Research into Similar Bands By Jessica

Four Tet is the stage name for Kieran Hebden, who is a solo experimental, electronic DJ and musician that Lawrence King named as one of his influences. Similarly, The music from Four Tet is also predominately lyricless. Four Tet uses samples from r'n'b and hip hop to Jazz and other electronica mixed with Hebden's guitar tracks. VH1 describes him as "balancing organic and programmed sounds" in his music.


The video for Hands is filmed in soft focus to give the images a distorted feel. The images all fit into the nature theme, with animals, leaves and a jellyfish. The video is understated and concept based, meant as an accompaniment for the music, not a video in its own right. Its evident that the artist wants his music to be the talking point, not the music video.


She Moves She is one of Four Tet's adventures into a more professional artistic music video, directed by Ed Holdsworth. The music video is concept based, beginning with a train leaving a station, with the video shown as a point of view shot for the trains window. The images start unaffected at first, but become introverted, illustrated and mirrored. The colours are often enhanced or turned negative. The footage is show in fast motion, in beat to the music. At the end the images duplicate to the beat of the music until they become nonexistent.

The above video is for the Four Tet track Smile Around Your Face and features actor Mark Heap. The video is one very simple concept- a continuous close up of Mark's face. However, The close up tracks to follow Mark as he goes about his day, almost as if the camera is strapped on the front of his body. Nothing out of the ordinary happens on Mark's day; he leaves his house, gets the bus, take a tumble on the bus and gets a headache, takes his kids to the park and has a bath. However if you look a little deeper into the narrative the video becomes highly emotional. Mark is picking his kids up from another house (presumably an ex wife) and takes them to play at the park but has to take them back again. When alone later in the bath the cinematography suggests he is sad that he cannot be with his children and the time he has with them is precious. This is done by blending the shot of him in the park with his children and the one with him in the bath- making it almost feel like a daydream. After the sequence when Mark falls over of the bus the video is edited in such a way that we are aware that Mark has a headache. The colours are distorted and saturated, and are uneasy to look at.

I previously analysed Four Tet's music videos and I will now do the same for his print designs- album cover, posters and adverts.

Above is the latest Four Tet album design There Is Love In You (2010). Interestingly, the front of the album cover doesn't contain the album name or title of the artist. This would not be something I would use on my design as the artist we are designing for is up and coming, and promotion of his name is important. However, the individuality of this design and the rising popularity of Four Tet means that this cover is memorable as a Four Tet album. A black background in punctured by many round circles each with a different image within- a mixture of abstract forms and colour, flowers and nature.

Above is the Magazine advert for Four Tet's 2010 tour. The theme of the album cover has been carried over to the advert and is providing the background image. The Artist name has been included this time probably because some one flicking through a magazine may not know or assume that this is an advert for Four Tet, where as someone buying the album would already know what the album looks like and who the artist is. The Artist name is in a simple, modern, bold text that almost looks like it has been cutout of the background and contrast well so it can be clearly read. The symbols used to communicate who the support acts are add a friendly and fun touch to the advert. The style of text used to list the tour dates is classic and simple, a feeling of sophistication had definitely been created.

This is Four Tet's first ever album DIALOGUE (1999). It contrasts with their latest album as it has and artist title and album name clearly displayed in bold, central text. In regards to colour, The album uses greyscale which gives a feeling of simplicity (much like their first album). The nice effect of condensation behind the text brings an interesting focal point to the design. The black circle in the middle gives the illusion of a classic LP within the case, that is being distorted by the trapped condensation.

Apologies for the small image! Above is a framed version of Four Tet's promotional advertisement for their album Everything Ecstatic (2005). As usual with Four Tet, the images of the advertisement correspond with the album. I particularly like this design for its fun use of bubblegum colours- it shows Four Tet are not afraid of looking too 'girly' and 'sweet'. However by doing this it creates an extremely fun looking advert that is bound to catch peoples attention.

I can conclude from my research into Four Tet's print designs that there is no set style for an electronic artist, the key is to experiment with doing something different and make it interesting in a subtle way or an obvious way. Images of nature feature heavily across their designs as a whole as do fun colours and computer aided designs.