Is Four Tet Trolling Us on Spotify With a Cryptic Wingdings Alias Today?
If you're a devoted listener of Spotify's weekly New Music Friday playlist, you might have noticed an unintelligible string of wingdings occupying the last song slot today (March 16). Nope, the code isn't a glitch in the system: a click on the cryptic artist name (that is, ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ) leads to an artist page with six other tracks released over 2017, all with a similar combination of symbols as a title.
But Internet sleuths are speculating that the new single is actually Four Tet's Kieran Hebden in disguise, and they may be right.
Hebden tweeted a screenshot of himself listening to the track yesterday, and his Twitter page sports a new header displaying a nonsensical iMessage conversation filled with similar emojis and wingdings. Plus, the new track now appears at the top of a public playlist on Four Tet's official Spotify, which is also -- wait for it -- titled using the same strange symbols.
— Four Tet (@FourTet) March 15, 2018
One more interesting tidbit: the very first time the strange artist released a single in August 2017, Hebden posted a screenshot of the track to Four Tet's Twitter account, too. Coincidence? We think not.
The new song (titled ҉ ҉.·๑ඕั ҉ ̸ ̡ ҉ ҉.·๑ඕั ҉ ̸ ̡ ҉ ҉.·๑ඕั ҉ ̸ ̡ ҉ ҉.·๑ඕั ҉ ̸ ̡ ҉ , if you must know) is worth a listen either way, offering six minutes of ambient trance soundscapes and squeaky sonic bubbles.
Have a listen and ponder the mystery for yourself, below.