The label & Options positions itself as a post-internet label. Fittingly, BLOOPERS is a post-industrial album, running afoul of the artifice that many would happily blame on the decline of manufacturing (after they’ve extinguished the more obvious scapegoats). Its metallic clinks and cog-and-wheel machinations against a backdrop of bloops and blips make it far more mechanical and industrious than most albums that try to identify with the decay of the Rust Belt in the U.S. or cities such as Manchester and Birmingham in the U.K. BLOOPERS also hints at the comedy of errors our economy has undertaken in the two nations in recent times; the snake eating its tail. Though there seems to be little political fascination within Mitchell Hopkins’ latest project, it does laugh at how we tend to abstractly frame the literal obviousness of our existence. The album title playing great tricks with both time and space; a chuckle deep down at our continued downward spiral but also a jovial boost to remind us of our own fragile humanity. Though the album is far more electronically spirited than the industrial music of 20-30 years ago, its workman-like attitude echoes the head down philosophy of the genre’s pioneers. And though I’m sure Hopkins wouldn’t leap to think BLOOPERS owes any debt to industrial music, there is too much heavy lifting to suggest otherwise. It’s a sweaty blue collar trying to feed a table full of synthesizers in the hopes of a better tomorrow.
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