4 Hero – Creating Patterns

I’m surprised to see no one commenting on the fact that there’s absolutely no overlap in the credits for these tracks. Mark Mac does his thing and Dego does his thing. They don’t even thank each other in their shout outs. So I guess by this point they had completely fallen out? This release to my ears is past the peak of Two Pages. It’s still enjoyable (though I agree with the below review that Dego’s tracks are a bit samey), but also sad.

There is something I find frustrating about 4hero starting in Creating Patterns: Dego and Marc Mac stick to tracks that are more... tropes? It is as if they pidgeonhole themselves into one of the two different compartments: Marc to the string based epic song reminiscent of the hippy jazzy scene like, yeah, Rotary Connection, and Dego to the more electronic and experimental and raw broken beat. Thing is, if you have followed the career of both you know that they are actually not that dissimilar (Marc tends to get lose more in piano chords and some riffs but that's mostly it) so I am wondering, in here and in "Play with the changes", how... sincere is what they are doing, how much they are composing stuff to stick to the brand they got themselves into.

There are good tracks, of course, and I cannot even say there is a bad one. The Dego ones can get a bit too similar to each other or too long (did "Golden Solitude" need that long intro?) and the Marc Mac ones follow a very strict pattern. But "Unique"/"Something Nothing" are here, as well as "Les Fleur" and in some editions "The Day of the Greys" which is the most spectacular epic piece on that "soul with strings" style with a Terry Callier who gathers an overwhelming collection of emotions. Yeah, collaborations started to be spectacular at this point.

In any case, if this album frustrates you too much, there is the rest of the huge enormous output of Dego and Marc Mac, where you will find (even in the last few years) hip hop, jungle, broken beat, techno and anything else, in a bit more of a free form way.

Any particular reason why Mark Murphy's track hasn't his vocals on it on the vinyl? Bit annoying :)

As the name implies, the English formation 4 Hero originally from four . When, however, in 1998 the breakthrough album Two Pages came out, there were only two about: Mark Mac (real name: Mark Clair) and Dego McFarlane. Along with Goldie and Roni Size 4 Hero long time belonged to the biggest innovators in the drum & bass genre. The above-mentioned double album Two Pages had two faces: the first part (Page One) sounded warm and melodic, while the second part (Page Two) especially from chilly, electronic break beats existed. With the successor Creating Patterns (2001) are they managed to mix these elements to a sound that feel free to be called unique. What at the first listening immediately noticeable is the fact that almost all the instruments are played by real musicians. The winds and strings come this time so not from a box and even most drum beats are real. In addition, the vocals become more important and it shows the best in the price numbers Golden Solitude, Another Day (featuring Jill Scott) and the great single Les Fleur. After a few spins, we must conclude that 4 Hero is the dance scene. With Creating Patterns they have a groundbreaking pop album made of which you can enjoy at home.