Four Tet
No More Mosquitoes single
(Domino Records)
I'm kind of a picky person when it comes to buying singles, especially when they're import releases. On one hand, you often get some mighty good tracks that aren't on the actual album release of the song that you're getting, and on the other hand, you could be getting a load of poop dumped on you from an artist who needed to pad a single with a couple tracks in order to sell it. In some cases, you get a lot of exclusive music for the buck, and in others, you get burned by the curse of the filler tracks.
Although this single technically came out before Four Tet's Pause album, I didn't even end up finding out about it until after I'd gotten that full-length release. The first thing for me to check the other songs on the disc, as that is the determining factor. I already knew that "No More Mosquitoes" kicks some butt from hearing it on the full-length, and fortunately there are three other tracks on this single that aren't on Pause.
"Flon" is probably the best of these three, even though it's the shortest. After an opening bit of chopped-up static, it lurches into a clanging beat with all kinds of glitchwork scattered out over what could have been an acoustic guitar melody at some point. It's pretty, and slightly damaged, but quite nice. "Look After Your Mermaid" is on the opposite side of things, a simple acoustic guitar track, with only the slightest bit of digital trickery (at some points it slides backwards, while there are some other quiet artifacts that creep through the song as well), but is still fairly straightforward. The final track "Warmer Places" rolls along with a mellow beat and some flutes, closing out things a mere 17 minutes after they started.
If you liked the full-length, you'll definitely like these tracks, although with only 13 minutes or so of music that's new, it might be a little hard to justify the cost, especially when all of them could have also fit onto Pause without any contraints. Still, that's a fairly minor quibble, and there are definitely some excellent tracks (especially the even numbered ones) that you won't hear elsewhere. If you like Four Tet, you'll want it to round out your collection.
Rating: 7.25
