It’s a Hit

by Bob Holroyd
(Phonica)

by the Dining Rooms
(Milano 2000)

by Rocketnumbernine
(Text)

by Jon Hopkins
(Domino)

by Anti-Pop Consortium
(Ninja Tune)

Kieran Hebden is having a hell of a year. As Four Tet, he put out the fabulous There Is Love in You in January and followed it up with stellar remixes of his tracks by others (Joy Orbison’s version of “Love Cry,” Floating Points’ extension of “Sing”) and smart DJ sets for BBC’s Essential Mix and Factmag.com. This recent quintet of Four Tet remixes—all singles-only except the playfully lustrous Anti-Pop reworking, off the Ninja Tune XX Vol. 2 compilation—furthers his streak.

Early ethno-techno adopter Bob Holroyd released “African Drug” in 1994, its billowing chimes proving popular with DJs of the period. Anyone swayed by There Is Love‘s “Angel Echoes” will hear its similarities to that Holroyd cut, and Hebden’s restructuring pushes the pulsing instrumentation further toward a gamelan sound, speedy and blunted, before spooling gradually into a grinding techno thump, stretched out for 12 vast minutes. Hebden is a serial-climax guy, which means he usually makes things a lot longer when he remixes them. That’s especially true of the Dining Rooms’ “Cosi Ti Amo.” In 2001, it was a harmless, jazzy, downtempo snooze, but Hebden stretches it out to 11 minutes, adding curious squeaks to a roughly reconstituted groove and making good use of the track’s airy strings (its highlight), as well as its earthy saxes. Similarly, ambient-classical pianist (and Coldplay coproducer, oddly enough) Jon Hopkins’s “Vessel” is given a burbling, spiraling synth overlay that adds an odd depth to its pianos, like a fake background that makes a scene seem realer.

Electronic jazz is the general area into which Rocketnumbernine—keyboardist Ben Page and his brother Tom on drums—fit, as well. Their new “Matthew and Toby,” produced by Hebden, and issued on his Text Records—is 13 foggy-yet-­propulsive minutes that lock into a steady throb that shifts course for a while in the middle. It’s for fans of Australian minimalist improvisers the Necks and krautrock in the Neu! vein, and dedicated to jazz drummer Steve Reid, with whom Hebden made several albums. His Four Tet remix goes in the other direction—the opening synth bounds like hard rubber, and he eventually layers their grooves and their freakier moments atop one another to get to their essence. Another false ending arises, but Hebden’s tend to be worth it.