Jon Hopkins

Saw most of his set last night, was pretty cool!

Seeing him in a week. Anything notable? Should be fun seeing him as a headliner - last time I saw him he opened for Royksopp if I remember right

Hmm, notable? I guess it was more aggressive than what I was expecting, and he was a lot more active. Setting tempos and triggering in real time, that sort of thing. He was very busy. Daniel Avery's techno-heavy DJ set beforehand was pretty great, too.

new album is more aggressive than the last one too, or are you meaning even more than that

hopkins is a lot like clark too it seems..

xpost Hmm, he did start with pretty much the first few tracks from the new album, I think. But something about it seemed much more in your face, made for dancing and not introspection. Maybe it was simply a matter of volume!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G4kCi_ldr8

New album Music for Psychedelic Therapy' out today.

I haven't been able to test out its suitability for ketamine or other nostrums.

To ensure the album was fit for purpose, Hopkins listened back to it several times after taking ketamine, a dissociative anaesthetic sometimes used in psychedelic therapy. “Ketamine, for me, has always had an extraordinary synergy with music, particularly electronic and devotional music,” he says. “Maybe three months before mastering, when the album was starting to form as a complete thing, I would have a ketamine session and just lie there and return with notes on what was good and what was not good. It was my mind exploring tool. I almost called the album ‘Music for Ketamine Therapy’, which would be getting ridiculously niche, but for me that’s what it’s best suited for.”

When you do a deep listen, on a medicine, with a reasonable volume, it becomes a very emotionally intense thing,” says Hopkins. “But I think even a sober listener, listening at a decent volume, doing nothing else, will be taken somewhere.” He recommends listening to the album in a single sitting, lying down in the dark. “It asks something different of the listener because of the time scale it operates over,” he says. “Longform music is an incredible thing, and I like the idea of reacting to decreasing attention spans by making things that ask a little bit more, but hopefully give more as well.”

However listeners end up experiencing this album, Hopkins believes further research into the potential of psychedelic therapy can only benefit humanity as a species – particularly if it encourages us all to listen a little harder to what those plants are trying to tell us. “I see it as a protection method the Earth has got,” he says. “You can eat a psilocybin mushroom from the ground, and it teaches you a lesson about the importance of the ecosystem that generated that very mushroom. The message is right there, so it’s kind of impossible to ignore.”

I'm going to listen to it a bit more before commenting, but so far I like the combination of drone-y sections with nature sounds and gentle but insistent pulsing electronic elements.

I'm kind of confused as to what Hopkins is or is trying to be. On one hand he writes intimate songs with King Creosote but on the other dancey, processed head-bobby electronica for the kids? Then he plays spacey piano soundtrack-y stuff with nature sound ambient stuff? I appreciate that he has diverse interests, but other than the odd moment or melody, I have a hard time finding his center and a lot of it kind of washes over me.

I’d guess this is more of a personal project and one-off within his own work.

I don't know, to me he mostly stays in the triangle between ambient/soundtrack, IDM and minimal house/techno, like a lot of other producers. The King Creosote record I thought was mostly a production job?

I think Hopkins consistently produces good stuff but I also find it hard to get super excited about him.

I think Hopkins consistently produces good stuff but I also find it hard to get super excited about him.

― Siegbran

This is where I am with him. He’s very capable as a producer and composer but I can’t seem to click with his thing.

Started hearing this new one yesterday and got super bored, skipped ahead and it was more of the same thing… I guess it serves a very specific purpose.

the correct soundtrack for ketamine "therapy" is mid-90s happy hardcore compilation CDs at mind melting volume, i like this dude's big budget new age-tronica but cmon

I've no experience of ketamine at all, but I was intrigued by an episode in the last series of High Maintenance where someone uses/abuses a ketamine nasal spray.- which is apparently a real treatment for depression. That looked like it could be fun to do with this soundtrack.

mushrooms are not plants, jesus christ

closer to getting high from eating the eye boogers of a rotting hyena

nature, ecology and psychedelic experience are both super dope but not taking advice from anybody who can’t tell the six kingdoms apart lol

Ram Dass track was suprisingly beautiful. Not sure if it really benefits from repeat listens but as a one off I was surprised by how well it did. Then again, one of my favourite BOC tracks has that cheesy porn monologue in it so maybe this will continue to hold up as well?

Belatedly reporting back that the only part I like of this is the 'excerpt' - I have difficulty finding any interest in the rest of it.

I'm sure he's super sincere, but this is so credulous:

“You can eat a psilocybin mushroom from the ground, and it teaches you a lesson about the importance of the ecosystem that generated that very mushroom. The message is right there, so it’s kind of impossible to ignore.”

Err.. do you have a theory about Hemlock, or even Tobacco?

Hemlock is poisonous in toto, and is mostly used for pulpwood.

Tobacco must be cured before consumption.

What he's saying is a bit hippie-ish, yes, but it's also true to a certain extent-- a tiny mushroom can make you see God.