<\/p>\n
Kieran Hebden is a fascinating creature.<\/p>\n
The ego-less, unassuming 48-year-old English producer and DJ is very much a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Tiga\u2019s\u00a0First\/Last Party on Earth\u00a0podcast in 2020 he said two things that really stayed with me.<\/p>\n
The first was his approach to playing festivals. I\u2019ll paraphrase: \u201cI want to blow everyone else off stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yes,\u00a0Four Tet.\u00a0<\/a>Wonderfully refreshing.<\/p>\n He told\u00a0The Guardian\u00a0a similar thing in 2023: \u201cDJing is really addictive. I like the competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n The second titbit he shared on Tiga<\/a>\u2019s podcast pertained to his career trajectory and a change in priorities since having a daughter about 15 years ago. The story goes: \u201cIn 2010, I was emailed by a label distributor in a foreign territory.\u201d A tune of his was blowing up and the\u00a0distributor was asking for fresh vinyl.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I said \u2018But then I\u2019d have to\u00a0email\u00a0with you. Let\u2019s not bother.\u2019 And the guy was like \u2018What are you talking about?\u00a0You don\u2019t wanna sell more records!?\u2019\u2026I don\u2019t care about selling more records. Time is everything at this point, it\u2019s all about doing things that are quality.\u201d<\/p>\n It worked. Quality has led to quantity. Four Tet\u2019s stocks are abundant right now.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything has gone so well for me since I started doing things more efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s been on some kind of run for the last three years: Times Square, Madison Square Garden and Coachella (aided and abetted by Fred again\u2026 and Skrillex) and is on a heater with releases\/remixes:\u00a0Baby Again\u00a0collab\/remix (which opened his Golden Plains 2023 set),\u00a0Into Dust (Still Falling)\u00a0which samples Mazzy Star, Chris Lake\u2019s\u00a0In The Uma\u00a0and of course his own 140bpm monster\u00a0Looking At Your Pager\u00a0(which will feature later in the piece, eager reader).<\/p>\n And so here we are.<\/p>\n Four Tet is effectively headlining his own festival in Melbourne\/Naarm via astute local operators Crown Ruler and Bizarro. A cool 95 percent of tickets are sold (that\u2019s just over 10,000 people) and they\u2019ve aced the weather, 20 degrees with wild winds dying down.<\/p>\n \u201cCan we have a drink at my favourite wine bar in a shopping mall please?\u201d texts my plus one. But of course.<\/p>\n We hit a Pet Nat at Cathedral Coffee then catch a free tram down St Kilda Rd. I conceal a Pure Origin vodka (yes I am available for brand collab) hip flask then we collect our tickets from box office and BOOM we\u2019re in.<\/p>\n Walking into the illustrious, leafy venue early to catch Sydney-bred Jono Ma<\/a> the first person I spot is Four Tet. He\u2019s standing side stage with a takeaway coffee and his tote bag, looking like a Readings employee who\u2019s been gifted a AAA pass.<\/p>\n Jono Ma is playing to the weather and the 4pm timeslot, teasing out ambient, pensive sounds as gusts buffet hair around so half of us look like Cameron Diaz in\u00a0There\u2019s Something About Mary.<\/p>\n Ma may well be on his own Four Tet-esque journey.<\/p>\n Like his Putney pal who emerged from the post-rock scene in the \u201890s, Ma had success with lumbering, psychedelic dance group Jagwar Ma, playing to 25,000 at Glastonbury and becoming fast friends with kindred musical spirit Andrew Weatherall (RIP).<\/p>\n Wearing an ACID cap and KLF t-shirt, Ma shows remarkable restraint to hold back the beat until the 70 (!) minute mark of his 105-minute set then WHOMPS into action. Everything clicks into place. \u201cSure! Means I have some sort of commitment to see it through lol.\u201d<\/p>\n Next up is Stable Music local Yarra.