Four Tet – There Is Love In You

Aphex Twin

"There Is Love In You"

27 January 2010, 07:50 | Written by Reef Younis

(Albums)

(Aphex Twin)

If the Ringer EP was the glinting precursor to Kieran Hebden’s (aka Four Tet) surprisingly smooth and seamless change of tack, There is Love is the bona fide gem he was busy buffing up in his LED den. A gorgeous long player of layer upon layer of shimmering keys and understated twinkling synth melodies, each track glides with a composed, faultless sheen.There’s a very different Kieran Hebden on display here. Gone, for the most part, is the skittering percussion and haphazard tech wizadry that characterised his progressive, earlier output; the budget toy bleepery; the sense that this was a man wired and alive in the early hours, gripped by insomnia, panda eyed and feeding things into plug sockets that didn’t belong there.There was a ramshackle sense of adventure to the likes of Everything Ecstatic that will be remembered for all of its glitchy tomfoolery but, instead, Hebden’s dispensed with the grab bag technology and effortlessly picks up from the Epcot interludes of the album’s shorter predecessor.The refined ‘Angel Echoes’ opens with a divine sense of glistening introspection; unfailingly easing you deeper into wherever your safe place might be before ‘Love Cry’ briefly resurrects itchy drum rhythms and ‘Circle’ gently loops you round and round and round and round into a similarly comatose state. It’s not all log fires and Horlicks, though as the Gameboy carnival of ‘Sing’ skips into playful jovial life but even this is as poised and composed as what comes before and after.Here there’s accessibility where previously there were few entry points and there’s an easy fluency that segues and washes from beginning to end. It’s still far from conventional - ‘Plastic People’ veers towards the mellower side of Aphex Twin ”“ but it’s a long player that you can wallow and immerse yourself in, and let play out to its end.In some ways it’s a little disheartening to think he’s stopped trying to contact alien life forms with his BT Home Hub, but when it’s as plush and velveteen as There Is Love, that sofa begins to look mighty comfy.