Four Tet – ‘DJ Kicks’ (K7) Released 26/06/06

OK, it’s Kieran Hebden so you maybe weren’t particularly expecting many Oakenfold tunes but this hand-down wins the eclecticism award of the year. And pulls it off too we might add. But only just.

David Behrman’s luminous ‘Leapday Night’ entices a hallucinogenic moon out of the shadows and briefly adjusting to the new night and this strangest of dance floors, Four Tet lets some clunky analogue synths build to a frenzy and Syclop’s ‘Mom, The Video Broke’ kicks in with the biggest rush, abstract and funky. So far, so groovy. Curtis Mayfield drops in to remind us of his status as the eternal liquid rhythm angel and so it goes.

Then, it starts to get weird. Gary Davis brings The Professor in and we’re jumping through So Solid Crew, Animal Collective’s blissed out, trippy ‘Baby Day’ the 70’s electronic turbo prog of France’s legendary Heldon, psychedelic travellers Quickspace Supersport and some Rhodesian folk. To name but a few. The mixing verges form smooth to abrupt and Hebden ploughs a wilfully maverick line playing minimal drones from both So Solid Crew and Cabaret Voltaire when he could have easily opted for more obvious dancefloor-friendly alternatives. We also get electronics jazz hero Julian Priester, Gong and the kick-ass divine Showbiz & A.G. not to mention the man of the hour delivering a few minutes of analogue techdisco.

This of course could become elitist trainspotting, an obscurist’s pose, but the selection is faultless and more than fine. By the time that Madvillain’s ‘Figaro’ kicks in all boundaries have been erased and the sound morphs into a hallucinogenic global mass, surprising, unpredictable and opening up new vistas with every second. We don’t reckon it will be filling the floor at Cream or whatever, but then maybe you should be checking out some decent clubs.