I got the new Jon Hopkins album at the weekend, a beautifully packaged album on two vinyl discs (which are pressed onto a sumptuous deep blue vinyl to match the album cover. Occasionally I buy a new record and am shocked to find when I take it out of the inner sleeve that it has been pressed on black vinyl. I'm happy with black vinyl too- I don't really need all these colourful discs).
Hopkins suffered from writer's block after his 2013 album and according to an interview I read recently found his way out of it with a combination of meditation and hallucinogens. The album is a beauty, a record to lose oneself in, expertly paced with a balance of electronic grooves, meditative piano pieces and tracks which are physical, that demand a response from the listener. In places the rhythms and the drums threaten to run away with songs, the synths and instruments having to twist themselves inside out to keep up. The one that keeps me flicking the needle back at the moment is the ten minute techno track Everything Connected, a monster of beats and bass and synths, building and dropping and getting a little bit frazzled. It is, as people like to say, a banger. It fits well with last year's Bicep album and that recent Four Tet remix of Bicep.
I am now away for a few days. We are taking ourselves off after work tonight to the Lake District for a few days, camping and living under the constellations Hopkins has adorned his record with. See you for more blogging fun early next week.
4 comments:
It's a beaut SA, although I still get up and check the needle during Neon Drum Pattern.
Enjoy your break, and if you are staring into the night sky look out for the ISS which is incredibly bright at the moment, two great views of the pass over on the last two evenings. check @vitualastro on Twitter for times as it is visable for the next week from UK
I don't know SA, sometimes I think we are breathing air from the same Astral Plane. I was taking a ride with Singluarity just yesterday!! Hopkins creates Techno that transcends, reflects an electronic past and elevates the listener. For me the best Techno sets out to create a mood, a space. Singularity does both, all the while offering a musical ride that's impossible to pass up.
ZOMG, so good.
Sounds like a beautiful time away, Adam. Enjoy. I am not a fan of vinyl with color, particularly when they are opaque. I have a very old Technics linear tracking turntable that can't read the grooves on opaque vinyl. That's a lot of extra work for me these days trying to guess whether I'll be able to play a new album... or not. Finding black vinyl right now can be quite a challenge! Ah, first-world problems, eh?
Post a Comment