FOUR TET x LOST VILLAGE 2018

The sun has set on the Saturday of Lost Village 2018 and yet the air is bright with excitement. This is the big set everyone has been waiting for. You can hear it in whispers all around, the dashing paces through the mud, the occasional ‘WE’RE COMING KIERAN’ in the distance. We’re part of the crowd making our way as fast as we can to the Burial Ground stage to catch Four Tet’s opening and we’re making it just in time.

Kieran Hebden has made his stage name Four Tet synonymous with brilliant indie electronic music since the 90s with his first full-length album ‘Dialogue’ in 1999. His music is eclectic, unique and has the fantastic quality that you never know what’s coming next. This quality was reflected in the mood as we made our way to the stage. It was unclear whether the set would be a live or DJ one, and even then no one knew what path he was going to take us down. The unknown was electric, the buzz uncontrollable.

As we settle into the crowd, intermittent and sporadic clear tones are superseded by the reverbed vocals of Rihanna’s ‘Kiss It Better’. It immediately creates the atmosphere for the next two hours with a song everyone will recognise, brought so easily into Four Tet’s unmistakeable style. This is going be a theme for the set overall, and it lets the crowd sing along together, bringing everyone a sense of union as we experience this musical genius together. The song fades into the unfamiliar; an unknown track, but it is screaming Burial collaboration. The echoing drum beat and ethereal chords are mesmerising; there is a poignant darkness to the track, and I can’t help but be entranced by it. It’s taken him under ten minutes, and with two polar opposite track choices Four Tet has already let me know how great this set is going to be.

Moving on from here he chooses DJ Romain’s ‘Opposite’ for a more upbeat rhythm. The bass is pumping, everyone is dancing, the vibes are top qual. I really feel like this one reflected the feel of Lost Village overall; old-school brass samples and techno beats mixed up with polyrhythmic sections bouncing off the trees around you- it works perfectly. In fact, the rhythms blend seamlessly into the next Pearl Jam track in way that makes you think ‘of course this is next, what else would be?’

The next track I want to talk about was the highlight for me. As soon as Four Tet drops the famous opening drum beat to Destiny’s Child’s ‘Lose My Breath’ the crowd roars, and I mean really roars. It’s a fantastic choice, and his remix combines the fierce R&B attitude of the original with this scrambling electronic countermelody that makes you feel like you’re dancing in the outer space 90’s. Absolutely peng. This vibe is carried through the next few songs, making it really hard to stop dancing, with remixes from Roska and Nina Kraviz and Avus’ Tear.

It’s about time for a contrast, and reeling the turntable back for extra effect, Kieran makes a sudden flip to the Champion Remix of his song ‘Kool FM’. The dubby waves over heavy claps and crashes is dirty, gritty, hitting hard with that UK flavour. It marks a turning point in the set, as we think back to the dreamlike opening tones. His fast-paced edit of Nelly Furtado’s ‘Afraid’ kicks in soon, and the vocals fill the air like busy chattering bouncing around the arena. The drum beat here echoes the Burial collab from earlier on to me, and the constant kick holds the rhythm tight while every angle of the auditory senses are touched upon. (There's a link to this track separated here.)

We descend into a heavier electronic sound with SP-X’s ‘SP-14’, and for the next few tracks I really felt the set become a whole body experience. The laser lights shooting out from the stage fly through the crowd in red, blue, green, flooding your sight and then plunging you into darkness just as quickly. The ground shaking from the bass lets you feel the music under your skin, it’s everything that is great about electronic music. This is particularly poignant with the dramatic and emphatic burst into Jungle with Skool of Hard Knocks – ‘Everybody’. Everybody (lol), myself included, let out a ‘whoaaaa’ of surprise that just turned into a cheer before it even stopped. This entire section is absolutely mad, and flashing white white strobes on the stage reflect the epileptic intensity of the beat. The ‘Incredible’ throwback with General Levy’s rap is pure hype, during which I feel like I lost control of my body, and no one around me seemed to care. Everyone was smashing into each other, it wasn’t aggressive, it just felt like what we were supposed to do.

The next moment probably wasn’t everyone’s favourite, but I can’t lie, I lived for it. Four Tet brings in his remix of Ariana Grande’s ‘No Tears Left to Dry’, and somehow we move from the Junglist Massive to pure pop fantasy. (If anyone has a link please let me know!) Her vocals resound through the air so angelically that it symbolises purity to me, but its kept grounded with angular electro melody underneath that holds its place in the set securely. It’s a rogue choice, and very mainstream, but I think its juxtaposition with what’s just come is what makes it effective. In fact, it’s rounded off with Taraval’s Aardvark, which blasts dissonance through the crowd, encapsulating it as a moment of innocence.

Moving on, Kid Crème’s ‘Hypnotising’ is simply euphoric. It again brought back that Lost Village disco atmosphere, as the vocal sample reminds us that we are ‘together’ in this moment. We’re lifted up into the sky, and then brought right back to earth to get low to the dirty bass of DJ Bigga’s ‘Mind, Body & Soul’. It’s one of those tunes that makes you pull ‘that face’, and I really thought the combination of these two tracks was fantastic. They both made you want to dance, which makes sense at a music festival of course, but go about it very different ways. ‘Hypnotising’ focuses on the piano chords more to me, and then the bassline is without a doubt the focus for ‘Mind, Body & Soul’, a focus which is blended in as we move on to the garage vibes of Allstars’ ‘Walk on By VIP’ and then ‘Heartbroken’ – T2 ft. Jodie. As we approach the end of the set, we see the only inclusion from the producer’s most recent album, ‘New Energy’. ‘Lush’ brings its warm, flowing tones across the arena for five minutes of pure atmospheric ambience. It’s transcendent, elegant, soothing. After the rollercoaster we’ve been through with this set, it gave us a moment to relax before the finale. 

We have a moment of complete silence for the first time, and the crowd cheers, only for the opening pedal note of his remix of Bicep’s ‘Opal’ to come in. Honestly, all of my hair stood on end; I love this remix, it’s such a journey and seeing it live in that crowd took it to the next level. As the instrumentation builds up, so does the excitement around me, and as the beat drops, lights flood through the field from the stage again, and everyone dances together. There really was something special about this one, it felt calming and exhilarating at the same time, and as confetti burst into the crowd, everyone lost it. I felt quite overwhelmed by emotion, cringe I know, but it was a moment that really stood out to me. The set is rounded out  with Neneh Cherry’s ‘Kong’; I personally felt the penultimate track would have worked great as a finale, but this choice with its steady hi-hat and stunning vocals was still a beautiful moment to end on, leaving you feeling elated by the last two hours of music.

As is obvious from the above, I find it difficult to say anything remotely negative about Four Tet’s Lost Village set. It was without a doubt the highlight of my weekend and what is going to stand out in my memories of this summer. It wasn’t necessarily representative of my favourite things about Four Tet’s music, but that didn’t matter; it perfectly evoked the atmosphere you want for a music festival headliner, it covered all the bases, and when it comes down to it, it was f***ing sick. End of story. To be able to range in track choice from R&B, Jazz, Jungle, Pop, Garage, consistently shifting sound and constantly making it work, that truly requires a genius, so hats off, Kieran, you did good.

You can find the whole set on Four Tet's Soundcloud. Enjoy!