LateNightTales

Liner Note Authors: Bill Brewster; Jon Hopkins.
Photographer: Steve Glick.
It would be an understatement to say that Jon Hopkins' career turned a corner between the release of his first mix album, The Art of Chill 2, and the release of his second one, a volume in the LateNightTales series. For starters, from late 2005 through early 2015, the producer/musician made albums with Brian Eno and King Creosote, composed music for a dance production and films, and released the well-regarded solo recordings Insides and Immunity. LateNightTales is Hopkins' first "proper" mix album since the tracks for The Art of Chill 2 were dealt to him. This time, Hopkins selected and mixed, and added his own touches, including piano and synthesizer, to enhance the continuous dream-like sequence. Even the contrasting consecutive picks -- like Darkstar's glistening, skyward "Hold Me Down" and Holy Other's dragging, alien "Yr Love" -- are compatible, their transitions made with ease. The majority of the mix is beatless and becalmed with periodic surges in energy that never startle. The Four Tet's "Gillie Amma, I Love You," drifting and hypnotizing with children's melodic whispers, is an ideal set-up for School of Seven Bells' bright-eyed, windswept dream pop. Hopkins inserts an exclusive of his own, a quiet, multi-piano cover of Yeasayer's "I Remember" that would highlight any ambient compilation released on Kranky, Kompakt, or Ghostly. Rick Holland, another Eno collaborator, provides the closing reading of a piece he wrote, which just happens to share its title with the Yeasayer original. ~ Andy Kellman