Four Tet
Dialogue

THE REVIEW

Four Tet is the name under which Kieran Hebden of Fridge signs his first solo work. It seems that Hebden is more interested in showcasing his skill as a multi-instrumentalist rather than creating something truly innovative: in retrospect (at least after listening to his third album, "Rounds") "Dialogue" is therefore of incredible mediocrity. The only really noteworthy song is "Aying": mysterious noises that evoke animalistic sounds mix with a base that seems like the soundtrack of a '50s spy movie; on top of these, the author overlays wind instruments creating a clever
jazz improvisation.

The desolation of the evocative "Calamine" and the cultured funk percussion of "The butterfly effect" unfortunately become boring due to the excessive length of the tracks. This is exactly what overall ruins the work: all the songs give the impression of being stretched too far beyond their limit, becoming most of the time redundant. The proof comes in the short "Alambradas", a very successful noise interlude. The quality of the remaining songs remains low: some add little to nothing new to the genre, passing unnoticed (like the psychedelic "Misnomer" or "Liquefaction", close to trip-hop), others are even annoying (the way in which "She Scanned" is constructed is almost childish, the noisy "Fume" is simply irritating).

As they say, without "Dialogue," the fabulous "Rounds" would not exist... but that's not enough to
make it passable.