Oceans full of uplifting tunes

As the world literally closes around us, as uncertainties stack up and we self-isolate and social distance ourselves, we can still keep music close.

Occasionally. I like to write a column about how best to support the musicians you love. There’s no better way than attending a gig, but that’s out of the question for the foreseeable future. Paying for streaming helps the music industry overall, but that money rarely (or barely) gets through to independent artists.

Most musicians agree the most direct way is Bandcamp. The website makes it easy to buy music, which is priced by the artist. Bandcamp takes a small percentage off the top, but the majority of the purchase goes straight to the artist. There’s merchandise, too.

There’s so much good music out there. Not only do we live in the first time in history where every song from every era is just a click away, there’s more coming every day.

Already 2020 has produced some crackers.

Nadia Reid, Ria Hall, Tami

Neilson, and Christine and the Queens have all delivered the goods. In hip-hop, the Lil Uzi Vert album is pretty exceptional, 070 Shake had a cracker of a debut, and Guilty Simpson’s record is still on high-rotate here and gets better with every play.

If you like dancing or blissing out to instrumentals, Tycho has a new album that sounds like his previous three (a good thing), and Caribou’s Suddenly is so good it took him straight to the head of the class until . . . the Four Tet album came out this week.

Sixteen Oceans bristles with such energy and creativity it makes an inspiring journey, even in isolation.

Ideally the songs would be consumed in a dark, sweaty room surrounded by like-minded fools, but these hypnotic creations work just as well in the backyard with full sunshine.

Four Tet is Kieran Hebden, an English music producer whose formidable reputation for sustained excellence in introverted dance music has built up over 20 years. The best artists in the world queue to get a Four Tet remix.

There’s a track on Sixteen Oceans called Insect Near Piha Beach and it’s a total thumper, with a wild harp plucking rapidly ascending arpeggios.

After several listens, I still can’t hear the creature that inspired the song. I bet it’s in there somewhere though, layered under the beats and I’ve just missed it because I get carried away by the groove.

The moments of ecstasy he unleashes here make you want to dance like no-one’s watching.

And no-one is.