Sonic Appreciation
Oct 12, 2009
4Hero
Creating Patterns
Commercial Marketing
Helene Dancer
Helene is unhealthy obsessed with hip-hop and trainers. She can’t help it, it’s been in her blood ever since she bought her first pair of Converse One Stars and gave Wu Tang and Onyx’s ‘The Worst’ three re-spins on her radio show, whilst living in South Africa and dreaming of London. She’s been back in the capital for seven years now, her trainer collection has exploded, and she scribes for various music magazines, digging out the hottest beatfreakery.
http://www.helenedancer.com
One of my dreams is this; to see 4Hero perform ‘Creating Patterns’ in full, with a live orchestra. My requests have been met with radio silence, but I’ll keep prodding. This is important. The record brought a whole new texture to my days back in 2001 and even now, its velvety tones trace a journey that’s almost perfect from start to finish.
4Hero’s previous LP, ‘Two Pages’, was Marc Mac and Dego McFarlane’s first big studio album after they’d signed to Mercury Records’ Talkin’ Loud imprint. It signalled a shift from producing underground electronic music and served as their induction into the world of serious live composition. ‘Creating Patterns’ cemented this move and captured the spirit of the time. Jazz and electronics had fused and dance music was becoming more erudite.
Out of the first drone of the sitar raga in ‘Conceptions’ emerges a sculpted sound so lush in its production it’s breathtaking. Marc’s arrangements are influenced by all those soul music stalwarts he’s name checked in the past – Charles Stepney, Richard Evans and Gene Harris, to name but a few.
Among the world-class guests featured on the album, Ursula Rucker and her dulcet tones grace string arrangements so filled with poignancy they’re fit to break. Jill Scott says what’s on all our minds first thing in the morning in ‘Another Day’ – ‘I don’t wanna go to work today, I’d rather stay home and play video games’ – and it feels like a welcome caress.
Dego’s the more angular of the 4Hero pair and this is obvious in the album’s more jarring electronic moments. These provide a grittier antidote to Marc’s rolling, uplifting landscapes. It’s like the interplay between light and dark. The chemistry from this mutual dependency makes the journey ever richer. Dego’s productions on the album hark back more strongly to the pair’s Reinforced Records label days with a grimier and more street-level drum ‘n’ bass sound. When he takes over the journey, like on ‘2-BS-74638’, the album takes a turn for the more experimental. It’s still soulful, although stuff of a darker variety, and consistently compelling. His drum programming is inspired.
It is, however, Marc’s epic tunes that define the album. Face’s vocals on the heartbreakingly beautiful ‘Ways of Thought’ will forever make me cry, and their cover of Rotary Connection’s ‘Le Fleur’ is indomitable.
Eight years on and it still stands tall. Now all we need is that orchestra.
