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Track Listings
| 1. The Wilder Sun |
| 2. Vessel |
| 3. Insides |
| 4. Wire |
| 5. Colour Eye |
| 6. Light Through Veins |
| 7. The Low Places |
| 8. Small Memory |
| 9. A Drifting Up |
Product Description
Review
Any of Coldplay's more traditional fans slightly bewildered by the more experimental touches Brian Eno brought to Viva La Vida must have been completely confused when the band chose that album's other co-producer Jon Hopkins to open their concerts last year. For a purveyor of radio-friendly rock this London-based composer and producer most certainly is not.
Rather, over the course of two previous solo albums and studio work for artists as disparate as King Creosote and David Holmes, Hopkins has made his name crafting sounds which belong somewhere between contemporary classical and electronica's more abrasive extremes, an entire world away from the enormous stadiums to which his newfound friends took him on tour.
That's not to say Hopkins isn't capable of producing music as epic, soaring and emotional as any power ballad in his own way though. Take Light Through The Veins for example - the centrepiece of his new solo album and the track that apparently convinced Coldplay to get him onboard. A close relative of Ulrich Schnauss' In All The Wrong Places, it's a majestic piece of widescreen shoegazing which grows ever more expansive throughout its entire ten minute duration.
There are other melodic moments as well, particularly when this classically-trained musician takes to the piano on closing track Autumn Hill, a work which recalls his mentor Brian Eno's collaborations with Harold Budd. Yet even Autechre obsessives - let alone Coldplay fans - might find the churning dissonance in Colour Eye or the title track's serrated teeth disorientating. But then Insides clearly hasn't been made to appeal to those who only know his name through association with Chris Martin and co; for no amount of reflected glory could ever fully illuminate Insides' mysterious depths. --Paul Clarke
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By J. Cooper
Format:Audio CD
Contact Note and Opalescent are excellent albums, but I must confess I only gave them four stars as I felt they didn't really stretch the genre too far. Sure there are moments of divine beauty ,"otherness", drift, "shoegaze"( a term I find hard to like )...but still at times things were a little too safe, the triphop tv-ad like beat a little over-used.
With Insides Jon Hopkins cuts lose- everything from hard beat electronica to folk, from pulsing ambient dark trance to traditional Japanese instrumentation is used to explore new ground with enough interest to captivate most fans of the previous two albums...Think Ulrich Schnauss meets the better "soft" tracks by Plaid (Sincetta, Zamami without going too far/experimental/nuts like plaid can), but with Jon Hopkins' effortless, smooth arrangement. It like the album I hoped Plaid had made..beautiful but without the random noodling...Low Places is utter genius...this is music that moves, takes you, haunts you...
I love it, but the wife finds some bits a little edgy/ too electronic as Jon experiments with breakbeat/jazz percussion patterns, some with hardcore analogue synth sounds, so be warned spa owners and new agers...its not all smooth going. If you like an "edge" to chilled music then its here...every so often deft touches of piano smooth the buzz.
For anyone with an open mind and an appreciation of really beautiful music I highly recommend this album...something for a seriously good pair of headphones and no interruptions...Schnauss, Plaid, Port-Royal,Cocteaus/Guthrie/Rumskib types,Lunz, ambient, chilled electronica fans please enjoy...
ps For anyone disappointed in Jon Hopkins' new exploratory direction there is an ep of three tracks more akin to his pevious material, one track of which "fairytale" is utterly beautiful and highly recommended..
With Insides Jon Hopkins cuts lose- everything from hard beat electronica to folk, from pulsing ambient dark trance to traditional Japanese instrumentation is used to explore new ground with enough interest to captivate most fans of the previous two albums...Think Ulrich Schnauss meets the better "soft" tracks by Plaid (Sincetta, Zamami without going too far/experimental/nuts like plaid can), but with Jon Hopkins' effortless, smooth arrangement. It like the album I hoped Plaid had made..beautiful but without the random noodling...Low Places is utter genius...this is music that moves, takes you, haunts you...
I love it, but the wife finds some bits a little edgy/ too electronic as Jon experiments with breakbeat/jazz percussion patterns, some with hardcore analogue synth sounds, so be warned spa owners and new agers...its not all smooth going. If you like an "edge" to chilled music then its here...every so often deft touches of piano smooth the buzz.
For anyone with an open mind and an appreciation of really beautiful music I highly recommend this album...something for a seriously good pair of headphones and no interruptions...Schnauss, Plaid, Port-Royal,Cocteaus/Guthrie/Rumskib types,Lunz, ambient, chilled electronica fans please enjoy...
ps For anyone disappointed in Jon Hopkins' new exploratory direction there is an ep of three tracks more akin to his pevious material, one track of which "fairytale" is utterly beautiful and highly recommended..
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Jack Hues
Format:Audio CD
Take out the mini-headphones and listen to this on proper speakers that move some air. This is a fabulous sounding recording - lots of low end and fascinating detail.
Though some of the tracks lapse into over-reliance on macho drums to drive the tracks most sustain themselves with beautiful colours and transitions and, most important of all, some compelling musical ideas. "The Low Places" in particular is haunting and uplifting in equal measure. The soft piano timbre and ambient detail - the creaking piano stall, traffic outside the window, the car horn that turns into a strand of harmonic detail (all of which may be real or contrived) - superb imaginative work that feels very contemporary.
No vocals, some well recorded solo strings and a spectrum of electronic and found sounds to tantalise the most jaded palette. It works as a complete album listening experience and bears repeated listening.
Though some of the tracks lapse into over-reliance on macho drums to drive the tracks most sustain themselves with beautiful colours and transitions and, most important of all, some compelling musical ideas. "The Low Places" in particular is haunting and uplifting in equal measure. The soft piano timbre and ambient detail - the creaking piano stall, traffic outside the window, the car horn that turns into a strand of harmonic detail (all of which may be real or contrived) - superb imaginative work that feels very contemporary.
No vocals, some well recorded solo strings and a spectrum of electronic and found sounds to tantalise the most jaded palette. It works as a complete album listening experience and bears repeated listening.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By alexisalex
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I loved the previous 2 albums, but this one troubled me. It had the same sublmie melodic music as in the previous 2 but he has added what to me is an intrusive glitchy sound, way too foreground and which I find just irritating. I have deleted tracks 3 and 5 which are the worse offenders, and the rest of the album is lovely. After track 6 the glitches and squeaks, and horrible breakbeat rhythm which I also do not like, fade into the background. Of course he is the artist, and free to do what he wants, but I do hope this is not a new direction. I am the listener and free not to purchase what I don't like. I don't like Aphix Twin, so if you do, maybe it is your thing. I like Jon Hopkins and the beautiful music he makes. So a curates egg. If he were to make a non glitchy version of this cd I would buy that. To me the glitches just got in the way. I just wanted to reach in and pluck them out so I could listen to the music without being slightly irritated.
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4.7 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jon, what happened?
previous albums fantastic but I'm not so sure about this..It grates and is jarring on several tracks trying to change style to do something unnecessarily, I think. Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2010 by Tonkers
4.0 out of 5 stars
The New William Orbit?
I used to be a fan of william orbit in the 90s and early 00's. Jon Hopkins album 'Insides' is what William Orbit might have sounded like if he'd continued the Strange Cargo... Read more
Published on 19 May 2010 by Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Signposts For A Hopeful Heart
Words can barely convey the extraordinary power and beauty of this album.
Consider this brief review as a signpost. A map at most. Read more
Consider this brief review as a signpost. A map at most. Read more
Published on 25 July 2009 by The Wolf
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