out all tribal techno three minutes in. The rest of this album is the sound of a producer hitting his stride in the studio and continuing to grow as an artist with every succeeding release. For the most part, this album is Hebdan’s usual mix of eclectic instruments, worldly beats, and static production only classier than ever before with more attention paid to DJs and the night crowd than indie café patrons. Everything Ecstatic harkens back to the ion of the old school raver days while evolving to relevant. You’ll be hard pressed to find a Four Tet fan who doesn’t think this is his most entertaining release yet.