Kev Hopper – XiX (Dimple Discs) – Kev Hopper, he of Stump and such (as we’re probably contractually obliged to say), Kev Hopper; painter, music maker, I almost said his paintings are a little more traditional than the music he makes but then again maybe not? Maybe this is what tradition is now in 2025? Folding bills into paper planes? Paper plains? What’s your name, Virginia who? What is to be said? Well not a flag of indifference that’s for sure and no devils left in hell. Right now there’s this minimalist plink plink thing going on, the sounds do sound like they’re arriving in the right order, all the ducks in line, the carriages in the right configuration, the formation slowing and the fullbacks causing few problems. It sounds right is what I’m probably trying to say and what is there left to write about these experimantal pieces of whatever they are? Composition? Improvision? Something to do with “euclidean rhythms (overlapping, complex patterns)” that i;m not going to pretend to know about, highly thought out or spontanious abstract paint pushed in the right way. Actually this doesn’t feel painterly, it isn’t lush, I guess his own description of “wonky, wobbly, electronic, surrealist pop” is as good as anything although it really isn’t, no, that’s far too throwaway, this is a lot more than wonky wobbly whatever, this is a cut above most electronic whatever that lands here…

When we get away from (the rather strange) spoken word and the vocoder there’s a couple of gorgeous pieces toward the end of this album – An album is broadly defined as a collection of items released as a single unit, such as a collection of audio recordings (music album) or a book of blank pages to hold photographs, stamps, or autographs – a couple of pieces in Window Seat and Stumbleplunk that suggest this is all very very considered and not just happened upon as improv, more than a couple actually, that trombone adds so muh (is it tombone?) and that bit there that’s being quietly building up for a while during the nine and a bit minutes of closing piece The Cucurella Problem really is beautiful – if I was being lazy I’d say something about it being a minimalist Mike Oldfield but you know I’m never lazy so I’m not going to say anything about this feeling like minimalist music from the edgelands either. 

And now we’re back to the start and past Hopper’s Art Theme again and back around to that flag of indifference and Gruntian Forbes and the broken surrealism of England (via the skirtingboards of The Residents maybe) and yes, maybe if it was all voiceless or the music was the voice and let’s go round again, baby we’ll turn back the hands of time. I said something about Kev Hopper’s paintings recently, he rather dismissed it, who can blame him? Who cares what I say? Hang on, you should have a look at his paintings though. Hang on, “The time has come to open thy heart/wallet”, Bandcamp want some cash if I am to continue listening, I guess the review (if that’s what this is?) has come to an end, I’m not buying people’s music just to review it properly (I might buy it for the pleasure but there never is time to listen to anything just for the pure pleasure, there’s just the none stop demands of new releases wanting attention, hundreds of releases every week). Here’s the press release and you can find the music itself is at the end of this piece. We probably wrote about Stump first 38 years ago. I’m off to throw some paint at something, I do rather like this album for what anything is worth, I like most of what Mr Hopper has done in his forty years. Ah the press release had a link, I can listen some more. I like the soul that’s waiting to be found in this (sw)

The press release…

“After forty years as a musician, Kev Hopper is probably still best known as the bass guitarist and co-founder of Stump, an Irish-English indie/experimental/rock group formed in London in 1983. However, he has since released 14 solo albums of diverse experimental and melodic pop with his distinctive bass playing often to the fore. He also co-formed the electronica group Ticklish in the late ‘90s and was composer/bassist with Prescott in the 2010s. Hopper is also a visual artist (painter) and runs the Youtube site HopperArts, for which he interviews artists.

Out today (22nd August), Hopper’s brand new album XiX explores Euclidean rhythms (overlapping, complex patterns) and is a mixture of modern electronic experimentation and pop. Running the gamut from Musique concrète to modern electronica, it features the distinctive use of ‘faux’ and modified vocals together with sampling techniques, albeit the dominant aesthetic remains melodic and rhythmic, resulting in a hybrid of sounds that build on his past work. Primarily instrumental, it does also contain four songs that explore topics as diverse as lancing prawns and economic collapse.

Recorded and produced in Whitstable and London, Hopper himself describes the sound of XiX as “wonky, wobbly, electronic, surrealist pop.” This is best exemplified by Not What, a song about an identity crisis that boasts a hypnotically rasping hook, a funky beat and vocodered vocal”.

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 Four Kev Hopper paintings, click on an image to enlarge and see the whole thing, find lots more on his Instagram feed