Four Tet: FabricLive 59

Label: Fabric

This is the second time Kieren Hebden, a.k.a. Four Tet, has contributed to a mixtape series, and unlike his spectacular DJ Kicks, which was an eclectic mix of pop and soul, FabricLive 59 is more true to the dancefloor ethos of London's Fabric club (which inspired the series to begin with). Here Hebden takes us on a dizzying journey of the last 15 years of 2-step, techno, house, broken beats and garage along with sprinklings of field recordings and other found sounds of London nightlife. It's great stuff, and unless you are a serious devotee of said genres, most of the artists here will be unfamiliar to you: Youngstar, Big Bird and Crazy Bald Head, to name a few. But Hebden is hip enough to give us a few indie-friendly names, such as Caribou, Burial, Ricardo Villalobos and Four Tet himself too. This is not necessarily an album for Four Tet fans—it's for fans of U.K. dance music, and the left-field variety at that. The FabricLive series was practically invented for a crate-digging visionary like Hebden, and true to form, he gives us one of the series' finest offerings.