:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4625843-1380137077-3943.jpeg.jpg) |
| Domino | discogs.com |
Immunity was ranked fourth in my Top Ten Albums I Wrote About in 2016
· · ·
Crafting a genuine human likeness is a prodigious talent that few possess. Regardless of medium, an artist commonly portrays some elements as more realistic, and others more stylised, or even avatised towards the bounds of recognisability.
The sculptors of the Renaissance laugh in your general direction. Marble in such expert hands melts and flows and bends, elegant and fluid. Though each work is hewn from a single solid block, they bear exquisite detail — creases in the flesh, locks in the hair, folds in the garments.
Impossible, yet real.
From nothing but static and noise, Jon Hopkins has fashioned a magnificent statement of defiance and skill.
Hazy, watery ambience such as that of Brian Eno is criticised as dull and unmusical, while sputtery, glitchy compositions from the likes of Autechre are decried as meandering and toneless. But when placed together, each genre throws the other into sharp, stylish relief.
Immunity clatters without indelicacy, and drones without dullness; powerful and propulsive. This is a coalescence, a fusion, a chimera.
Impossible, yet real.