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Rounds | 
| Artist: Four Tet
Label: Domino
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £6.78
You Save: £2.21 (25%)
New (9) Used (2) from £4.98
Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 11894
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 5034202012627
ASIN: B00008ACIF
Release Date: May 5, 2003
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Hands | | • | She Moves She | | • | First Thing | | • | My Angel Rocks Back & Forth | | • | Spirit Fingers | | • | Unspoken | | • | Chia | | • | As Serious As Your Life | | • | And They All Look Broken Hearted | | • | Slow Jam |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Rounds, the third album from Four Tet, confirms its maker, London-based laptop musician Kieran Hebden, as one of modern British music's most contradictory characters: a bedroom composer that obsesses over the roughest new UK garage and hip-hop cuts, yet tucked up in his studio writes harp-laden melodic pieces that sound like the gentle flutter of a cherub's wings and have titles like "My Angel Rocks Back And Forth". Every Four Tet album is inscrutably, sometimes indescribably lovely, and Rounds is no exception. On first listen, it sounds like a near twin of 2001's Pause--a cerebral, organic-sounding journey through vistas of gentle European folk music, Balinese percussion and next-wave hip-hop rhythms. But even Four Tet on autopilot is pretty essential stuff: the opening "Hands" layers shards of stroked acoustic chords and chrome-smooth electronic swishes into a glimmering fog of sound, before tethering it down with crashing drumkit percussion; the bare "Unspoken" sounds like DJ Shadow collaborating with some obscure minimalist composer. In this meditative work, Hebden does so much to dispel the notion that electronic music has to be cold and clinical. Long may he contradict. --Louis Pattison
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Creative Genius March 7, 2007
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
Interesting to see how this CD has polarised reviewers' opinion on these pages to such a great degree. `Rounds' is certainly not an album for hardcore musos only, but neither does it give up its treasures immediately.
On the first couple if listens it sounds like a bit of mess. You hear a collage of skittering, cut-up beats, electronic effects and samples of `real' instruments and other found sounds all thrown together with seemingly no overall design.
Listen on and persevere, though, and the picture changes. Threads of melody and structure appear on each and every track and the album turns into a multi-layered treasure trove of sound. `She Moves She' features a frisky beat, gently plucked strings and a chiming percussion melody. `My Angel Rocks Back and Forth' is anchored by a heartbreakingly gorgeous harp string motif, so simple in its execution but so effective.
The quality does not drop throughout. `As Serious As Your Life' has plucked guitars and clapping frisky beats whilst the superb closing track, `Slow Jam' has an aching melody and the best use of a squeaky toy I have ever heard in popular music.
The music is so rich and dense that you genuinely do hear something new on every listed. I suppose `Rounds' fits squarely into the Folktronica genre and this style of music will obviously not be to everyone's taste (it would be a dull world if we all liked the same thing), but it is a shame that those reviewers who have been so negative about this CD cannot at least recognise the extraordinarily fecund creative process on display here.
I have loved music for about 18 years and this is one of my favourite CDs of all time. An absolute beauty if you give it a chance. Don't let the nay-sayers win the day - if you agree with me, vote `yes' below!
Lovely June 21, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Wasn't sure if I should get this album or not as the reviews seemed to sway from 'love it' to 'hate it', but I took a chance. I'd never heard anything quite like it and fell in love immediately. The style was familiar enough, but the depth and variety of sounds on the tracks was what made it stand out from the crowd, so to speak. The tentatively haunting beauty of 'Hands' followed by the sure footed kick of 'She moves she' is awsome and sets the mood for all that is to come.
It's not perfect, there are a few 'filler' tracks on here, but the album as a whole sounds beautiful enough, and more importantly different enough to stand out from all the other 'electronic' music out there at the moment.
Beautiful and kinda Haunting November 11, 2004
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Mr Hebden has certainly achieved his own style of beautiful and almost haunting melodies and sounds. The 10 tracks on rounds seem to convey feelings such as loneliness and also proactivity. It's quite weird, to tell the truth, but addictive to listen to at the same time. In short what I'm trying to say is that Rounds, as with the other Four-Tet instalments juxtaposes itself in way that doesn't offend but keeps you intrigued and wanting more; a very skilled, and very post modern work, and I look forward to the future of Four-Tet.
modern electronica September 26, 2004
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
2000 had Kid A. 2001 had Vespertine. 2002 had New Everything. 2003 had Rounds. What will it be in 2004. Hotel Morgen perhaps?
Simply an awesome collection of sounds August 14, 2004
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Futuristic but at the same time warm and atmospheric, this album feels like it could have come from anywhere in the next 100 years. It's hard to pinpoint where some of the sounds have come from. They appear to be jumbled and non-descript but are strung together with something approaching genius to create a beautiful collection of tracks. Brilliant.
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