As a devout and discerning listener of music gains knowledge and experience, expectations of certain artists are formed. We can depend on some artists to induce an introspective mood with dreamy, soporific sonic treats. Others are relied upon to incite us to Pentecostal-style spasmodic rockouts. Yet, one of the trickiest expectations to lay upon an artist is to pigeonhole them to their existing style and sound. Sure, a certain sense of familiarity and mastery of one’s own artistic voice can be a mark of high skill and expression, but to disallow deviation would be to stunt growth and exploration, which cater to and nurture signature styles. However, departures from style can sometimes offend listeners. John Coltrane and all the other heavy jazz cats took modal jazz to new places, but didn’t take all their existing fans with them. Bob Dylan was nearly kicked offstage for simply plugging in his guitar. And, more recently, DJ Shadow has left us all scratching our heads with his most recent studio effort, The Outsider. Four Tet fans, prepare to ponder your true devotion to Kieran Hebden, to sit with your head cupped in a set of nice headphones and really contemplate your alliance.

First of all, this album is, well, not even an album. It’s also not an EP. Well, okay, it is sort of an EP, but Hebden is dubbing it a “mini-album,” which actually seems a fitting categorization. It does run a bit over 32 minutes, but is only four tracks. Thus, it’s longer than most punk albums, but the songs are freakishly long even for Hebden, who is usually able to pack the slow pulses of heartbreak into a five minute track. This is, of course, not really something to complain about, except for the fact that I often am left salivating for more.

When I sat down to my first listen, I had erased from my meat-housed hard drive the disappointment of Everything Ecstatic, an album that was too jittery and cluttered for me. The first sounds are literally mind-blowing, within the context of my expectations (or “pre-conceived notions”) of new Four Tet material. “Ringer” starts with a knob-twiddled synth imitation of film going off reel from an old school room projector and immediately gives way to a very deep, entrancing house bass drum thump. This thump and micro-programmed drums steadily stays the course while arpeggiated synth patterns fly in circles and parabolas around the head of some lone traveler lost at sea, looking for a ship named Four Tet. And then it arrives when the sharks are circling and the arpeggio flies are eating away at salt-caked flesh more than half way through “Ringer” and that lovely, familiar sound encompasses and dwarves your sense of worry. A plucked lute, so commonly used in Rounds sits up and assuages your fear that Four Tet is truly lost, awash in a sea of change that leaves all familiarity behind. The lute sinks back away and this much more energized version of Hebden keeps pounding away…and then, again, it hits. Organic, wonderfully programmed drum sounds cascade over the top of their more digital cousins. But, yet again, only to disappear, like the whitecap of every wave in a stormy sea. It is almost as if Hebden is weaning us from his previous incarnation as he simultaneously introduces us, with some force, to a new direction, a new manifestation for him.

Familiarity is there all along through Ringer. For example, the traditional hip hop style looping of samples that has been a key ingredient in Four Tet’s signature style. However, the elements that we have come to expect to draw the bulk of our attention with Four Tet have left their soloing voices to the occasional for the purpose of joining the choir. Through the influence of listening deeply to Murcof and Susumu Yokota, I have come to a place where I am much more comfortable with the simple, heart-pulsing house beat. There is nowhere on Ringer that Hebden employs it better than on “Swimmer.” The syncopy anchors the listener in a very psychedelic drenching of slow warps and revolving stereo pans.

This is by any stretch of the imagination a new Four Tet, as long as we also accept that it is still the same. The voice can always learn new styles. Personally, I feel that it is the mark of Hebden’s truly powerful talent to be able to change so drastically, yet still maintain the self in a sea of changing style.

-Gabriel Bogart