Four Tet: 'Morning/Evening'

Four Tet, 'Morning/Evening', Text, 2015

People sometimes talk about a particular piece of music becoming ‘The Soundtrack To The Summer’, and I think I might have just found mine for this year.  Four Tet’s ‘Morning/Evening’ mini-album probably won’t be heard emitting from every other shop and passing car, and it’s hardly a concise slice of pop catchiness.  Hebden is a significant enough proposition to make an impact in more forward-thinking clubs over the coming weeks nonetheless.  I don’t frequent such places, these days, but I suspect I’ll be spinning this record repeatedly for a while, all the same.

Kieren Hebden first came to prominence as one third of Post- Rock instrumental noodlists, Fridge, but his profile mainly derives from his solo work as Four Tet, and his various creative collaborations.  The latter include four albums with the late versatile percussionist, Steve Reid, which is indicative of how Hebden’s own oeuvre reaches out towards various musical genres, not least Free Jazz.  It was this inherent eclecticism that prevented him becoming terminally pigeonholed as a purveyor of pastoral, folk-inflected electronica, as lazy journalists once tried so hard to do.

Kieren Hebden

(L.): Steve Reid.  (R.): Kieren Hebden

It is still fair to say that Hebden’s sound has always been characterised by an inherent loveliness, - a pleasure in the combining of seductive sound sources, if you will.  Certainly, he’s no stranger to harp strings, chimes and less-than-clinical percussion.  These days though, he self-identifies as a far more dance floor-oriented producer/D.J.  There’s definitely a little more rhythmic functionality and slickness of production to his music now, although still plenty of the organic warmth that was always its appeal.  Ultimately, he just feels like a perennial seeker of new sonic blends, and ‘Morning/Evening’ is a more than satisfying fulfillment of that brief.

Kieren Hebden In D.J. Mode

In this case, the most obvious development is Hebden’s conscious embracing of his half-Indian heritage.  The two extended tracks, (each around the twenty minute mark), clearly refer to the classical Raga tradition, both in their being applicable to certain times of the day, and the way they morph elegantly between passages of shifting mood and intensity.  As with sometime-collaborator, Burial’s later work, the ambition seems almost symphonic in scope.  Both pieces also revolve around samples of renowned Hindi film singer Lata Mangeshkar.  If I’m honest, hers is a style of singing that can, when piped intrusively through a curry house sound system, occasionally set my teeth on edge.  Here though, it’s just plain gorgeous.  Hebden threads her voice through his glistening electronic tones in a manner that is totally, and very effectively, unembarrassed by sumptuous beauty.

Of the two tracks, ‘Morning Side’ is the most on its toes from the start, laying Mangeshkar’s vocal and accompanying strings over a relatively straightforward, shuffling beat.   For me, the genius of the track is the way that, having established this relatively simple idea, he lets it subtly coalesce into something far more intriguing, acquiring complexity over a number of minutes.  The source sounds gradually become multiplied and drenched in echo, shifting in and out of phase and intertwining with shimmering electronic tones, to create a sense of sultry immersion.  Roughly half way through, there’s a brief percussive interlude, demonstrating Hebden’s complex beat manipulation skills.  However, the lush melodic mode soon reasserts itself, emphasising that this is something to whirl around to in blissful reverie, rather than a full-on dance floor assault.

Lata Mangeshkar

For much of its duration ‘Morning Sound’ sounds like an Indian film soundtrack and one of those Cluster or Harmonia records I mentioned a couple of posts back, playing simultaneously.  In its final minutes the vocals drop out and the track very slowly subsides, as the electronic tones are erased bit by bit.  It’s one of the best bits of quasi-ambient sound sculpting I’ve heard in a while.

‘Evening Side’, picks up where the previous track fades out, in, if anything, an even more meditative mode.  The first half is characterised by yet dreamier, wordless, vocal ululations and washes of twilit ambience.  The track pivots around a central passage in which, as darkness falls, the sound becomes distinctly minimal and is augmented by the sounds of roosting birds.  With half the world asleep though, the other half comes out to party, and the remainder of the track plays out in an energetic beat workout, not unlike the kind of thing Underworld and their ilk used to indulge in.

Four Tet, 'Beautiful Rewind', Text Records, 2013

I’ve had a lot of pleasure from Kieren Hebden’s music over many years now, and he’s yet to disappoint me.  His music-making motivations seem sincere, and, however much of a name he may have become in certain circles, it seems to be primarily a musical journey that he’s on.  This is underlined by the way that, these days, his recordings are often released with very little hoopla, and sometimes only as downloads for those in the know, via his own Text imprint.  He also seems able to pull off that trick of having a very recognisable approach (a ‘sound’, even), whilst consciously seeking new territory each time he records.  ‘Morning/Evening’ just serves to underline that fact.  Well-played, young man.

