“Four Tet is like the uncle that’s making sure everyone has fun safely“
What the fuck is going on in the music world? Three independently gargantuan artists have come together to form a DJ [and hopefully production] supergroup. They’ve sold out Madison Square Garden, secret shows in London’s O2 Brixton Academy and stormed Time’s Square in a school bus; pretty impressive so far.
Times Square B2B2B, 20th February 2023.
When has this ever happened before? Once. Is the answer. The parallels between the three and Kings Of The Rollers [DnB collective] are uncanny. The technical prowess of Bladerunner/Four Tet, the party-boy in Voltage/Fred Again.., and the long-standing fan-favourite in Serum/Skrillex. The last two even share a similar name, must be fate. All individuals come together to form something greater than their parts. The difference between the two groups, is that the Kings have released two albums together. We are still waiting to hear if this will be the case at all for the new trio.
One of my favourite album covers ever. And what an album too. Kings of the Rollers, by Kings of the Rollers.
The first venture into the new trio’s production was Rumble. This song took over the world for a time, shortly after Fred Again’s.. composition with Swedish House Mafia: Turn On The Lights[..]. Initially, the song was credited with all three artists. In a later interview, Fred and Skrillex jokingly said that they kicked Four Tet off it. Not sure why. Internal politics already isn’t a good sign.
Why does this whole thing matter to me so much it deserves its own post? There’s two things going on that I think are of note:
Firstly, I don’t care for the group’s DJ sets. Their mixing leaves a lot to be desired and I don’t have the same amazement of Fred’s finger-drumming/sampling skills. Doing it live is impressive, but it just doesnt look that hard. That being said, their production is off the charts. Four Tet is the mad scientist behind some unbelievable songs using granular synthesis an insane amount of hardware tools. Two Thousand and Seventeen just demonstrates how clever he is as a producer. Polyrhythmic, atmospheric and quintessentially BoC. His lockdown Boiler Room set similarly shows his live creativity skills and technological prowess. As a personality, Four Tet shrouds himself in mystery which ovbiously appeals to me… not sure why he covers his face in black eyeliner though. His alias ‘⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ’ is designed to stop people from accidently finding his songs on Spotify et al. Nevertheless, he still has over 190,000 monthly listeners and a handful of songs over 1,000,000 plays. With track names like ̡ ҉ ҉.·๑ඕั ҉ ̸ ̡ ҉ ҉.·๑ඕั ҉ ̸ ̡ ҉ ҉.·๑ඕั ҉ ̸ ̡ ҉ ҉.·๑ඕั ҉ ̸ ̡ ҉ ҉.·๑ඕั ҉ ̸ ̡ ҉ ҉.·๑, you have to be in-the-know to find him.
In turn, Skrillex is famed for the expansion of dubstep [or brostep] into America. With some of the most insane bass patch production and sampling, Sonny can sing too! He sampled his own voice in an emo composition called Equinox for the bass in First of the Year (Equinox). His new UK-Bass inspired album was seriously impressive. His bootleg of UK-Dimension was one of his most prominent ventures into DnB, with his song alongside PinkPantheress & Trippie Redd showing his affinity for the genre. Sometimes, I feel he slips up by over-commercialising his music. Thats understandable given his position now, but I hope that the more authentic nature of Four Tet and Fred can get him back to better music. Rumble was a good example of this.
Finally, Fred production is so varied, making him able to apply his formula to a number of sub-genres. From airy liquid house tracks like Delilah and Marea, to pounding UK-Bass in Jungle. Working alongside Headie One is also fairly cool. Recently getting the greatest-of-all-time Mike Skinner onto a song shows his affinity for genuine UK street culture with very solid production behind it.
However, I’ll still never forgive him for butchering Turn On The Lights again.., that song could have been so much better; the new Glue by Bicep. The clip originally posted by Fred was airy, atmospheric and moody. Maybe resulting from the input of Swedish House Mafia, the song turned out so commercialised and pop-like. Why the fuck is Future in the introduction? Fair enough the sample for the drop, but him mumbling in the intro adds nothing. I’ve included the original sound from Fred’s TikTok when he first posted the song. Maybe it’s the quality or just a different version, but it sounds way murkier, deeper and more authentic. Should have never let SHM get their hands on it.
So, all three are production monsters; although my loyalties lie with Four Tet. Getting all three of them on an album would be insane. Both the production and commercial value of the songs would tear the industry apart.
This takes me to my second point. If they were to make an album, in my opinion it could lead to the global expansion of UK-Bass music. Genres like Jungle, DnB, Garage, 140 and [good] Bassline have already been creeping even further into foreign markets. Someone with the notoriety that Skrillex has in the Americas would take these genres global. His affinity with the genre is already present in his new album, as mentioned.
It’s not like these genres aren’t already popular. Or even global. But I haven’t heard many 140 tracks in the charts in the UK, let alone America. These characters have so much influence over the EDM market that a promotion of UK material will completely transform the cultural economies of many actors within the associated sub-genres [dissertation coming soon]. As a three, they’re also very good in interviews and on camera, bar Kieran. This means more coverage and more viral clips; thus more money.
These claims are not founded in any data, only opinion and prediction. This has happened previously, with Nia Archive’s song Baianá leading to a huge increase in sales of DnB in Brazil; despite an established yet small market led by DJ Marky. What is true, is that the global stage and music industry is starting to notice and champion UK genres. The sub-cultural actors who created many forms of bass music that we know today [including but not limited to: DnB, 140, grime, (happy) hardcore, breakcore, jungle, garage, donk, baseline inter alia] will hopefully benefit from this increased demand.
I go into this a lot in my diss, I’ll do a write up once it’s handed in. But the main issue is low consumption rates within DnB at the moment. If this changes, we have an exciting future for the underground economies and underground music scene… if you could call it that anymore [whole separate article to get into that one].
The fine line between authentic music production and commercial success is tough. Part of me wants the new trio to champion UK-Bass music so that the grassroots side that I’m involved in gets more revenue. Part of me wants to keep the underground, underground. Can you have both? I think not. Only time will tell…
Edit 19/3/2023:
It has begun. The three just released Baby Again.. through Fred’s platform. The track is interesting, maybe not as technical as I had expected. The bass design is very good, and it’s mixed near-perfectly. The second drop far better than the first IMO.
That being said, it does seem quite safe. Maybe they’re just testing the waters.
Tommy Nagle 
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