Sixteen Oceans - Four Tet: Review
is one of the monikers of British music producer Kieran Hebden who has been releasing records since the late 90's. He has released ten records to date but with a trio of singles and some promotional material it feels like Sixteen Oceans is one of the biggest releases under the name in years.
Review By Lavender:
I've always enjoyed the music of Four Tet and when he gets it right he makes some of the most sincerely excellent electronic music of his time. Records like There Is Love In You and Rounds prove that at his best under the Four Tet name he is capable of incredible things. But more often than not there are some strong concepts or sonic experiments that dominate the records he releases and my enjoyment of them usually depends on my admiration of its concepts. After hearing some huge variety in the singles and seeing promotional campaigns for this record I anticipated it being his most significant release in years, and at 54 minutes and 16 tracks it certainly seems like it. Ultimately Oceans has its high and lows but makes for a pleasant and rewarding listening experience.
The era opened up with an okay lead single but got better after that. Teenage Birdsong came out last year and while it has a sweet little windy instrumental refrain that I like the rest of the song doesn't have much to it. A much more textured and interesting song is the second single Baby which is incredibly catchy and holds up really well. The vocal samples are sweet and catchy and the percussion pattern is simple but well textured and makes for a fun and punchy tune. The final single was another change of pace with 4T Recordings an ambient track that I like even more in the context of the record than I did as a single. It brings two different sides of the record together in a pretty unique way that continues to be rewarding at this spot late in the albums runtime.
As you would expect there are a number of highlights beyond just the singles. School is the opening track and its a catchy and incredibly pretty house number with bright natural synths and a rattling percussion loop I like quite a bit. Romantics is a great shimmery little electronic tune with a really great progression that just gets brighter and more exciting as time goes by and makes for another big highlight for me. Love Salad is the records longest track at over 7 minutes, a multi-part track that features some muddy house beats with fuzzy keys and some strong moments of louder clarity mixed with more natural sounds. The track is long but it doesn't feel too long to me and I was always happy to return to it. Insect Near Piha Beach is an interesting and constantly evolving track and while no single part of it blows me away it is one of the busiest songs here and it does a good job at keeping my attention. The album also has five minutes or so of shorter interlude style tracks most of which are pretty good with Bubbles and Hi Hello
Not every song is perfect but usually the tracks that aren't highlights aren't terrible, just a little lacking. Harpsichord is a spacey king of disjointed pastiche of key refrains that never really assembles into much of anything and kind of just fades out after a few minutes of wandering. Something In The Sadness is a decently well written song but I don't love how the synths sound. As the track gets louder they get increasingly clanky. I also think the primary refrain kind of crushes some of the more interesting background sounds and it all makes me wonder if some remixing could have made this a lot better. Green starts off with a cool refrain and some momentum but it trails off really quickly into something else. After a long transitional period the track brings some louder keys and more samples. The individual pieces are decent but I do with the track had just stuck with one of them and rode it out. Finally the closing track Mama Teaches Sanskrit isn't necessarily a bad one but it really lacks anything definitive which makes for a little bit disappointing final statement of the record. I think the song is fine but it isn't exactly what I would have liked for the ending to this record.
Sixteen Oceans is pretty good. It isn't revolutionary and it isn't the best work I've ever heard Kieran make, but it is still pretty good. More often than not the record has some detailed and textured passages of beautiful blended sound to offer with plenty of breaks for catchy vocal samples and field recorded ambient passages. It's refreshing, pretty consistent and will likely be a favorite of anybody who has always loved the music of Four Tet. 7/10
For more electronica check out my review of Caribou's Suddenly here
