JON HOPKINS FEAT PURITY RING BREATHE THIS AIR

This is a really beautiful song. If I start with that, it makes me feel like everything I write from here on in will just be superfluous gumpf. Despite that, I'm gonna go on with it. Is that ok with you? Is it ok with me? I think so. Because, as I always say, good music deserves kind words. So if I go into raptures, that's ok. Think of it as a star-rating system, but with the quality of the words being the guiding light. Stars and numbers... that's for the NME and other things. Who needs words when you can just listen to a song and, instead of respecting the effort that goes into it, just say, "Mmmmyeah it's an 8/10, stick it up on the site, print it – NEXT!" Not my style.

Anyway. Sorry about that. Today we have Mr Jon Hopkins, a London-based producer, doing a song with pretty-vocal'd chill-step duo Purity Ring called 'Breathe This Air'. (I made up chill-step, but that just goes to show how silly genres are). Hopkins, on his Facebook, describes it as "A new version of Breathe This Air with vocals by Purity Ring" - the original is a much bassier, dancier affair. In the Purity Ring version, it's condensed, prettied up, ambientised and generally blooms in wonderful clouds of sound around your ears - it's a less abrasive sound, I guess. Let us listen.

Isn't it lovely? There are some lovely details at the beginning that really catch the ear. That gentle tinkling piano, the atmospheric noises of endless space, the reversed and spliced samples of the vocal that comes in quite soon, and - a small detail, but an important one for me - the skiffle of the snare drum at 0:29, a great live-drums-sounding technique that pops up throughout the song. The drums themselves are nice: glitchy, catchy, lovely. What Jon Hopkins seems to do is hold things back, giving you a lot of good sounding things but keeping stuff for later - like the lightly crunched modulated synth that hops in after about 1:25. It's this progressive sound that keeps your ears quite excited for what will come later. Brief synth glitches jut in like arrows from heaven.

The vocals from Purity Ring - the female half of the duo, obviously - are just perfect. They're treated carefully, like a rare bird; people always say that to hold a bird, it's a careful balance of not-too-much and not-too-little. This is just how these vocals are laid on the track, not over-produced, yet glittering with a seemingly unending reverb, touched with a little electronic autotune for stylistic purposes (or at least that's what I hear). As for the vocals themselves - what a voice. Beautiful. It's hypnotic.

This comes as a single from Jon Hopkins' 4th album, Immunity, out on Domino records. You can download it digitally on 23rd September.

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SPAZZKID IF NOT YOU THEN WHO [VIDEO]

At the time of writing this, I've just come out the bath having listened to Spazzkid's live set on e-venue SPF420 (that's a place where people can stream a live performance of themselves to people all over the world). It was really relaxing. The style of his positive-vibed sounds and samples combined with his slow yet groovesome pace really went well with relaxation time in the bath. You could call it "bathwave" but I'm not sure if it will catch on. If it does, then Spazzkid has the rights to be Godfather of bathwave. If it doesn't, we'll pretend I never came up with it.

Anyway, all of this aside, just today Spazzkid has released a new video for a song off his most recent album, Desire (願う), called 'If Not You Then Who'. It's a glistening waterfall of a song, dealing with the feelings of loss and longing that go with a broken heart. That's what it sounds like to me anyway. The romantic plucked strings of the guitar sail gently beneath the vocals that lament their own fortune. But it manages to sound beautiful, no matter how sad the feelings behind it may be - a beat soon drops in with waves of distorted bass synth. Soon you're bopping along, forgetting that sadness.

The video is pretty cool too. It's freaky, with footage from Japanese sci-fi film, Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), that seems to spookily match up with the dynamic changes in the song. Despite the prettiness of the song, the scare-factor in the video is still inescapably there. Maybe that jarring effect gives a perfect illustration of the feelings of coming out of a relationship.

Pretty weird, huh? That metal arm thing reminds me of how the guy's arm in Akira begins to get all weird. One influenced or inspired the other perhaps.

Back to the song. That beat is given some well-placed limelight on its own with the subbiest of basses from around 3:40 for a few seconds. It's only a little bit, but it's enough to come up for a breather - so to speak. That beat sounds damn good on its own (maybe he just wants to show it off?). It's something that Spazzkid seems to do very well in quite a few of his songs. These little dynamic changes don't appear to be much, but I'm sure the amount of thought that goes into where they go, what's going to be involved, what to take away, how long they last, etc. etc. - the result is of course very much appreciated. At least it is by me.

The koto, plucked Japanese instrument, is a lovely touch. It's the kind of instrument that always seems to summon elegance, wherever it may be used, and in this case it's no difference. It adds a timeless appeal, making it sound quite mature at the time. He doesn't have to "rely" on synth, but even in this case those scattered synth chords are really very nice, giving it a trance-like edge. Very nice. Weird vid, but oddly works.

You can go and download 'If Not You Then Who' for free if you like :)

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II. FOUR ON THE FLOOR

Here is some quite dancey stuff to get dancey to, should you ever want to get dancey. Sometimes it's nice to get dancey; other times, it's nicer to chill out. Since I can hardly judge the mood of each and every person who reads this (wish I could) it is hit and miss whether you are going to like it at the time. Timing is a big part of finding a new song to like. Find it in the wrong mood and you might not like it. Your tastes are more fickle than you think.

So anyway, I was messaged on Facebook with this the other day. A song called 'Four On The Floor' by a French duo from Dijon called II. - that's their shortened name anyway: sometimes it's Un Et Un Font Deux (One And One Makes Two).

As a song, it reeks with attitude as soon as you click the play button. The synth stabs that you're presented with from the very start are telling of what is soon to come. I love that kind of synth sound though, cut-off, chopped, brimming with treble - like an instrument from the future. That sound comes to characterise the rest of the song as it's put on delay and muffled by turns.

The song is an uncomplicated house song with guts, that much is for sure. About halfway through the beat subsides and all that's left is this metallic bass zooming around - sounds great. The beat features a plosive kick and claps, snare fills and tambourine shakes, and moves a little faster than your average house song. A female vocal of "yeah... ahh" - chopped-up of course - gives it a sultry, soft human edge.

All in all, yes. I like it. A nice sound that encompasses the slightly poppish side of dance music, dark and disco-like. It appeared on New's Lighters Records first compilation We Re-Created Disco, showcasing a number of talented alternative electronic dance acts.

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