Kieren Hebden has been letting loose on stage, but he keeps it restrained on his smartly sequenced album that deftly incorporates virtually every style of music that he’s made over the years. Three is his 12th solo album, give or take—the proliferation of live recordings, early-works anthologies, shadowy side projects, and experimental longform excursions complicates the count—and it embodies everything that has come to define Four Tet over the years. There are shuffling UK garage rhythms and moonlit pools of ambient, heavy-lidded head-nodders and floor-filling rave-ups, hand-carved breakbeats and harps, harps, and more harps.
There’s much more here than meets the ear: interruptions you never see coming, intimations of sounds in the depths of the mix you can’t quite make out. That’s what separates Three from the merely chill; it takes a master craftsperson’s skill to create music that scans so simply on the surface but then opens up to reveal hidden rooms within hidden rooms—just like it takes a seasoned selector to drop “Country Riddim” and get away with it. In tone and mood, Three is the opposite of Hebden’s stadium setlists. But within the carefully thought-out parameters of what makes a Four Tet record, he’s finding new, quieter ways to surprise.
| A1 | Loved |
| A2 | Gliding Through Everything |
| A3 | Storm Crystals |
| A4 | Daydream Repeat |
| B1 | Skater |
| B2 | 31 Bloom |
| B3 | So Blue |
| B4 | Three Drums |
