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New Music

Jon Hopkins’ “Everything Connected” Deserves to Be Heard in Its Full 10-Minute Glory

“Everything Connected” has traces of both Jon Hopkins the ambitious techno auteur and Jon Hopkins the guy who once closely collaborated with Coldplay. Released as a five-minute single edit today and a full version that is nearly double that length, “Everything Connected” is deceptively simple in composition: four-on-the-floor drums that pump and clatter, a steady synth pulse, some icy orchestral sounds for extra atmosphere, all rendered in the crystal-clear fidelity that is one of Hopkins’ trademarks. He constructs an engrossing narrative from these elements, patiently adding and subtracting and adding again, ending up with a track that has all the utilitarian thump of a white label 12-inch and all the goosebumpy drama of an arena-pop power ballad.

The single edit preserves the most striking moment of “Everything Connected,” when the hi-hats and snares briefly recede like trees around a clearing, then come together again with even more density and momentum than before. But the real thrill of “Everything Connected” comes from closely tracking its slow development until it becomes a kind of meditation, a process that is much more rewarding over ten minutes than it is in five. Hear the full version below, and the edit after that—but only if you’re in a pinch for time.