Four Tet’s Remix of the xx’s “A Violent Noise” Is Dancefloor Gold

For all his underground club bonafides, Keiran Hebden (aka Four Tet) isn’t afraid to mess with the mainstream. This versatility and openness has helped him navigate through two decades of dance music sprawl, always showing up where the action is. On this remix of the xx’s “A Violent Noise” he sounds split between his 2013 collaborations with Burial and more recent appearances in Ibiza, with a loping, streetwise shuffle giving way, after some resistance, to a glowing climax more suited for a tropical fête. Distant, pitch-bent vocal apparitions hint at a dreary desperation that suits his take on the Londoners well. But any downcast introspection is swept away by a swishy club groove precision tooled for maximum sound system impact. Though the remix is built around the original’s soaring chords, Hebden’s swaps the xx’s aching spaciousness for a more hands-in-the-air dynamic. It might put off more purist fans who miss the poignant lyrics and emotional complexity of the xx, but there’s a line down the block of DJs for whom this is dancefloor gold.

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