Four Tet - Pink
I'm going to go with Pink as opposed to Beautiful Rewind but in reality I love both the Text albums. Of course, we were fans in my household of Pause, Rounds and Everything Ecstatic but somehow Kieran really became Kieran when he moved onto his own release path, i.e. Text Records. As everyone who studies Four Tet knows, Kieran is very anti-mastering which is a brave move in itself but NOTHING is industry standard behaviour for KH. I was a fan of Fridge because my husband refused to stop playing them and he wore me down. I only really met Kieran properly two years ago but I have had all the Four Tet output on my iTunes and on my record decks for a long time. Pink is such a well rounded set of original ideas. Knowing a little bit more about the man and how he functions and how focused he is, it is easy to see how he pulls this off with such aplomb. His encyclopaedic knowledge of recorded music and his actual musical abilities, combined with his natural groove and audio awareness, blows my mind. Pink showcases all these aspects to full effect. You can dance or just chill in the headphones to the same tracks. The loops are cheeky and the pictures they paint for me in my head are very trippy. I could prattle on and on about Four Tet. He's a don of his trade and I'm honoured to be able to work with him. Check out how he made that loop sit on the 'Nina' track he built for Baby Bam and me… case closed!