Four Tet
Village Underground

Few venues will provide an arena as abstract as the musician playing there. Situated in a swankier part of London, the Village Underground comprised a warehouse refurbished especially for artistic and cultural pursuits. Colourful luminescent orbs hung in constellation-like fashion to demarcate the DJ stage below and a throng of balloons held together in a submarine-shaped net floated just to the right. The movement of the music and the coordination of the orbs/balloons were such that it was easy to get lost in the experience: a marvellous vista from the elevated platform from which I stood. A thousand fans circled the London-born musician, made evermore eager by constant pushing back of set times and the unadvertised late start in the first place.

A harmonious cheer greeted Hebden as he finally stepped onto his podium. It followed a lengthy upbeat prelude courtesy of Rosko. Now, any Four Tet concert virgin like myself would have been right to assume that his set may not have necessarily been as energetic as Rosko's. We're all used to Hebden's full-lengths being mostly a mix of slow-paced grooves and ambient noodling, complete with his trademark high-pitch chimes. But in fact Kieran Hebden apparently adapts his live show to amend exactly this. If my memory serves me correctly, the most downtempo number of the evening was "Angel Echoes", which he used only to initiate proceedings.

He swiftly pressed on with a myriad of unrecognisable tracks, with what seemed like a fusion of impromptu improvisation and substantial variations to original tracks. His set was indeed more up-tempo than expected. The crowd generally seemed responsive to the blend of dance beats with music in typical Four Tet vein. What Hebden did really well was to use the basic skeleton of a song and chop in/out varying basslines, melodies and rhythms, creating very natural progression to an inevitable climax - the introduction of a song such as 'Love Cry' for example. And at points such as these, the orbs would animate in phase with the peaks and troughs of the music and the balloons would be released to an adoring crowd - perhaps an attempt to recreate the 'Everything is Ecstatic' album cover as one astute bystander put it.

He did well to punctuate his set with some recognisable gems - 'Sing' and 'Plastic People' in particular. But, there was, however, a distinct lack of songs from yesteryears. For the most part, the evening was sharp and captivating - Hebden's music translated surprisingly well into a live setting. There was never a moment that dragged too long, nor a song that seemed wholly inappropriate. He left the VIllage Underground with a track that became increasingly heavier and swirled increasingly louder, begging for a drop that unfortunately never came. This doesn't, however, reflect his failure to deliver in any way. Kieran Hedben was very much at the top of his game, providing a quality evening's entertainment fit for any music-loving man.

Moneeb