Pitchfork

With Rounds, Hebden created a blissful blend of his small-time, insular sound-swirls and bold-face beats. Accordingly, Radiohead, Beth Orton, and Super Furry Animals commissioned remixes, and even some non-nerds started to pay attention. But apparently Hebden isn't totally comfortable with his music filling the "chill" role at a progressive frat house's latest hackey-sack soiree. Everything Ecstatic sees the sunken-eyed Brit forgoing the lullaby instrumentation and straightforward rhythms of its predecessor for a darker, more intricate sound-- one rooted more in chaotic free jazz than skewed folk. While this stylistic move is admirable, though, it sometimes sacrifices Hebden's more accessible melodic gifts in its quest for fresh ideas.

Whereas the amplified thump of a human heart gave Rounds an instant corporeal quality, Ecstatic opens on the back of a harsh, scraping bass loop. The low growl remains constant throughout "A Joy" as an army of programmed snares nimbly cross over each other before the organized noise dissolves into a computerized Jim O'Rourke-style cacophony of screeching bells, other-worldly whistles, and an overarching sense of many computers crashing at the exact same time. The tattered beginning is an adequate primer to Ecstatic's scruffier palette.

The slow-building "Sun Drums and Soil" is the album's strongest example of Hebden's Ornette-Coleman-meets-Sun-Ra direction. Near tribal drums build an underworld base for the song to snake out from. Keyboard lines wrap around each other as radio static muddies the mid-song breakdown. What sound like distant, effected vocals conjure another set of crushing drums and, eventually, a wonderfully wailing saxophone bleats, furthering the fury. Haunting, challenging and ultimately rewarding, the raucous track sees Hebden letting his freakout-flag fly, but not everything on Ecstatic is so dense.

The languid "And Then Patters" harkens back to Rounds' lush simplicity, while the jubilant "Smile Around the Face" may be the closest Hebden's ever come to an in-the-flesh pop song. The rinky-dink hi-hats keep it playful as Hebden puts his phaser effect to use, employing washes of synths that cut in and out across the speakers. But the track's unique, irresistible calling card is a sped-up vocal sample lifted straight out of Kanye West's Louis Vuitton backpack. The happy-chipmunk loop sticks and Hebden justly milks it, adorning the track with a multitude of additional sonic drips and fluffy atmospherics. Undeniably catchy and unabashedly cheerful, "Smile Around the Face" attests to Hebden's appealingly child-like anything-goes quality.

On the flipside of that fresh-breeze highlight is "Turtle Turtle Up", a two-minute jumble of vintage video game blips and pummeling drums that comes off as an in-process demo. The lackluster tune is followed-up by the BPM-bumping dancefloor clear-out "Sleep, Eat Food, Have Visions", near the end of the album. The eight-minute epic sees Hebden recreating the beat-busting portion of his live show where he gradually turns the speed knob all the way up until just a sheet of sound remains, which he toys with accordingly. The trick works in concert thanks to his improvisational tact and resourcefulness, but when nailed down on record, the technique becomes laborious.

Taking into account his recent impressive Madvillain remixes and the forthcoming album he's producing for Beth Orton, it seems like Hebden may be using his Four Tet albums to further his stylistic reach so he can apply his sound to more typically song-based collaborations. And more power to him. Everything Ecstatic marks his first slight step backward as a solo artist but it's hardly a failure. Like a natural jazz improviser flailing about in search of the precise moment to let loose a flurry of inspired notes, Hebden consistently sticks his neck out every which way here, knowing full well it may be chopped off at any moment.