Musical abiogenesis seems to have become a trademark of the one man show that is Four Tet. His seeming effortless ability to make the mechanical sound human shows up again on his new single, which is paired up with the latest from dubstep heavyweight and fellow Londoner Mala.
“Nothing to See” — clocking in at a deceptive 9 minutes — trips over itself trying to get going, stumbling and stammering up to an off-kilter drum loop that literally needs to let off steam after every bar. The song soon becomes flooded by ideas, with wooden chimes, tiptoeing synths and buzzing sub-bass all fighting for your attention. Impossible to digest in one sitting, numerous listens are demanded due to the number of moving parts.
Double A-sides can be tricky business. If one track is clearly superior it can reduce its counterpart into an afterthought. Fortunately, Mala matches the challenge with “Don’t Let Me Go,” a punchy, restless piece of dubstep whose feel is well summed up by its title. Featuring a twitchy beat in misappropriated 4/4 time, Mala drenches the track with quivering, liquid synths that are pulled along by an accordion and lurching tribal drums. But despite the impressive diversity of its instrumentation, its length isn’t quite justified due to sameness.