<\/a> She exudes a steely cool, pushing the bpms steadily with some jacking house and a nice level of acid-flecked boompity-boompity. The crowd are on board with some mild hip-lashing. There\u2019s a reason she\u2019s been booked for a third Let Them Eat Cake in a row. A friend of mine in good spirits leans in and says: \u201cI\u2019d get a tattoo of you on my dick.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m gonna take that as a comment.<\/p>\n We cruise past the Taco Station for a fuel up and they\u2019re playing some ridiculously hard, ridiculously good, ridiculously European dance music (Dikke Beat\u00a0\u2013 Pegassi) from a robust orange JBL. The wind keeps chopping up the signal and I remember this isn\u2019t an actual stage so I swig my contraband beverage, high-five someone wearing a colourful NBA singlet and beeline to Skee Mask.<\/p>\n He\u2019s pumping out drum house, IDM-adjacent goodness, sub bass and breakbeats. It\u2019s seat-of-the-pants stuff, the hot-to-trot jock is\u00a0 steering clear of the sync button and it makes for a better, more dramatic set.<\/p>\n I totally (read:\u00a0finally) get what all the fuss is about with 32-year-old German producer\/DJ Bryan Muller.<\/p>\n This guy has\u00a0got\u00a0it.<\/p>\n The whole thing is deeply thrilling. My Shazam responds sternly to incessant screen-jabs: \u201cEXPANDING SEARCH. HANG TIGHT.\u201d OK diva. Skee Mask\u00a0chain-smokes durries in a faded grey Roland t-shirt while keeping the beat in time then drops\u00a0Submerge\u00a0by Fadi Mohem. Mayhem ensues. It\u2019s time for the \u201cup periscope\u201d trick to draw friends over to us (expanding search, hold tight) and our crew of four quickly become eight (take that, Shazam). Even a fussy mate agrees: \u201cOK this is getting really good now.\u201d<\/p>\n We exit stage left and DJ JNETT <\/a>is doing what JNETT does, beaming ear to ear, reading the room like a pro and slamming out house music that still allows enough sonic experimentation for the imminent appearance of Floating Points.<\/p>\n Sam Shepherd takes the stage with a boyish grin and keen-to-get-on-with-it energy. It\u2019s the Australian premiere of his\u00a0collaboration with artist Akiko Nakayama and Hamill Industries, titled\u00a0Cascade. People use the superlative term \u201ceye candy\u201d when something is aesthetically pleasing but this is more five-course meal than a quick, sweet fix.<\/p>\n Sam, ahem, shepherds the congregation into one with ambient motifs, a swaying mass of floppy arms and half-closed eyes. We take in the pink, purple and blue swirls of paint filling the screen and literally everyone is frothing it.<\/p>\n He then sheepdogs us into one heaving throng with\u00a0Birth4000, one of his most straight-forward club tracks and a tune that sounds more vital and less (don\u2019t @ me) \u201cplodding\u201d when deployed live. I see punters reaching for the skies and their keys in equal measure. A friend walks past and after a quick chat her partner points to her stomach\u2026.they\u2019re pregnant! We make the requisite amount of \u201cbaby bump at a festival\u201d gags and continue on our way.<\/p>\n OK. Deep breaths. It\u2019s showtime.<\/p>\n Cometh the hour, cometh the man.<\/p>\n Four Tet lopes onto stage with little fanfare and gets straight to work.<\/p>\n As headliner he is expected to quote unquote blow everyone off the stage but you get the feeling he will do it in the most respectful way; Floating Points and Jono Ma are his current clique (Fred again.. and Skrillex = sooo 2023).<\/p>\n Hebden conjures a low-key, calm-before-the-storm atmosphere with driving house and intricate tekky rhythms before going for the jugular with the Nelly Furtado-sampling\u00a0Only Human.\u00a0He gives us that possum-eyed glint that says \u201cI\u2019ve got \u2018em good\u201d, plays his remix of\u00a0PAX\u00a0by DJ ADHD and Chloe Robinson then I recognise another cracker: Tony Romera\u2019s jacking\u00a02009\u00a0(Extended remix). A mate turns to me \u201cHe\u2019s laying\u00a0Leave a Trace\u00a0!\u201d Another quips \u201cIt\u2019s a DISCO BOWL!