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Everything Ecstatic

By: Jan Bunny
Date: 21st Dec 05
Release: Album
To Cure: Hypertension

A glance at the Everything Ecstatic cover art might make us think that Four Tet has suffered from an Art Attack. Whether or not blip-wizard Kieran Hebden did get down and dirty with some acrylic paint, however, is irrelevant – Everything Ecstatic is an album much more challenging than turning your name into a neon sign but every bit as ace.

With sounds that scooter around from hip-hop to trip-hop and covering breaks and solid beats in between, Everything Ecstatic allows us to feel like a sonic tourist and an electro connoisseur all at once.

Sun Drums and Soil has rolling beats glittered with blips and late-night cop show sax that are, when combined, much more beautiful than the cast of NYPD Blue. Turtle Up Turtle Up isintelligently erratic, and sways from neurotic drums to tripped-outbeats and eventually back to an electronic fanfare, while the space rock guitar and jazz drums on A Joy go at it with one another to form an experimental clashing of sounds.

But it is Smile Around the Face, with its carousel-like charm, rolling tripped-up breaks, and blippy electro cascades that shines brighter than a neon sign or album cover ever could.