kieran hebden and steve reid

seems like everything kieran hebden (four tet, fridge) puts his hand to turns out to be nothing but superb - his own albums challenging and inventive, his remixes almost always a marked improvement upon the original track. it's a little more difficult to claim his "midas touch"-like abilities when he collaborates with another artist who's not too shabby themselves. and that's what hebden has done on his latest work of gold, joining forces with the one and only steve reid (former drummer for miles davis, fela kuti, james brown, sun ra & plenty of other reputable names). and yet, one listen to the exchange session: vol. 1, and whoever wanted to oppose my claim would be left with no more evidence to further their half of the argument than they may have started out with.

what's so freaking mindblowing about this collaboration is that it took place in the span of only one day. ONE MEASLEY DAY! there are days when i can't even change out of what i slept in the night before. i mean, these are two dudes who, other than a chance encounter at the 2005 london jazz festival, were complete strangers. they get into the studio for one day and what comes out of that brief partnership sounds like the product of two wholly unified musical souls. this is a match made in heaven, if i've ever heard one. 37 minutes of magical, controlled cacophany. it's brilliant.

MP3: "electricity and drum will change your mind"
from the album: the exchange session: vol.1
release date: 02/21/06
label: domino
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