Four Tet

Four Tet has shifted the frame around dance music so many times that it’s hard to keep track. Born Kieran Hebden in 1977, the Londoner got his start in the post-rock trio Fridge in 1997, and with breakthrough solo albums like 2001’s Pause and 2003’s Rounds, he began countering the era’s chilly, technology-besotted leftfield trends with an opalescent sound rooted in acoustic samples and homespun breakbeats. His signature palette has never really changed, yet over the years, Hebden has expanded his stylistic range to include not just meditative downtempo but also floor-filling techno, long-form ambient, shape-shifting live albums and ecstatic samples of Indian film music. His collaborators include the late free-jazz drummer Steve Reid, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and atmospheric bass musician Burial, whose idiosyncratic career has taken cues from Hebden’s DIY path; he’s also brought his formidable DJ skills to the table in sold-out stadium gigs alongside Fred again... and Skrillex—proof that despite his consistency, Four Tet never ceases to surprise.