Pause

Four Tet

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 2, 2001)
• Original Release Date: May 15, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Domino
• ASIN: B00005OMH5
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,338 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Kieran Hebden is, it has to be said, something of a genius. The groundwork for Pause was laid when Dialogue--his debut solo album under the guise of Four Tet--landed in 1999, an album that redrew the parameters of inventive dance music. A peculiar mix of live-sounding instrumental jazz and technologically super-precise laptop dance trickery, it sounded nothing like Hebden's actual group--the post-rockers Fridge--and, as it happened, very little like anything else in existence. Where Dialogue employed jazz sax and flute in its evocation of a 21st-century jazz meltdown, Pause goes even further, coiling whispers of harp and zither over layer-on-layers of fidgeting, rattling percussion. His inspirations? Well, like his friend and protégé:, Canadian tech-wizard Manitoba (whose Start Breaking My Heart is easily the equal of Pause), Hebden collects sounds and melodies from a dizzying array of places--ancient British folk music, the rattle of typewriter keys, the gurgle of running water, even a field recording of a children's playground. Genius? There really is no other word for it. --Louis Pattison

From URB Magazine
Just as the uber-futurist whir & click of glitchitalia has reached a stylistic cul de sac, a seemingly contrary folksy pastoralism has snuck in through electronic music's open window. First, Boards of Canada doused us in their naÔf Casio daydreams. More recently, Kim Hiorthoy, Neotropic, Manitoba and now Kieran Hebden's Four Tet, it seems, have all caught the countrified bug. Lest you imagine shimmering acoustic strums and fey pleas to "love the one you're with," well . . . you'd actually be half-right.

If Matmos re-imagined America's lonesome vistas and endless deserts on The West, tweaking John Fahey and Ry Cooder's thumb-pick inflections into a post-digital crochet of musique concrËte and Neu!-inspired horizontals, Pause similarly re-imagines British folk music and its accompanying landscape, albeit filtered through a neo-hip-hop sensibility. But where Hebden's promising debut Dialogue emphasized scratchy breaks and post-Krautrock atmospherics, Pause lets in the open air, tempering his exquisite beats and tense urbania with spacious textures, like sound unroofed.

Threading its way through the wash and gurgle of Brian Eno circa Another Green World, the hypnotic harpsichord loops of Steve Reich and the celestial shimmer of harp, koto and psaltery strums, Hebden weaves typewriter rustling, the buzzing of playgrounds and all manner of field-recorded ephemera into his "Imagined Folk." Tied up all nice and neat in a Mo' Wax bow, Hebden's vision could never be confused as one of nostalgia. Nor is it a futuristic claim. It is simply an utterly modern, unabashedly far-out reverie of an album. Check it for a moment and listen, 'cause the whole thing works like a charm.

Alexis Georgopoulos

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars already one of my top 3 cds of all time, October 19, 2001

By	M. Starr "Amneziak" (Kansas City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

not since the release of dj shadow's 'endtroducing' have i been so excited about an artist/album. this is some beautiful music. four tet(guitarist for fridge) uses sounds/samples/beats in the same fashion as dj shadow. this album is loaded with incredible sounds. don't get me wrong, it's not overly done, but the feel of the album is super solid. certain stand out tracks are, well, all of them. i don't really need to analyze any certain song for you because they are all equally great. four tet has another album prior to this release called 'dialogue'. if you like this album, have at the other. i listen to a lot of music. very rarely do i get an album that really re-instills my faith in music expression. four tet has done that with his two releases. i strongly suggest that you get his two albums. if you are into dj shadow, newer radiohead, boards of canada, fridge, or any other beat oriented instrumental music, you can and will not go wrong with these choices.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really spanky good, August 6, 2001

By	"donkeye" (all up in your face) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pause (Audio CD)

I bought this album for 30 some odd dollars and that kind of price always gives me a bit of vertigo, but when I put it on the stereo hi fi, well holy smoke, it was money well spent. I have this friend and he says if you can get a good moment for every dollar spent, then you can't complain. No complaints from this Four Tet album. The songs are all outstanding. If you like Tortoise, or Boards of Canada, or Matmos, or whatever else like that, then Four Tet will please you. The comparisons aren't perfect, because really Four Tet is pretty dang original. It's a buttery, organic, twinkle of a record, and I listen to it everyday along with the new Squarepusher and an old Fridge single (Fridge is another project of the Four Tet guy), and the new Plaid, and sometimes that new Fennesz album.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ouch, May 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Pause (Audio CD)

Four Tet performs his trademark mogwai-playing-squarepusher style trick with breathtaking results yet again. While perhaps lacking the immediate catchyness of tracks from Dialogue, his first album, Pause is still a fantastic album. The opening track, Glue of the World, with its floaty ambient sounds and sudden drumming sets the scene for this 45 minute journey into sound. But the standout tracks have to be TwentyThree and You could ruin my day with its harpsichord loops and the like. The sound of Post rock remixed and bleeping desperately.