This is a Jazz album. It’s cosmic, spiritual and heavy. ‘NYC’ is also a damn funky album. But most of all, it sounds more physical than anything else you’ll hear this year.

Electronic boffin Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, and veteran Jazz drummer Steve Reid have released three previous albums together. On ‘NYC’, their fourth collaboration, things finally fall into place for my ears. While the duo’s earlier efforts where all pretty ‘cosmic’, they now add ‘heavy’ to the mix, grounding their trippy sound journeys with some deep and solid grooves.

Steve Reid is the heart and soul of this album. Reid is a well respected Jazz drummer who goes back to the heady days of the 1960’s Cosmic Jazz underground. He has played with Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra. But Steve also knows how to get butts moving. He earned his Funk chops playing in the house band of Harlem’s Apollo Theatre and with the Godfather of Funk himself, James Brown.

You sure get more butt shaking music on ‘NYC’ than on earlier Hebden/Reid titles like ‘Tongues’ or ‘The Exchange Sessions Vol.1 and 2′. My favourite grooves among the six tracks on ‘NYC’ are ‘1st & 1st’, ‘25th Street’ and ‘Between B And C’.

Kieran Hebden builds layers of trippy electronic sound effects over Reid’s drumming and adds the occasional bass line or keyboard riff. Mercifully, Hebden has changed his style from hyperactive overdrive to a less-is-more approach. His contributions are more laid back and flow better with Reid’s patterns than on the duo’s previous recordings.

Watch Kieran And Steve Perform ‘Arrival’ Live

As an album, ‘NYC’ is propulsive in a way that matches the best in contemporary Dance genres like Dubstep. Yet it changes, oscillates and breathes in a way that is rarely achieved by drum machines or music software. Listening to ‘NYC’ is a very physical experience: Things get hit and sweat is flying through the air.

DJs, whether you’re listening at home or are playing out to a crowd, play some soulful 70’s Disco after this, something with a big gospel choir maybe. The Joubert Singers’ ‘Stand On The Word’ played after Hebden/Reid’s ‘25th Street’ does it for me.

Allow yourself to let go and listen to ‘NYC’ with an open mind. You need a bit of time to do this, don’t cram it in and don’t listen to it piecemeal.

Downloads are not yet commercially available. You can get the album from Amazon on CD and on a heavyweight vinyl pressing via the links below.

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