Smooth cerebral electronica sounds, clean savant like production, a penchant for morphing samples-it has to be the sublime sounds of the Brighton by birth but based in Los Angeles, producer and dj Simon Green aka Bonobo.
Bonobo is rightly seen as one of the premier djs commanding some big figures but it’s in his production where he really makes statements with tracks that have that timeless eternal quality.
Since 2009 under the defining label Ninja Tunes he has put out five albums gaining him global fans and now he embarks on his sixth studio album, Migration due for release in January 2017. The album will be twelve tracks with four features from names like; Chet Faker and Innov Gnawa a Moroccan band from Brooklyn which should be spectacularly different- tidy.
The lead single from that forth coming album, Kerala is quintessentially Bonobo. Kerala actually features a sample from Brandy-truth be told we were not aware until the press release stated so! Once aware however you realise that it sounds like the violin chords at the beginning of that stomping 90’s club anthem, The Boy Is Mine (1998)-see what you think.
Visually Bonobo is always one to delve into slightly esoteric and message laden videos and he does not disappoint. The video, directed by Bison features ‘staggered loops’ so that the video progresses while repeating key moments in the video. The result is a slightly disorientating nauseous experience which is suggestive of the female protaganist’s state of mind (Gemma Atherton) as she navigates her way,in distress, to the top of a tower block.
Kerala is another timeless cut and sets the foundations for an album of supreme quality in 2017.
Word of note Bonobo is over in the UK with his live band.