Picked this up this weekend and while Kieran Hebden isn't from Detroit, and isn't usually that techno, I'm really feeling it. The title track is about 1/2 way between Can and Landcruising era Carl Craig. "Ribbons" combines music box arpeggios with some straight-ahead techno percussion and synth ostinatos. "Swimmer" combines subtly shifting drones with filtered snarehat patterns. "Wing Body Wing" is stripped down kick and conga patterns joined by loopy, echoey synth loops, which curiously recall Aaron Copland's "Billy The Kid" theme.
But mostly it doesn't sound like anything else, precisely and while a DJ could make these tracks work in a dance floor set, it's obvious that Hebden is using the form and rhythms of techno for his own purposes. The kicks aren't dance floor kicks, and there's no big buildup/breakdown cycle. It' all very episodic, exploratory and engrossing. This got me thinking about grabbing The Exchange Sessions (Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid) on mp3, but beatport doesn't have them, and bleep.com isn't licensed to sell them to the US. ITunes has them, but I wanted MP3 files. Anyone know another on-line digital download vendor who carries these?