'Midlands Open 2015' At Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donington

David Booth, 'Space Matters', Fluorescent Perspex & Aluminium, Date Unknown

I found myself over at Castle Donington’s Tarpey Gallery, in North West Leicestershire, again recently, accompanying my good friend Suzie to the opening event of their ‘Midlands Open 2015’ exhibition.  I've been lucky enough to have my painting, ‘Map 3’ selected for the show, - something that feels like a small piece of affirmation in the slightly anti-climactic aftermath of the ‘Mental Mapping’ exhibition in which it first appeared.  I suspect that slight sense of come-down was inevitable, given how immersed Andrew Smith and I were in the run-up to that show, during the first half of this year.  I’m deliberately taking a step back to reassess my own work just now, so it’s good to know there’s still at least one piece out there to ‘represent’ and at least keep the pot simmering.  I’ve submitted a few more pieces of the ‘mM’ work for consideration elsewhere too, but there’s no point getting ahead of myself here, (chickens, hatching, etc.).

Tarpey Gallery, Castle Donington, Leicestershire

'Map 3', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Panel, 2015

The Tarpey event doubled as an introduction to the open exhibition, but also as an unveiling of both the gallery’s recent extension, and extensive new sculpture garden.  The new additions signify the ambition of Luke Tarpey and his father to grow their gallery into something of a regional art hot spot, and the numerous visitors squeezing into the building and strolling amongst the sculptures outside suggest this is paying off.  They’ve run the ‘Midlands Open’ for several years now, although this was the first I’ve attended.  It felt like a pretty significant event on the day.

'Midlands Open 2015', Tarpey Gallery Sculpture Garden

'Midlands Open 2015', Tarpey Gallery Interior

It’s in the nature of any open exhibition to be something of a mixed bag, and this show is no different.  However, regardless of the varying aesthetic or stylistic priorities of the work exhibited, the standard of execution was impressively high throughout.  Given the gallery’s need to pay its own way as a commercial enterprise, one must accept that most of the work passing through it must do so in the hope that someone might pay good money to place it in a domestic setting.  Naturally, the danger is that a certain lack of ‘edge’ or reversion to accepted ‘good taste’ can prevail, but Luke Tarpey and his team seem to be avoiding the worst pitfalls of such a situation.

Sam Shendi, 'Mother & Child' Steel, Date Unknown

Sam Shendi, (Background): 'Evolution', Steel.  (Foreground): 'Troy', Mixed Media, Dates Unknown

Amongst the work in the ‘Open’ are a number of pieces that might be said to offer a little challenge, or to at least run counter to the expectations of context.  Notable here are Sam Shendi’s colourful, pop-informed (and seamlessly executed) sculptures, and David Booth’s ‘Place Matters’, - a cascade of fluorescent acrylic shapes, partly tumbling over the building itself.  Both artists injected a satisfyingly synthetic element into the setting of greenery and historic buildings.  Alongside his larger exterior pieces, Shendi also has a couple of smaller pieces indoors, intriguingly made from 'crushed classic cars'.  These single-colour monoliths retain a pleasing monumentality, despite their domestic scale.

David Booth, 'Space Matters', Fluorescent Acrylic & Aluminium, Date Unknown

To be honest, I don’t really know where my own work would naturally situate itself on the consumable, portable artefact spectrum.  It’s something I’ve only really considered fairly recently, as I’ve started to think more seriously about exhibiting work.  Viewing ‘Map 3’ in two rather different public contexts, in the space of a few weeks, only serves to magnify such questions in my own mind.  I rarely consider such things as potential audience, (and saleability - even less), as I’m producing my work.  Nevertheless, even, (especially), if one has aspirations to make obscure films and photographs about underpasses and fence posts, alongside paintings full of scrambled texts, - some thoughts about the settings in which they can best thrive are inevitable.  There may be considerable differences between the art one person might choose to live with, and that which another might deliberately venture out to view in a gallery setting.  And that’s before one considers the difference between the public and a commercial sectors. The functions of a gallery as a place to visit, a place to have experiences, and a place to purchase, clearly require a bit of untangling.  I guess it only really matters that the work is produced for its own reasons, first and foremost. It's when thoughts of a potential market or audience creep in too early, that problems arise. 

Sam Shendi, 'Souls - Yellow', Steel - Crushed Classic Car, Date Unknown

Oliver Lovley, 'Broadmarsh Bus Station, Nottingham', Acrylic on Linen, Date Unknown

Anyway, it’s best not to make assumptions, and I spent most of my visit to this exhibition just viewing the work on its own terms.  Amongst the other pieces that caught my own eye were Oliver Lovley’s spatially ambiguous, near-monochrome painting 'Broadmarsh Bus Station, Nottingham'.  I was also rather intrigued by Chris Reynolds' painting 'Unwrapped' not far from my own piece.  It’s probably no surprise that I was attracted by its torn layers and pleasingly battered and scratched surface.  Outside, amongst a variety of sculptures inspired by organic forms, Miles Halpin manages to bring a slightly sinister, alien quality to his rusted steel pods.  The thought of plunging a hand into those forbidding orifices reminds me of that camp 1980s 'Flash Gordon' film [1.].

