Premiere – Kev Hopper teases new LP with video for ‘The Dog Walker’ single

Former Stump man and acclaimed visual artist’s new LP will drop on Dimple Discs

Kev Hopper has announced his upcoming LP Sans Noodles via Dimple Discs, and has teased the album with the unveiling of a new single, ‘The Dog Walker’.

Juno Daily is premiering the single’s self-produced video here:

He told us: “The Dog Walker is a walking-pace, easy-listening Sunday afternoon jaunt across space and time with a catchy riff and a twangy guitar as your guide. If you think the video ìs just a man walking a dog that’s because it is just a man walking his dog, but not simply any man or any dog. The man is Bruce Williams, well-known Whitstable artist and Suki, his not so well known Whitstable dog. A man and a dog. A dog and a man.”

Best known as the bass guitarist for Irish-English experimental rock band Stump, Hopper has released a number of albums and EPs since the late 80s. Since then he’s amassed a body of solo works, with his mainly instrumental output best described as a hybrid style of experimental and melodic pop that includes his own fretless, “squelchy” bass playing. He is also a recognised painter and visual artist, with his own paintings adorning the album’s artwork, as well as that of the High Llamas’ albums ‘Santa Barbara’ and ‘Hawaii’.

Weaving together digital sound collages with live instrumentation, Sans Noodles hears Hopper envisage a universe in which the twang of the guitar co-exists with processed vocals. 

The album also features a cover version of the The Shadows’ “Theme For Young Lovers”, before ending on the ballad ‘Fruit Flies’, which features the only traditional vocal performance on the record by Sharron Fortnam. 

Of the new LP, Hopper noted: 

“As it’s the 32nd anniversary of my first solo album ‘Stolen Jewels’, I thought it might be fun to revisit and update aspects of that album with this new 2022 release – namely the naive ‘pots and pans style’ (as I call it) sampling of the era which I’m still incredibly fond of. With new technology and greater computing power the art of sampling has changed a lot since 1989 but to this day I’m still excited by the early notion that you could pluck a sound from nature and pitch it on the keyboard to make tunes. This characteristic remains the original source of intrigue and wonder for me. On ‘Sans Noodles’ the odd sounds that result from this process are mixed in with twangy guitar, bass and a lot of faux vocal sequencing and ‘formanting’ (or vowel sounds) to provide a surreal and sometimes perverse, organic source for the melodies.”

‘Sans Noodles will be released on February 25, Pre-order the LP here