Stolff
& Hopkinson - Trademark EP new release on Pause_2, and what
a fine release it is, the cd contains images, videos and a whole
lot more. Here is a brief history of he duo :
Mr Stoloff meets Mr Hopkinson in the late nineteen nineties when
the former was invited by the latter to an interview at Bristol's
infamous and influential Minto Studios.
Best known for his engagingly humorous film and installation pieces
Mr Hopkinson had been secretly compiling meticulous rhythm based
soundscapes from gathered and found sounds.
Meanwhile,
the Franco-American Mr Stoloff arrived in England packing a series
of intuitive and effortlessly melodic piano pieces he had composed
in Paris.
Initially
the work came together in what could be described as an original
HipHop style, - that is a fresh construction born out of a clash
of the artists' existing pieces, composed before they had even
met each other. Mr Stoloff meets Mr Hopkinson in the late nineteen
nineties when the former was invited by the latter to an interview
at Bristol's infamous and influential Minto Studios.
Best known for his engagingly humorous film and installation pieces
Mr Hopkinson had been secretly compiling meticulous rhythm based
soundscapes from gathered and found sounds.
Meanwhile,
the Franco-American Mr Stoloff arrived in England packing a series
of intuitive and effortlessly melodic piano pieces he had composed
in Paris.Initially the work came together in what could be described
as an original HipHop style, - that is a fresh construction born
out of a clash of the artists' existing pieces, composed before
they had even met each other.
And
now on with the cd
Track
1 "Intelude_01 "opens with what sounds like an american
porno soundtrack, until s & h jump in with a little conversation
and it merges into track 2 "Idead " which is a very
mellow snarey organic outing, some french vocals link with the
music (can anyone tell me what is being said?) as the mellowness
continues in the background.
Another voca lcuts in and is distorted and broken up, until the
ending of track 2 which dissapears into a cave full of spangly
stars.
"Idead"
is a mega short conversation between S & H in what sounds
like a restaurant :
<Stoloff>"Another
coffee hopkinson?"
<Hopkinson>"Yes that would be swell"
<Stoloff>"Biscuit?"
<Hopkinson>"Swell..."
A
light tingly liquidy melody opens track"Dual ", sounds
like a supercomputer that has been dipped into honey, a light
beat pipes up and is joined by some more french vocals, (damn
I wish I knew french, should have bothered at school).
Light clicky rhythms accompany the vocals, then the track comes
to life with a bouncy echo bleep outing which in the end fades
into the distance...very cool.
"Woodpecker"
opens with a very jungle like intro, insects all around call out,
the tempo finally picks up in this one along with the french vocals
(/me goes back in time and learns french). Little electric frogs
and pulsey crickets all sing along to the pulse that S & H
are laying down.
I
want to see Stoloff and Hopkinson live it may help understanding
some of the shorter tracks on this release. plus it would be interesting
to see how they always try to integrate the audience into their
performances.
I would recommend this cd to people as it is a lot more that just
music, it's a multimedia outing.
Plus also being able to understand french would help a lot, I
knew there was some reason I should have listened in french class.
Sam
main
: reviews : archive
: links : team
|
