Happiness (Reissue)

If you've ploughed through all Four Tet's albums and myriad singles, EPs, and remixes, it's time to find out where it all began. While Kieran Hebden's solo career began with 1999's Dialogue, he was already well and truly established as a respected musician with instrumental trio Fridge. Now, after a long time in the deleted catalogue wilderness, Fridge's celebrated fourth album Happiness is getting the reissue we all know it deserves. Full of wonderful chip-chopped organic instrumentation, electronic folk, twisted jazz, and lush experimentation, Happiness reissue contains a bonus track - Five Combs - as if you needed convincing.

Formed in 1996 by schoolmates Kieran Hebden, Adem Ilhan, and Sam Jeffers, Fridge were astonishingly prolific in their early years – releasing ten singles and four albums in just their first four years together. After a brief stint with a major label imprint – which saw the trio release their most focused album to date (Eph, 1999) – Fridge delivered their fourth album, Happiness.

Originally released in 2001, Happiness was a sprawling, pastoral masterpiece – an innovative mix of acoustic clatter, electronic exploration, hip-hop production techniques, and experimental rock arrangements. Along with Hebden’s blossoming solo project, Four Tet, Happiness dragged the most compelling elements of the typically self-serious electronic, indie, and avant-rock of the 1990s and married them to eclectic folk and spiritual jazz for the new century. More remarkably, they did it without an ounce of pretense, imbued with an earnest and intimate execution that stood in stark contrast to virtually every comparable album of its time.

Tracklist

1 LP1: Melodica & Trombone
2 Drum Machines & Glockenspiel
3 Cut up Piano & Xylophone
4 Tone Guitar & Drum Noise
5 Five Four Child Voice (Remastered) LP2: Sample & Clicks
6 Drums Bass Sonics & Edits
7 Harmonics
8 Long Singing
9 Five Combs (Bonus Track)