Seeing Different Numbers

KH “Looking At Your Pager”

Every time I write about Kieron Hebden’s music I end up focusing on his masterful use of vocal sampling, which tends to obscure lyrics in favor of pure vocal sound and melodic inflection. “Looking At Your Pager” goes in another direction – he flips the entire opening verse from 3LW’s relatively obscure early 2000s hit “No More” into a totally different piece of music. The words are the same but the melody is pushed into another shape, and processed just enough that unless you’re paying close attention it doesn’t totally register as being sung in English. The track has a pulse that’s familiar with other Four Tet tracks but the addition of wubs and dubs makes the music pop a bit more in an direct way, like he’s pandering to the floor much more than usual but in the best possible way. On paper this is as obvious and accessible as Hebden gets but the music still retains his essential abstraction, an unmistakable blurry bliss that’s particular to his sensibility.

Buy it from Bandcamp.