Four Tet - There Is Love In You

Dogged by the ‘folktronica’ label since his 2001 album Pause, Kieran Hebden should, with any justice, be able to escape that particular straitjacket with There Is Love In You.

This, his first album under the Four Tet moniker in over four years, is still an album that utilises traditional instrumentation, enough at least to appease the pigeon-holers, but it’s a work that rarely sounds so earthly. The aptly-named Angel Echoes starts the journey, gliding in on gorgeous, ethereal vocals, cut up beyond recognition, yet surely approximating something as beautiful as their source material, whatever it may be. And that, perhaps, is the beauty of There Is Love In You; sounds that regularly defy categorisation, touchstones that seem within reach but remain elusive.

The magnificent Circling may evoke tranquil, Boards Of Canada vistas initially, but by the song’s close, the listener is taken on a journey to plains out-with that elusive duos own glass ceiling. But Hebden is not just concerned with opening your mind, he’s also out to move your feet. Love Cry and Plastic People are both celestial dance-floor fillers that will go down a storm with perennial live favourite You Could Ruin My Day. It’s 2010 people, we are now officially in the future and Four Tet has got the soundtrack off to a superb start. [Darren Carle]