Domino レコード& CD

Review: After debut album WOOF, South East Londoners Fat Dog return with 'Peace Song', a curveballing single every bit as strange as it is sincere. A longtime setlist gem, the track brings a rare stillness to chaos: a pause in the frenzy for arms-in-the-air swaying (there's the unlikely inclusion of a children's choir). But don't mistake this for sentimentality: Joe Love's repeated line "And I'm in love with the world" is as much a provocation as a profession of joy. The accompanying video, directed by James Ogram, descends gleefully into lo-fi monster madness, riffing on kaiju cinema with a DIY touch that's all Fat Dog. Whether it signals a new direction or a temporary detour, 'Peace Song' proves Fat Dog unafraid to undercut their own earnestness with a snarl a smirk.

Review: Seven years after he gave us the spectacularly beautiful Asleep Versions, Jon Hopkins presents four minimal piano stunners to help us return to those half-awake moments of absolute bliss. The bit before the dark in the back of your eyes turns red and you realise it's going to be another 12 hours or so before you're climbing back into the sack and returning to a place where, let's face it, most of us are pretty happy.

In terms of the music itself, this is Hopkins and therefore you know the score in terms of vision. Opening on the tranquility of 'Heron', which sounds as though it was recorded by a lakeside in southern England complete with wildlife on tape, from here things only get more intoxicating, until the delicate pitter pattered notes of 'Wintergreen' close us out on a subtle but moving air.