\u201d as the whole place goes nuts to the dappled lights kissing our foreheads. Good shout.<\/p>\n There is some garbled discussion over whether Four Tet will play\u00a0Looking At Your Pager\u00a0and, right on cue, Hebden teases said tune for a good five minutes then lets it run in full.<\/p>\n It is an emotionally satisfying end to a spiritually nourishing day.<\/p>\n Fun fact: Hebden has said\u00a0Looking At Your Pager\u00a0was started and pretty much finished in 15 minutes while lying in bed. \u201cThat\u2019s nearly as long as he played it out tonight!\u201d a mate retorts.<\/p>\n One more reflection from Hebden: \u201cI wanted to make something that everyone understands straight away and it feels like you\u2019ve heard it before but you\u2019ve\u00a0never\u00a0heard it and you\u2019re loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to file out of the \u2018Bowl and head to Angel Bar while others peel off to various after parties. A friend texts\u00a0a screenshot of her 31,729 step count.<\/p>\n Another mate reports \u201cThere was a Beyblade Stadium battle near the foodtrucks after Four Tet finished with the crowd shouting \u20183, 2, 1, let it rip!\u2019 as the Beyblade burst.\u201d Hebden would dig the competitive atmosphere.<\/p>\n That\u2019s freeform crowd work at its finest, made possible by a headliner who can\u2019t stop winning and quietly, confidently grinning.<\/p>\n Four Tet?<\/p>\n Five stars.<\/p>\n Triple J\u2019s Hottest 100 of 2023: 100-1<\/a><\/p>\n REVIEW: Evie, Four Tet, Jyoty and Skrillex Soundtrack the Picture-Perfect Return of Sydney\u2019s Summer Dance<\/a><\/p>\n Four Tet Emerges Victorious In Legal Battle Over Streaming Royalties<\/a><\/p>\n The post Freeform Festival: A Fever Dream of Beats, Beyblades and Brilliance<\/a> appeared first on Music Feeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kieran Hebden is a fascinating creature. The ego-less, unassuming 48-year-old English producer and DJ is very much a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing. Speaking on Tiga\u2019s\u00a0First\/Last Party on Earth\u00a0podcast in 2020 he said two things that really stayed with me. The first was his approach to playing festivals. I\u2019ll paraphrase: \u201cI want to blow everyone else […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2101813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[397407,397406,397405],"class_list":["post-2101812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-andrew-weatherall","tag-jono-ma","tag-kieran-hebden"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/A-Fever-Dream-of-Beats-Beyblades-and-Brilliance.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2101812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2101814,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101812\/revisions\/2101814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2101813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2101812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2101812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2101812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The sun shines a bit brighter, the wind dies off, I glance around at the small but swelling crowd and strangers and friends give me the same look: \u201cWe\u2019re on here.\u201d I DM Jono Ma the next day asking if he recorded the set to which he responds: \u201cI\u2019m going to edit it and some other ambient shows I\u2019ve done, into an album\u2026I think.\u201d Can I print that?<\/p>\n
Get around Yarra.<\/p>\n
We get deeper into the \u201cpit\u201d where everyone is throwing respectful elbows and smiling wickedly as rays of sun EQ visages left and right.<\/p>\n
He keeps the pace up with\u00a0Del Oro, Key103\u00a0and the extraordinary upside-down-right-way-up 135bpm masterpiece\u00a0Vocoder.<\/p>\n
Someone on Reddit has commented: \u201cMy friend who did tabs for Floating Points said it was life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\nFurther Reading<\/h3>\n