Fridge

If you’re only familiar with Kieran Hebden via Four Tet, you’re only marginally prepared for Fridge. Fifth album The Sun, their first in six years, owes more to post-rock than IDM and features the now ubiquitous sample fiend on his natural instrument: the guitar. Cacophonous drums drench the album and polyrhythms beneath the melodic, temperamental axe wielding show why more pop-oriented figures like Panda Bear and Caribou have such kinship with Hebden. Navigationally, The Sun hits several roadblocks, making for an uneven listen full of quick turns, from bedroom layers to warehouse jams. The transition from the opening title track to "Clocks” only seems gradual since the latter runs seven minutes, and the snappy springboard of "Drums for Life” catapults the droning "Eyelids” into heavier, feedback stained Mclusky riffage. Still, Hebden fans shouldn’t be so quick to identify this strictly as a lost side-project. "Comets” certainly shows a group hitting their stride admirably (at least during this album), which, for a unit that hasn’t recorded together since Y2K was the most scandalous internet topic, says a lot. Like the sun, Fridge will surely rise again to their fin de siecle prowess.