Does Keiran Hebden perhaps forego sleep in order to tackle musical genres that haven't yet featured in his generously portioned output? That's debatable, but the fact is that if musicians were handed medals for Stakhanovian work ethics, Hebden would have picked up his gong ages ago. Having revived his post-rock combo Fridge and put out 'Tongues', another bounding outing of improvised electro-jazz clatter with percussion great Steve Reid, last year (as well as playing a prominent role in Reid's afro-jazz project 'Daxaar'), 'Ringer' marks serial collaborator Hebden's return to solo mode.
As could be expected from such a dedicated genre-hopper, 'Ringer' sounds nothing like Hebden's previous outing as Four Tet, 2005's space jazz-flavoured honk-fest 'Everything Ecstatic'. Having already demonstrated his disdain for such conventions as finding your sound and sticking with it, 'Ringer' finds Hebden reversing the usual progression of electronic music-makers, who tend to start with bounding beats, only to land amidst the soothing balm of pastoral sounds in later years.
The first two Four Tet albums - 2001's 'Pause' and 2003's 'Rounds' - heralded an avalanche of laptop boffins doing the rustic thing, although we shouldn't hold Hebden responsible for the many tastefully dull offences committed in the name of folktronica. At the opposite end of the synthetics scale, 'Ringer' is Hebden's belated stab at conquering the dancefloor by indulging his fondness for bleeps-engulfed techno, which has lately become an integral part of Four Tet's DJ sets.
Anyone expecting a straight-ahead set of banging beats can look away now, though, because 'Ringer' is clearly the work of an uncompromisingly adventurous musician that most likely couldn't resort to crafting a pure pastiche no matter how hard he tried. Satisfyingly strange and unclassifiable, there's more than a hint of the deeply kosmische wide-open spaces of the more ambient-minded end of Krautrock (the rippling sound waves of the lovely 'Ribbons' could be lifted directly from Harmonia or Cluster, at least until the relentless hi-hat pulse kicks in), whilst Steve Reid's polyrhythms ensures Hebden's interests in afrobeat and avant-jazz remain intact, as does his effortless melodic prowess.
Although clearly music for the head as well as the feet, however, 'Ringer' is something of a landmark for a musician renowned for avant-garde abstraction, as the EP marks the first occasion when busting a move to Four Tet doesn't present an immediate health and safety risk.
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