Search - Kieran Hebden, Steve Reid :: Tongues

Evolution

David M. Madden | salt lake, utah United States | 03/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just to bring you up to speed, Kieran Hebden works under the prolific electronica moniker, Four Tet; Steve Reid is the Steve Reid, a drummer who has done everything from playing with Sun Ra to offering his chops for Martha Reeves' "Dancing in the Streets" - his first professional gig! Hebden and Reid's vision for their collaboration is to replicate the aesthetic of `60s sax/drums duos (see Coltrane/Rashied Ali's Interstellar Space), but take the work to a previously unexplored point. While their former albums (The Exchange Sessions, Vols. 1 and 2) follow thorough progressions (read: developing the hell out of a piece) and utilize a more spacious playing field, Tongues, while still a "live, no overdubs" recording, is laden with more immediate music. Though Hebden still employs his clamorous electronic panoply, Reid focuses less on growth, more on pulse, both artists cutting tracks from sprawling epics to concise four-minute-average jams. The results resemble a jazzed up cerebral mix you might hear in a club, one you nod your head with but can't necessarily dance to (picture your girlfriend saying, "This is weird, can we go now?!") Fans who actually "get" Hebden and Reid's mission will appreciate this inevitable evolution."