The problem with electronic music is that it's just too easy to make - any fool with a laptop can have a go and the results are often horrific. Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet), however, is different. This prodigiously-talented Londoner seems to be on a one-man mission to bring folk music kicking and screaming into the 21st century, revelling in the weird results you get from recording pastoral sounds on digital equipment. Much of Rounds consists of recurring loops overladen with fiddles, acoustic guitars and glockenspiel, the whole weaved into a kaleidoscopic web of intrigue. Elsewhere Hebden slips effortlessly between genres, adding hip-hop and R'n'B to an already potent mix of influences. Crucially, however, he never allows the experimentation to overpower his sense of melody - like Moby he has the ability to create exquisite soundscapes that are also moving expressions of human emotion. The result is one of the most radical, exciting and genuinely original albums we're likely to hear all year.
