If you came to love Jon Hopkins from laid-back electro releases or his Mercury Prize-nominated King Creosote collaboration, ‘Diamond Mine’, then be warned: this is not more of the same.
‘Immunity’ might be the most dance-focused album Hopkins has ever produced. It bursts with techno beats that jump wildly from deep and dark to bright and euphoric.
You’re welcomed into this new world with the literal sound of Hopkins opening the door to his studio – those noises of everyday life he likes to throw into his mix, beats emerging from a cup of tea in a local café.
But this soon makes way for muddy pulses of electro in tracks like ‘Open Eye Signal’, growing and swelling over swirls of celestial ambiance, or the huge ‘Collider’, with its twisting time signatures. It makes you hope there’s a hidden entrance in that café that takes you down to a dingy club full of sweaty people going mental.
There’s a great blend of Hopkins’ chilled-out side, like the shattered woody piano on ‘Form By Firelight’ or the wisps of Thom Yorke-like vocals on ‘Sun Harmonics’, alongside this newer, bigger club sound.
As an album, ‘Immunity’ takes you everywhere, while, track by track, you have your pick: from something to get everyone dancing, to the soundtrack of the sun rising over a perfect night, ending with a beautiful bonus bit of King Creosote for the hypnotic title track.
7/10
Words: Gemma Hampson
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