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Hear Four Tet Cut Justin Timberlake’s ‘Suit & Tie’ to Ribbons

Justin Timberlake / Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage

Here’s one you probably didn’t see coming: A Four Tet remix of Justin Timberlake’s “Suit & Tie.” It’s legit, too. Last week, when the remix leaked, Four Tet (Kieran Hebden) confirmed to SPIN that it was his work. “Yeah, it’s an official remix commissioned by the label,” he wrote in an e-mail, “and it just got approved, so I think it will be getting a proper release. It got leaked yesterday, which is how people suddenly know about it. The sound on the leak is distorted, too, which is making it even more annoying.”

Well, turn that frown upside down: Hebden has uploaded a new version of the remix to his own SoundCloud account. It’s hard to imagine a better fusion of the two artists’ strengths, either. Hebden goes to town on Timberlake’s voice, looping wordless vocal scraps and a sliver of plucked guitar into a soft tonal cushion, and then piling on layer after layer of sliced and diced falsetto cries like so much confetti. It’s practically all a cappella, save for a scuffed, swinging house rhythm in the spirit of Four Tet’s recent 12-inches on his own Text label. Compared to JT’s opulent original, it’s a riches-to-rags story, untucked and elegantly rumpled.

In other Four Tet news, today he also posted the new track “In These Time” to his SoundCloud account. It’s remarkably similar in vibe to his Justin Timberlake remix, looping a snippet of voice and guitar into a background wash suggestive of African desert blues, and building a jittery monument to tumbledown house on top. The track is his contribution to the Think and Change compilation that’s out this week on Boddika’s NonPlus label, alongside tracks from Boddika & Joy Orbison, Pearson Sound, Kassem Mosse, and Scuba in his SCB guise. Check out both tracks below.