JON HOPKINS

Opalescent

Just Music (2001)

Sorry - no album cover at this time

review by Bill Binkelman

Jon Hopkins is destined to be a huge star (or whatever qualifies as huge in the ambient and chill-out genres) if his debut, Opalescent, is any indication of his talent. This is one damn fine album, combining melodic minimal guitar refrains melodies (played on acoustic, what sounds like pedal steel, and electric versions of the instrument) with spacy/ambient synths and nicely chilled beats. Rhythms fluctuate between downtempo, chill-out, and trip-hop, but nothing on Opalescent is overpowering. However, this is not somnabulent either. In fact, the strength of the twelve songs on the CD is how engaging they are. Due to the presence of Hopkins' warm guitars, you'l never lose sight of the "humanity" of this music.

The recording is divided into songs that feature the guitar prominently, such as the shuffling opening track, "Elegiac" (with what sounds like three or four different types of guitars, especially a nice subtly Spanish flavored one - set against a backdrop of trip-hop beats and shimmering and twinkling synthesizer textures) to more overt electronic pieces, like the next song, "Private Universe" (which builds slowly from a cascade of various keyboards and synths before trippy/glitchy rhythms are folded in and the track really takes off).

When Hopkins slows things down to a "crawl" Opalescent is superb chill-out music (the midtempo finger-snapping/toe-tapping "Halcyon" or the somber trip-hop beat fest of ""Lost in Thought"). On tracks like "Fading Glow" (which, at almost seven minutes has lots of room to evolve), Hopkins shows off his ability to morph a song through several soundscapes; in this case, the cut begins in a drifting ambient vein, amid softly sighing synths, and slowly brings in interesting electronic rhythms side-by-side with almost pastoral acoustic guitar. The shorter songs here tend to be more "traditionally" ambient in nature - brief forays into formless electronic dreamscapes, like the aptly-titled "Apparition" (which could almost be from a Tim Story album, with its echoed minimal piano laid on top of melancholic synths). Other tracks, like "Cerulean," have a good-natured exuberance to their snare/cymbal beats, buzzing and whirring synths, and layers of rhythm guitar. On "Cold Out There" (another appropriately titled track), Hopkins dials up the "cool" side of chill-out, with a series of gently twinkling synths, swirling midrange keyboards, and an overall icy, yet pleasant, feel to the ambient music on the track.

While cast in the same general mold as another (equally impressive) blend of guitar and chill-out on Russia's Electroshock Records (Midway from artists Valery Siver and Kyrill Trepakov), Opalescent actually exists at the other end of the continuum. It's less moody than Midway - it's "brighter" in feel - and it more overtly emphasizes trip-hop rhythms through the use of "traditional" sounding drum programming than Midway's use of electronic beats (the latter also blends a touch of new age music into its melodic sensibility). However, I'll bet that if you like one of these two fantastic albums, you'll like the other one equally as well.

As I stated in the opening paragraph, Jon Hopkins is a startlingly brilliant talent, especially for being so young (21 at the time of the recording!). If this is where he's starting his career, I can scarcely imagine the delights that await us on future albums. Opalescent is one of the strongest debuts I've heard in years - and easily earns my highest recommendation.