Four Tet The Reservoir

Have we reached a consensus yet on sitar samples? Like or dislike? Corny or actually creative?

I’m normally wary of Eastern instruments sampled in Western music, often used just to evoke a cheesy, hollow sense of exoticism. But after hearing Four Tet beautifully weave Eastern influences into his latest project, I had to admit I couldn’t generalize an entire class of instruments. Sonically, their sounds are lovely with unique tone – ethereal, cool, round, and airy...and perfectly contrasted with the deep, grinding drums.

Stumbling on this track on Spotify, the expert use of these elements sounded all too familiar, despite both the track title and artist name being unintelligible gibberish. Sure enough, some Googling told me that Four Tet was in fact the one behind this little dance gem. And with that light, string melody, I can’t imagine why he’d want to hide it.