Send "Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Tinymixtapes |
 Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) and Steve Reid (who has beat skins for Sun Ra, James Brown, Fela Kuti, and Miles Davis) have collaborated in various forms over the past few years, starting with the Exchange Sessions in 2006 and most recently on Reid’s recent release Daxaar. NYC, their new collaborative effort, finds the duo documenting the feel and vibe of New York City through sound collage, utilizing a surprising tool mostly absent from their previous collaborations: pop music. While far from easy listening, the mechanics of NYC sound positively pastoral, and the interplay between Reid and Hebden, formerly spastic and indebted to the free-est of jazz, is now melodic, the give and pull of the rhythmic forces against the melodic textures gentler, and the songs more likely to cause subtle head-bobbing and confused stares. To quoth my buddy who wandered into my radio room whilst reviewing and listening, “Dude, this sounds like some Adult Swim shit.”While more trained ears might aim for more defined comparisons, he’s pretty much right. After the rev-up opener “Lyman’s Place,” the album settles into a Pam Grier flick soundtracked by Madlib-style strut with “1st & 1st,” replete with choppy guitars and Reid’s best afrobeat. Hebden is credited simply with “electronics,” but the track’s wide range of sounds demonstrates just how far the credit can go, as he loops guitar, noise, and various motorik clicks and beeps. The diversity of the album proves Hebden and Reid’s strength: “Arrival” mines the potential hazardous middle ground where new age and krautrock meet, but avoids its pitfalls and achieves calm without melting into feel-good goo; “Between B & C” sounds like some Woodstock morning, missing only the gossamer harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash, sounding as much, if not more, “folktronica” — the ridiculous tag often applied to Hebden’s work as Four Tet — than most of Four Tet’s stuff; and “Departure” explores minimal repetition in the vein of Glass or Reich, before fuzzing out into a barrage of space age synths....full text |
| Prefixmag |
| You don’t get to jam with Sun Ra, Fela Kuti and Miles Davis unless you’ve earned some serious chops. Drummer and native New Yorker Steve Reid has played with all of the above, and his decision to collaborate with Four Tet/Fridge mainman Kieran Hebden shows that Reid, now well into his 60s, is still actively seeking out innovative musicians to collaborate with. This fourth record from Hebden and Reid is their most accessible effort yet, and it gives both musicians ample space to do what they do so well....full text |
| Strangeglue |
| I am fortunate to have seen this pair perform live, at the Green Man Festival of 2006. Their set stands out in my memory. The festival had just begun it’s (hopefully temporary, didn’t catch 08) slump into filling out the line-up gaps between excellent folk songwriters (see Alasdair Roberts, Andrew Hockey & James Yorkston) with mediocre indie-folk acts. Besides the raucous Sunburned Hand of the Man & the heart rattling A Hawk & A Hacksaw, Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid were one of the few wildcards of the weekend. For those unfamiliar with the two names: Kieran Hebden is best known as a former member of post-rock band Fridge and as Four-Tet, a guise under which he has achieved critical acclaim as one of the most unique and engaging arrangers of electronic and acoustic sound. Seminal Four-Tet album ‘Rounds’ is the kind of record I feel I could recommend to almost anyone, which is a rare achievement in modern music. Steve Reid was born in 1944 and began drumming at 16 (take heart 16 year old novices...). His career and style is most frequently linked with jazz. He has played with Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, James Brown, Fela Kuti and Sun Ra, and like those big names he has a taste for the experimental. Their first two albums as a duo contained extensive liner notes detailing just how and why these two musicians came to be playing together. In it Reid referred to Hebden as his “musical soul mate”. Watching them intuitively read and respond to each other during their set at Green Man, grinning at each frequently, it was impossible to not see and hear this “soul mate” relationship throughout the music. Those first two releases (titled The Exchange Sessions Vol I and Vol II) included compositions over 20 minutes in length and delved deep into refractions and manipulations of sampled sound with extended and detailed drum performances. Though live it was an engrossing and uplifting experience, the records weren’t the kind I often felt inclined to spin. They were an opportunity for Hebden to work with a master of the beat, leaving him to delve into more abstract and ear-bending sonics without too much concern for the rhythm. The sounds Hebden produced weren’t even conceivable when Reid first picked up the drumsticks, so for him it was a chance to hone his abilities on new ground....full text |
Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid lyrics
|
| ||||