Review: Jon Hopkins - Singularity

Imagine waking up one day and realising you were just about to be able to experience the next near-perfect creation from one of this century's most inspired, unique and downright awesome Electronic artists.

That day was today, and that artist is Jon Hopkins.

Thanks (once again) to my good friend Ben Wall - whose encyclopedic knowledge of Tech and Microhouse amongst others has helped me plunder new material like a crazed collector - I was introduced to Jon Hopkins via 2013's 'Immunity', a defining work in itself, a powerhouse of an album and one I have done more than my fair share of both running and commuting to.

Already reconciling my mind to believe this was his greatest work, I approached 'Singularity' with the requisite quantity of skepticism.

I needn't. It is phenomenal.

Ten seconds into title track and opener 'Singularity' I was hooked, as the single note ('Contact Note', if you will....see what I did there?) hums into view and then pulsates rapidly with ever-increasing intensity and the people-with hands-in-air intro continues to 90 seconds before introducing 3 notes that roll across the distortion. By 2 minutes in, we have a thud-thud-thud backdrop interspersed with electronically echo-enhanced vocal noises, like siren calls. Scratching, bumping, dirty synth and intensity builds simultaneously to a crescendo and at 4min 30secs the beat fully drops. By this point my heart is already somewhere a foot in front of my chest and I'm halfway out the door wanting to go to Fabric or somewhere else I can release this energy that Hopkins is providing me via my ears.

Cut to 'Emerald Rush', taking a beautiful cue from the sensation of space-walk with a sequence of piano notes and computer beep samples, dialling back the intensity to allow one to feel at peace....until it drops again. I'm pinned against my chair by the bass, accompanied by rising notes, a bouncing rhythm and piano overlays all in perfect alignment. The denouement to the track is a beautiful fade out and the whole thing shuffles back into the darkness like a quiet and curious night creature.

'Neon Pattern Drum' has some beautiful light chimes, echoes and subtle vocal samples sitting behind the incessant and heavy beats which somehow serve to give the track a more delicate edge than you might first expect, considering it's no less bassy or danceable than some of the other notable Hopkins efforts on 'Immunity' or 'Contact Note'. The stripping back of elements at the end of the track leaving a single persistent note and heartbeat rhythm works so well.

'Everything Connected' starts with the same BPM as 'Neon Pattern Drum' and gets straight to the point within 15 seconds. I am already starting to run out of superlatives for this album but if you only listen to one track, make it this one as it is totally superb, or as JH himself says "a massive techno bastard'. It's what beauty itself would write if it had a Roland RE-501 Chorus Echo, a Livid CNTRL:R and a shitload of other stuff that I don't get how it works.

Make way for 'Feel First Life'. If 'Everything Connected' was the disease, this is the perfect antedote. Dawn on the dark side of the moon, if you will. A series of simple piano notes, lush strings, choral voices and a sense of hope shroud this track and if you relax into it and close your eyes you are truly somewhere else. This is an inverse emotional experience in every way to the last track, but it fits well in the ordering. You'd be forgiven for getting a little glassy-eyed here and this is the majesty of JH's craft: opposite ends of the intensity spectrum nestled perfectly aside one another. Belonging in different strata but existing in the same place.

'C O S M' has a light touch introduction to it also, with some wonderful plinky-plonky synths, echo samples and hidden voices until a soft beat homes into view, rising to invite a low-res vibration across its path and create images of a room filled with all kinds of spectral light in which you float as this soundtrack-to-the-senses immerses you from all sides.

'Echo Dissolve' is another piano-driven track, using simple yet utterly effective keys to provide the listener with a calming intermission in the final third of the album. The distant sounds of traffic almost hidden from view here add to the atmosphere without wanting to dominate or take away from the simple beauty.

We come to the second of the longer running tracks, 'Luminous Beings', in which we're reintroduced to beats and the overriding feeling that everything JH is doing here is a quest to make each track sound and feel alive. He does it with aplomb, and the feelings of euphoria that are created when this is in full flow are likely to make anyone who absorbs themselves in it to have a moment and wish they were back in Ibiza, London, New York or anywhere where there are good acoustics and like-minded individuals to share the experience with.

The closing track 'Recovery' is an apt title indeed, given the wave of emotions you'll likely have experienced during this eclectic listening assemblage. Delicate piano once again takes centre stage for a final time and do cock an ear to pick out the submarine radar stitched neatly into the track as it fades. It ends poignantly on exactly the same note as the album started, suggesting - nay, urging - to loop around to the front and start all over again. And why not?

I have to confess I am supremely gutted that I'm missing the album launch at Village Underground Shoreditch on 10th May despite trying to get tickets. My only hope is that I will get to see him tour it later in 2018 or early 2019 as I already know the live experience will be a sight to behold and I would love to shake the man by the hand for this work alone.

Ok, now I need a lie down before I listen again.

Epic.

10/10

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