The Exchange Session Vol. 2

The Exchange Session Vol. 2
Label: Domino
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Exchange Session Vol. 2, The
This second installment of unfooled-around-with improv between the head Four Tet-er (Kieran Hebden) and the legendary session drummer (Steve Reid) bests the first by hosting the duo’s longer, more cerebral (read: less volatile) electronics-and-skins-and-cymbals journeys. ‘Hold Down the Rhythms, Hold Down the Machinesâ?� embodies its title as Reid’s carpet-bombing kit campaign faces off against Hebden’s rack of imitation-instrument gear, each goading more scintillating, fantastic performances out of one another without flying entirely off the rails. A similar dynamic is at work in ‘We Dream Free,â?� a less intense jam in which, after a few minutes of gaining their footing, the players’ threads find each other and jell nicely into a deceptively loose groove.

This article appears in May 31 – Jun 6, 2006.