Singularity | Jon Hopkins
Jon Hopkins' focused release, Singularity, is a cerebral and immersive journey.
Singularity
Committing to producer Jon Hopkins' new album, Singularity, is accepting the suspension of disbelief we all tune-on when slipping into a darkened theater.
The entrance is foreign and dissonant. You aren't sure which plants are poisonous and what exactly is causing that strange light to flicker. A barrage, parade, or technicolor thunderstorm --we aren't sure which-- bellows as we are guided along.
When the rising waters finally part in the opening track, the atoms have split into a propelling and mechanical world above us. It's enrapturing and unsustainable.
He speaks with the language of industrial house, but without any back-row bro pumping his fist in the air. Even the pummeling beats are saccharine.
Through the immense Everything Connected expanses collapse and reopen, and beats (and song titles?) that could feel trite have too much resonance and personality to be dismissed. Your perspective is constantly adjusting, never quite sure what is in focus as textured gloss takes turns stepping over and around assertive house rhythms.
Layers of life greet us as we pass from corridor to corridor.
Even in Emerald Rush's glowing motion and arpeggios, early on the universe cracks its back and starts into a comfortable and sustaining jog.
When worlds that resemble bass-heavy trance return to form, it feels tuned into the background and a sweet, fragmented meaning, larger than the 16x9 frame we see presses gently into our vision.
Hopkins' music feels as interested in exploring the inner world as the world outside of us.
The night cascades in Luminous Beings, and we are a little taller than the blades of grass shimmering around us. Gently laying us into his closing track, Recovery, soft piano tropes and low-hanging fruit are bypassed in favor of meditation.
We lay still. The world moves --not around us-- but we're watching, and we're a part.
Singularity by Jon Hopkins - Album Cover
---
New article coming soon.
---
New article coming soon.