Four Tet - "There is Love In You"

Clean beats and technicolor: they dominate There is Love In You like steady rain dominates a flat sidewalk while it's still sunny out. These components are delivered in a steady, unwavering supply that reveal a kaleidoscopic mist of rainbows after bouncing off your eardrums. The listening pleasure is all in the reflection. Electronic music of this ilk isn't impressive because of complex composition or avant garde manipulations; rather, it succeeds simply by being steady and colorful. And absorbing.

To be sure, Kieran Hebdan has gone mostly linear here. Compared to his past forays into progressive lo-fi or crumbling free jazz(tronica), There is Love In You (love the title) finds Hebdan scaling back in favor of a direct, straightforward vein to the heart of what electronic music is founded upon: a crossroads of repetition and addiction. In the week I've owned this album, I've probably listened to"Love Cry"--a track that is so perpetually pleasing, you mentally try to find ways to extend it long after its 9 minutes have finished up--18-20 times. The individual components of the track build together in simple ways that you would probably expect, but engage you in a much more critical listen. It just has a way of grabbing your attention in a crisp, clean way. Imagine the pastel spheres that dot the cover art starting to shift rhythmically--like bacteria in a dish--and you might understand what I mean.