4 Hero ‘Creating Patterns’
March 25th, 2002 by freddie96
4 HERO
Creating Patterns
(Talkin Loud)
Three years on from ‘Two Pages’ and what do we have? The answer is another album that requires work to enjoy its rich rewards, with a few immediate stand-out tracks. Disregarding the previous album’s CD2 for a moment, ‘Two Pages’ was remarkable for introducing a largely acoustic, string and horns led ensemble playing 4 Hero live, and was seen as radical for that reason – along with combining a rich vein of soul history with a contemporary approach.
Whilst ‘Creating Patterns’ sits, slightly uneasily, between the two very different CDs of ‘Two Pages’, it manages to display a confidence and maturity that has really become evident on these latest recordings. Vocal performances by Ursula Rucker, Jill Scott (on the compulsive ‘Another Day’), 60s beat poet Mark Murphy, and Terry Callier are greatly enhanced by the arrangements in question – many of them demonstrating the sophistication of, say, Steely Dan or Charles Stepney. Dego and Mark Mac are surely worthy of being called consummate producers for their work here and there’s nothing they do better than coax some pretty earth-shattering performances out of this ensemble.
And then there’s the anthemic Minnie Ripperton cover of ‘Les Fleur’ featuring the awesome vocals of Carina Anderson – well known to Big Chillers already, and the equally strong broken beat excursion ‘Hold It Down.’ This is modern urban folk music which surprises and delights through the unfamiliarity and surprise of the patterns it creates. PL
