Friday Eargasm

Ok, so it's a working title, and a working idea, but it's something new and everybody loves that.

So, I'm going to start a new feature, every Friday highlighting a track that may not necessarily be the best song in the world but sounds simply fantastic or has used production in a creative way.

With the advances in home production, it's becoming easier and easier to get a good sounding song. However, the markers for "good" have now been realigned as average, with sub-par production only acceptable if you're going down the lo-fi folk route. If you're in a rock band and your mixes are too high end, ripped from a video on your mobile, forget it. So, whether these songs are produced by musicians at home, mastered in a fancy NY studio or somewhere in between, they're sounds that stand out as going beyond that acceptable standard and demonstrating some real craftsmanship as musicians/producers.


To kick us off, we have an album I'm revisiting at the moment, the fabulous Insides by Jon Hopkins. Without giving an entire breakdown, Jon Hopkins is a solo electronic artist and has worked with the likes of Massive Attack, Imogen Heap, Brian Eno and Coldplay with his track Light Through The Veins bookending Viva La Vida rather famously (for them, not him sadly).





However, it is the title track from his most recent album that is this weeks Eargasm.

Insides is a dark brooding track with a strong dubstep feel to it. However, typical of Hopkins' work, the song expands on the basics of dubstep with a gutsy, glitchy and rumbly bass that chops and lurches through the track by adding layers of synths and other assorted sounds on top, creating an electronic composition greater than a wobbly bass line and some slow drums.

Hopkins' drum sounds snap and ring, each compacted bass drum thud matched with an equally harsh and insistent snare. This tight and solid bass end leaves plenty of room in the higher registers for floating melodies on a xylophone and chopped up 2-step vocals. There are plenty of glassy floating synths as well to differentiate sections of the song.

The simple drum beats are complimented with crescendo-ing cymbals and staccato bass synths, clearly identify the peaks and troughs of the track's intensity.

Hopkins' work is expansive whilst retaining a core; all too often expansive electronic music gets lots in the sheer space available. However, by building a solid idea with which to vary around, he ensures that all songs remain focused, despite his exploration of both registers.

It is not glitch-core or glitchy for the entirety, more as a point to build tension when necessary and lets the track flow when it suits it. He is a trained composer and pianist so he is not using the glitchy effect to align himself with other, more popular musicians. Everything has its purpose, every instrument is added and removed as he see's fit, not necessarily when it would be obvious to do so. This allows his grander and more thought-consuming instrumentation to really shine through, something I find sometimes gets lost in the Justice's and Major Lazer's of the world.

It's his attention to detail that is really obvious on this album, both setting him free as a musician and probably holding him back from anything bigger.


Below is a video of Insides live as it's seemingly impossible to find the album version for streaming. For better results, download from iTunes or even for the top trump, buy the CD.