When I heard that Melbourne's favourite secret agents The Operatives were bringing none other than Jon Hopkins to town, it's fair to say that I immediately got very excited. Hopkins' latest LP 'Immunity' won critical acclaim when it was released in June, and it'll doubtless soon be appearing high up on many critics' Top 10 lists for this year.
Arriving to The Hi-Fi rather early, I was able to catch both support acts of the night. Silentjay played lush, curdled beats while hovering over the decks attentively, every now and then flashing a quick spontaneous grin. It's funny how obvious it can be when someone really loves this music they're playing. Sean Deans took over, continuing in a similar bassy groove for a few tracks before dropping some Blawan and switching into a faster techno mode. The BPMs seemed a little excessive for a warm-up set, but people took to the dancefloor nonetheless.
Jon Hopkins took to the stage to a mighty cheer. He kicked things off with Immunity's opener, 'We Disappear'. Working with an assortment of hardware and a laptop (placed a tasteful distance away from the rest of his gear), Hopkins wasted no time in demonstrating why his live act is a force to be reckoned with. With expertly nimble fingers, he microprogrammed percussion layers atop his tracks and tweaked all the right knobs at all the right times to keep his pulsating sound writhing onwards. By the time the furious, thrumming drones of 'Open Eye Signal' had subsided, the dancefloor was already building to a frenzy. 'Collider' slowed things down a little with its steady, deep thump.
Playing ten-minute songs with such a degree of live performance must be pretty strenuous, and after each song Hopkins would give a slight, almost bowing motion, like a juggler after a particularly long and difficult trick. His warmth and appreciation for the crowd really shone through during these short breaks.
Hopkins continued with some earlier work, adorning 2009's 'Light Through the Veins', with bright, scintillating arps that built into a defeaning reverb-soaked crescendo, before moving into grainier ground with some surprisingly roughshod techno. He came back for a brief encore with a unreleased track that tickled more than a few earbuds, pointing at great things to come from this talented musician.