Four Tet – Aying

Keiran Hebden better known as Four Tet has had all types of labels thrown at his music — from post rock to future jazz, electronica and er, “folktronica” — whatever the fuck that means. But whatever the media want to call it, it’s dope. Raw, grimy beats with elements of cosmic jazz, progressive rock, trip hop and breakbeat thrown into the mix. But let me tell you, the dude knows his way around a sampler, plus it’s fairly to say he would have some of the dustiest fingers around — his sample selection is wild and obscure.

This track Aying was released on delicious 12″ vinyl in 1998, but I didn’t hear it until about ten years later when a friend burnt me a copy of his first album, Dialogue (released in 1999, where this track also appears). Needless to say, I tracked a second hand copy of the 12″ down PRONTO cos, this track is completely wild. Distorted horns and flutes, dark strings and sitar samples and fat breaks including a little Bollywood break. Shit is dope!

There is another track on the record called Fume, which is completely devestating…think breakcore from a parallel universe where it is just really fast jazz or something (with bonus cuts and a few bars of an electro beat for good measure). Badass. The album and 12″ are both long deleted, so you’re going to have to find them yourself, but they are worth tracking down.

The dude has also remixed for a pretty impressive array of cats including Aphex Twin, Madvillain, Nathan Fake and Black Sabbath which I think deserves a little street cred.

Four Tet – Aying

Crustation – Purple (J Dilla Remix)

Ok ok ok…so after my last post i’m feeling a little like it looks that I was hating on J Dilla. That definitely wasn’t the case…the man Jay Dee had some seriously grimy beats going on, and his influence is VERY apparent in most of the hip hop beats of today (at least in the shit that is worth listening to).

So to make up for it, here is my personal favourite Dilla beat…we were going to post it on Cold Crush for our Genius of J Dilla post, but we opted with E=MC² since it used a dope classic Moroder instrumental.

This is actually a remix of a very famous trip hop track, Crustation’s Purple, and this remix keeps that trip hop edge but also adds that trademark J Dilla boom bap sound. The remix was originally credited to A Tribe Called Quest, probably since they were a much bigger name at the time, though it was technically produced by Ummah, an arabic word meaning ‘community’ or ‘nation’, and also the name of a production crew that Dilla was involved with in the mid to late 90s, along with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad from A Tribe Called Quest.

It’s a very dope track, with laid back but super fat beat, and Bronagh Slevin’s vocals are nothing short of soul soothing. Check out her album Bloom recorded with Crusation.

Ps, Dilla fans should check out my homeboys the Well Dressed Vandals — All proceeds from their Just Dilla tees goes to support Dilla’s mother, Maureen “Ma Dukes” Yancey.

Crustation – Purple (J Dilla Remix)