Jon Hopkins
Emerald Rush
Domino
Jon Hopkins has been busy since the release of his Mercury Prize nominated album Immunity in 2013. There’s been remix albums, soundtracks, various re-imaginings, Late Night Tales, production credits for London Grammar and Coldplay, and let’s not forget a memorable Laneway tour at which he went close to best on ground.
But musically, the signature techno of Immunity has been largely absent. That sound finally makes a return for his first ‘proper’ solo album in five years, Singularity, and the first single lifted from it, Emerald Rush.
A song largely in two parts, Emerald Rush is sparkling electronic music pitting his ambient and more banging tendencies against one another. Beginning with glimmering arpeggios that subtly shift tempo across the song’s introductory minute, they’re accompanied by lone piano notes before at 1:30 mins the bass starts to reverberate and 15 seconds later the beat drops and seems to suck the track through a vortex of ascending techno. Ethereal vocals add texture over the top and the whole thing is really quite a magical, err, rush.
HARVEY RAE