Chris Reynolds, 'Unwrapped',  Mixed Media, Date Unknown

Miles Halpin, 'Fruit Of The Tree Of Knowledge', Steel & Wood, Date Unknown

‘Midlands Open 2015’ continues until 15 August 2015 at: Tarpey Gallery, 77 High Street, Castle Donington, Leicestershire, DE74 2PQ.  (‘Map 3’ hangs above the stairs, - careful you don’t hit your head on it.)



[1.]:  Mike Hodges (Dir.), 'Flash Gordon', UK, Starling Films/Dino De Laurentis Co./Universal, 1980

RIP Dieter Moebius

Dieter Moebius

I’m saddened to hear of the recent death, at the age of 71, of the electronic music pioneer, Dieter Moebius.  Swiss-born, Moebius was a leading figure of the experimental movement in  1970s German music often (contentiously) pigeonholed as ‘Krautrock’, and as such, made quite an impact on vast swathes of the electronic or technologically-inspired material of subsequent eras.

Cluster, c.1971.  (L.): Hans-Joachim Roedelius, (R.): Dieter Moebius

Harmonia, c 1976. (L.): Michael Rother, (C.): Moebius), (R.): Roedelius

Whilst there are numerous, usually collaborative, recordings bearing his own name, he’s probably still best known for his work with Hans-Joachim Roedelius as Cluster, (originally a trio with Conrad Schnitzler, as Kluster), and subsequent grouping Harmonia, (in which he and Roedelius joined forces with Neu’s Michael Rother).  Both Cluster and Harmonia also recorded notable collaborations with big-name boffin, Brian Eno in the mid 70s.

Cluster & Eno, c. 1978.  (L.): Brian Eno, (C.): Roedelius, (R.): Moebius

I’ve continued to consume huge quantities of electronc music over the years, especially since its coming of age with the Dance Music explosion of the late 80, and early 90s.  Indeed, it’s probably fair to say that the tropes of repeated phrases, oscillation and multi-layered sounds that Moebius and his compatriots pioneered, found their full expression in much of the hypnotic, dance floor or comedown-focused music of that period.

Cluster & Eno, 'Cluster & Eno', Sky Records, 1977

However, although my own earliest experiences of haunting record shops overlapped with the latter stages of the ‘Krautrock’ era, it’s only through a relatively recent digging-back that I’ve become properly familiar with much of the music made in Germany back then.  In those days, I might occasionally contemplate the trippy artwork of album covers by obscure names like Klaus Schultz and the like, but apart from an unusual Sunday-evening TV broadcast of Tangerine Dream at Coventry Cathedral, and the mainstream success of Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ single, my exposure to the movement was minimal.

Harmonia & Eno, c.1976

In reality, it's through the perennial creative opportunism of Brian Eno, and frequent co-opting of other peoples’ ideas under his own brand, that I first made real contact with Moebius’ work.  His and Roedelius’ name would crop up intriguingly alongside more familiar ones on Eno’s albums, in the days when perusing every last detail of a 12-inch sleeve was an important ritual for the music geek.  I now appreciate just how many of the sounds my sixth-form colleagues and I heard on those records, (and those that Eno produced for David Bowie), were borrowed from, or at least heavily influenced by, music made by Moebius and his contemporaries over the North Sea.

Harmonia, 'Musik Von Harmonia', Brain Records 1974

Nowadays, Internet searches, digital downloads and ‘heritage’ re-releases mean it’s actually easier and more affordable to experience Moebius’s own music than often it was at the time of its release.  My own process of acquisition began some years ago, after the BBC aired a rather splendid survey of the heyday of German experimentalism.  It included several interviews, along with footage of the remote, riverside studio that Moebius & Roedelius created at Forst, where much of the Harmonia, and later Cluster material was created.

Cluster, 'Cluster II', Brain, 1972

If the early Cluster material is willfully, (perhaps forbiddingly, to some), freeform, later releases become more accessibly structured around pulsing rhythms, whilst retaining a wonderful undulating fluidity and organic quality.  There is both space and light in their music, and for all their electronic tinkering, a prevailing sense of something hand-built by humans.  The addition of Rother’s aquatic guitar work on the Harmonia recordings adds yet more layers of atmosphere, and emphasises the influence of the river flowing outside their studio.  The gradual move towards increasing ambience in later material is hardly surprising, and I can’t help wondering if the development of what became codified as ‘Ambient Music’ in Eno’s hands was actually a case of he and Moebius/Roedelius/Rother passing a creative baton back and forth.  Either way, much of the music produced, in whatever grouping, is deeply evocative and highly recommended to anyone not solely wedded to conventional song structures or mainstream modes of popular music.

Moebius-Plank-Neumeier, 'Zero Set', Sky Records, 1983

Moebius & Plank, 'Rastakraut Pasta',  Sky Records, 1980

I’ve less familiarity with Deiter Moebius’ post Cluster/Harmonia output, although his passing makes me think I should start to explore it more fully in the near future.  He continued to make and release music, at least up until last year, and it’s sad to think that process has now ended.  Nevertheless, he leaves a rich legacy of splendid sounds and a continuing influence on many who heard them.