Four Tet - There Is Love In You

I remember seeing Four Tet in early 2016 at the Opera House, where he played amongst a bunch of dazzling strings of light that illuminated the room. Everyone was seated for the first 30 minutes until Sing started playing, when one legend around the front got up and started dancing, and eventually the whole audience followed. I’ve always thought that was a pretty fitting representation of his music.

It’s on There Is Love In You where the almighty Four Tet flexes that incredible muscle of balancing house grooves and acoustic elements, in a way pretty unmatched I would say before or since. It’s like each of these songs could’ve been performed as their own intimate singer/songwriter guitar piece, but he’s chosen to implement such a strong sense of rhythm in each track. While underpinned by kicks, every interspersed clap, shaker or brittle piece of percussion brings so much life to each song, always driven by a strong melody at its core. Even a song like Love Cry would be nothing without that really sinister drone line underneath the drums. So few microhouse albums have not only been able to stay so engaging throughout the whole runtime for me, but breathe so much life through its electronics - the whole thing sounds like it carries a steady heartbeat. It’s a beautiful record from a living legend, and one that should be remembered as one of the best in his impressive discography.

KEY TRACK: Love Cry - it might be the most unique on here but also the most chill-inducing. This track builds and builds and carries its momentum right until the very end, only dropping that silky vocal snippet toward the tail end and tying it all together.