Four Tet has become a surprisingly major presence in mainstream dance music, regularly teaming up with Skrillex and Fred again.. in addition to releasing festival anthems on Ministry of Sound. He still saves his most reflective material for his own albums, though, and 2024s Three is one of his most downtempo-focused efforts since the 2000s. Opener "Loved" does little more than layer pretty, sparkling melodies over a slow, sturdy drum loop, but it hits the spot. "Storm Crystals" is a more leisurely stroll and gets sprinkled with glittering synth textures and chimes. "Daydream Repeater" is the albums clubbiest track, applying noisy guitar glide to a flickering microhouse beat, then clearing out for a gorgeous harp-like melody. "Skater" is a moodier track featuring post-punk guitars, but the calming synths and wordless female vocals pull the tune away from the darker impulses implied at the beginning. "31 Bloom" is another low-key dance track with finely tuned beats and popping textures, mostly staying in a unified mode but always progressing with subtle variations and never exactly repeating itself. "Three Drums," an eight-minute track first issued as a single a year earlier, concludes the album. The sublime downtempo cut starts out with an immediately comforting drum loop and cool synth pads, then gradually gains swirling strings and flutes and swelling distortion, somewhat like a more steadily paced version of Nathan Fakes "The Sky Was Pink." Gently cooing vocal loops wind the lovely song to a close. Some of the tracks on Three cover similar territory, but overall, the album is much more tightly focused than the abstract yet personal Sixteen Oceans. ~ Paul Simpson

Rovi