HomeFour TetPause
Pause
Electronic · 2001 · 11 tracks

Pause

A sun-dappled masterpiece of folktronica, blending acoustic guitar plucks, dusty harp samples, and domestic field recordings with warm, organic hip-hop beats.

Find on Amazon

Folktronica breakthrough

A computer keyboard clacks in an empty room, opening a door to a world of dust-mote folk and slow-motion hip-hop. Acoustic guitar strings buzz against the frets while harp samples loop like old film reels. It feels like sitting on a sun-warmed wooden floor in mid-afternoon, surrounded by the quiet hum of household electronics. This record took digital production out of the cold, dark club and let it breathe in the messy, natural light of a living room.

Pause · vs · Four Tet
Acoustic Guitar+2.6σ

The prominent use of acoustic guitar introduces a rustic, hand-plucked warmth that grounds the electronic patterns in a way that is uniquely tactile and organic for his discography.

Tracklist · 11 Tracks
01
Glue of the World
5:02
02
Twenty Three
3:34
03
Harmony One
1:42
04
Parks
6:04
05
Leila Came Round and We Watched a Video
1:39
06
Untangle
4:37
07
Everything Is Alright
2:32
08
No More Mosquitoes
3:39
09
Tangle
3:44
10
You Could Ruin My Day
7:04
11
Hilarious Movie of the 90’s
3:29
Moments Worth Waiting For
01Glue of the WorldThe rhythmic clatter of computer keyboard typing opens the album, establishing a domestic motif that recurs across multiple tracks.
11Hilarious Movie of the 90’sThe office-setting field recordings return to bookend the album, dissolving the final melodic loops back into the sound of typing.
This album marks the project's transition to Domino Recording Company after a debut distributed by Output Recordings.
Sits BesideSee all
Sixteen Oceans
Sixteen Oceans
Four Tet
2020

Shares harp, absent, electronica, ambient techno (instrumentation)

Seven Gulps of Air
Seven Gulps of Air
Jon Hopkins
2009

Shares field_recordings, electronica, ambient techno, downtempo (signature)

E S T A R A
E S T A R A
Teebs
2014

Shares harp, field_recordings, absent, early_morning (instrumentation)

Kingdom
Kingdom
Gold Panda
2016

Shares field_recordings, electronica, ambient techno, downtempo (signature)

COW / Chill Out, World!
COW / Chill Out, World!
The Orb
2016

Shares field_recordings, ambient techno, early_morning, forest (signature)

Burning
Burning
Deep Forest
2023

Shares electronica, ambient techno, chanting, field_recordings (subgenre)

The Urban Haze EP
The Urban Haze EP
Basement Jaxx
1997

Shares field_recordings, absent, ambient techno, chanting (signature)

The North Borders
The North Borders
Bonobo
2013

Shares harp, field_recordings, ambient techno, forest (instrumentation)

Gold in a Brass Age
Gold in a Brass Age
David Gray
2019

Shares electronica, early_morning, forest, indie folk (subgenre)

Still on My Mind
Still on My Mind
Dido
2019

Shares sunday_morning, electronica, ambient techno, early_morning (signature)

Reviews
Critic Consensus

Critics widely praised the album's warm, pastoral atmosphere, which beautifully merged organic acoustic instrumentation with gentle electronic programming. Reviewers were particularly charmed by the cozy, relaxed mood, admiring how seamlessly the delicate folk-tinged samples and intricate beats came together.

Tiny Mix Tapes4/ 5
Stylus MagazineB+
Playlouder4/ 5 stars
Pitchfork8.0/ 10
NME9/ 10
Read review
Dotmusic4.5/ 5 stars
Metacritic85/ 100
Read review
AllMusic4/ 5 stars
Read review

Cassette uses generative AI to enrich its catalog. How we use AI →