Jon Hopkins/ Reuben Taylor/ King Creosote

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4...according to our Brian on Thu 14 Dec, 2006.

Those cheeky Scottish scamps De-Fence have another of those bleeding split 10" jobs out again. I'm too hungry to give this a fair write up. So I'll have a strawberry chew. Yum. That tastes delicious. Oh what's this gentle, pastoral piano & subtle electronic wonderment i'm hearing? That yearning highlands murmer sounds incredibly like KING CREOSOTE! Aw! That's real nice. It could only be that JON HOPKINS fellow contributing to his side of Volume 2 of the 10x10 series. The second track is a heartfelt vocal & keyboard ballad called 'Stones' that could well cause you to rupture a gut in your pirsuit of a wee dram to calm your soul after you've just run over the singer out of Keane. On t'other side is Reuben Taylor. He provides us with a smattering of shimmering Vangelisisms before 'Fanfare' erupts into some kind of classical trance. IE more Vangelis but a little too fast. It must be summat in the spring water. Then it goes all Take the High Road easy going like, making me think i'm handgliding over some Scottish mountain with a pack of Abernethy biscuits for my ruddy faced sweetheart. Or stuck in a freezing guest house with some mad lady & her psychotic piano pounding husband. With a glass eye. Bizarre

The first of Jon Hopkins tracks is a new version of King Creosote's 'Circle My Demise', which is built around beats made from crackling matches, whirring dictaphones and the various creaks made by a harmonium. A melancholy piano sits with KC's vocal at the centre, accompanied by shivering violin harmonics from the Elysian Quartet's Emma Smith (Adem, James Yorkston, Hot Chip). Up next is Jon's new production of Barbarossa's Fence classic 'Stones', which strips away the piano and strings of the original to expose the full haunting beauty of James Mathe's vocal. Reuben Taylor has been playing with others (James Yorkston, Deaf Mutes, Huckleberry) for a while, but has finally branched out on his own with two pieces on this 10". Drawing heavily on his classical training, he explores the use of electronic instruments to create a soundscape of symphonic proportions. The first work, "Introduction", is based around a short piano motif, underpinned with shifting harmonies and pulsing electronic sounds. "Fanfare" is a turbulent rush of notes from start to finish, with a slow, majestic first theme floating over multiple high-speed parts giving way to a calmer second theme. A development of these two themes follows, before the triumphant return of the first theme brings the work to a close. Over the next year (06-07) De-Fence will be releasing ten 10” limited edition (500) split EP’s. Each release will feature four exclusive tracks from two different artists, some of whom you may already be familiar with, others not so. Artists so far confirmed to release a 10X10 EP include OnTheFly, Reporter, Jon Hopkins (with Barbarossa and King Creosote), Reuben Taylor (James Yorkston and the Athletes), and Viva Stereo, with others to follow.

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