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It's hard to fathom that Kieran Hebden has already given his seminal, 11-year-old album Rounds the reissue treatment. In 2003, Four Tet was the unwitting leader of a long list of producers and bands trying to fit a new, jazzy brand of electronic music between heavy dance-floor styles and raw, inaccessible experimentalism. Since then, the genre annoyingly labeled "folktronica" has exploded, and Hebden has dabbled in the extremes he once sought to tame and combine. After exploring cerebral four-on-the-floor with 2012 single collection Pink and freaking out with jazz drummer Steve Reid, Four Tet seems to be returning home to the cool, cinematic compositions he made at the turn of the millennium while still in post-rock outfit Fridge.
2013's Beautiful Rewind has no qualms about indulging in this kind of nostalgia—just look at the title—and, as always, makes use of exclusive samples from Hebden's deep crates. The record could have come straight from 2003 were it not self-released on Bandcamp, without any major-label glossiness. That and the fact that basslines, however two-stepped or distant, now always permeate Hebden's shimmering compositions. It's a beautiful circle. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 9 pm Saturday, Aug. 16. $20. 21+.
WWeek 2015