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‘I’ve always perceived it to be healthy to act wary of more established artists lending their name to lesser endeavours, given that for every Pick a Piper there’s approximately eleven Box Codax to unpack. Though the collaborative coming together of freeform norf London duo RocketNumberNine and British electronica bigwig Four Tet has recurrently proven a providential match. Whether that be Metropolis, Roseland or indeed live, Hebden and the brothers Page have always made for a fine partnership and the same can again be said of ‘em as Kieran fixes up the keenly sharpened, expressive rhythms of Rotunda with auxiliary vim and skipping glitch. So fruitful is this form of ongoing collaboration that I’d go so far as to suggest you’d begin to worry were the three pioneers to curtail the intense affiliation any time soon…’



RocketNumberNine release their début full-length MeYouWeYou May 21st via Smalltown Supersound.

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‘That right there’s the sentiment expressed as Nina peaks with the sort of riveting chorus Prince has tried and failed to come out with for decades now, though the overriding sensation to be derived from this chugging spoken word oeuvre from Neneh Cherry and Nathaniel Hall (better known as insurgent Brooklynite Afrika Baby Bam) is one of snug collaboration. The Jungle Brother brings a sagacious world-weariness to the piece – one incidentally pieced together by none other than Kieran Hebden – as he eulogises the recurrent greatness of life. “It always keeps me smiling” he assures in a gravelled tone of explosive aplomb, while Cherry articulates flustered worries. “Far away from home… Where is home? Home is free to roam! Avenue A; Avenue B; Avenue C, looking at the sea far away from home. Where is home? Where the water is warm!” she agitatedly inquisitions, only for Hall to quell her disquiet with his inert avowals of “ain’t no ships comin’ across this sea to pick up me… ‘Cause I’m free. So beautiful!” Featuring nods to Miles Davis (“I was watching bitches brew wine for breakfast” Cherry trills again perturbed) and rhythms redolent of Hebden’s dear, departed Steve Reid the deciding aesthetic is one of freeform experimentation and fluid avant-garde, all of which combines in what feels an extempore imitation of ineffably jazzy greatness. No man is an island, and Cherry and Hall are decidedly better effective when working alongside one another, for ultimately Nina will doubtless keep you smiling.’



A further Four Tet-produced collaborative Cherry endeavour, this time featuring RocketNumberNine, is anticipated later on in the year.

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‘It’s pretty tricky knowing what to do with an EP really, as they’re too concise for a red-blooded review and too bulky to cover concisely so they’ve got to reside down toward the spectacular end of the spectrum to merit much online acclaim. And that’s precisely where that from Badalona inhabitant Sau Poler weighs in. For as does nearby Barcelona, A Soundless Echo resonates on two very distinct, distinctive, and indeed disparate planes. That is to say that whereas la capital de Cataluña differs illogically from the touristic niceties of the day to the traumatic debaucheries of the night, Sau Poler seems caught between a more meditative, and so too distinctly Mediterranean ambient and the grubbier ’90s garage aesthetic its author calls upon during its mid, and thus appositely more mediocre points. Though as he comes out the other side of the urban mugginess of both Arts Quarterly and Reflections, he hits gold dust [delete, and line up any predetermined powder as is appropriate of Barça here] with the restive skiffle of Love Minded. It reminds me of much of the music I’d inadvertently hear in passing – or rather blared when speeding in my dad’s car – during my teens, and for that alone I’m deeply into it this afternoon.’

But the flipside to all that sultry humidity is a more free, breezy, and Sónar de Día-easy feel employed to devastatingly relaxed effect on Rutes, or irrefutable standout and EP opener, Isolated. Of course it should make absolute sense that it sounds like a vibrant lovechild of Kieran Hebden and Derwin Dicker given the frequency with which the two electronica kingpins pass through Cataluña with coordinates set for either Sónar or Primavera Sound, though this is the sort of blissful rapture bedroom producers the world over coop themselves up indoors for forever – perfecting, yet never pulling off to such immaculate impact. Lapping vocal samples gently grind against ever intensifying, exclusively electronic rhythms and the jejune chiming of a sampler made to mimic the pacific waltz of a kid’s mobile as it swirls giddily from the ceiling above. Hypnotic stuff, this.’

A Soundless Echo is out now on Atomnation.

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‘Brace yourselves, ‘cause there’s a newbie from Four Tet out there. And, bang on an off-kilt Monday cue, it’s an utter banger. Quite when it was pieced together I’ve no idea – whether at last releasing that collaborative 12” alongside London duo RocketNumberNine what we’ve been banging on about incessantly for weeks now or selling out Heaven, Kieran Hebden’s been a busy thing thus far this year – but we’re supremely thankful For These Times is now. Featured on Al “Boddika” Green’s latest compilation Think And Change, and therefore released via Nonplus Records as opposed to Hebden’s very own Text imprint it makes for an incendiary, club-ready throwdown the like of which we’ve lacked from his samplers and other such machinery of late.



Though he can be seen haphazardly shoved in a Suit & Tie above, for he has so too reworked the ol’ Justin Timberlake track of that same name. I’ve quite concertedly yet to indulge in the original take, though Hebden’s version is reliably groovy and, as anticipated, irrefutably great – a heady blend of Talabot-like Balearic beat and surround sound samples that whir from one ear to t’other like glimmering maniacal lights shimmering in an unprecedentedly pop sheen. Button that one up below.’

DOWNLOAD: Justin Timberlake, Suit & Tie (Four Tet Remix).

Both Think And Change and TEXT023 are out now.