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BONOBO

Bonobo

Dial M For Monkey - 2023 Repress

    Twenty years since its original release, Ninja Tune reissue the critically acclaimed ‘Dial ‘M’ for Monkey’, the second studio album by Bonobo.

    The album showcases Bonobo’s signature blend of downtempo electronic, trip-hop, jazz, and world music. It’s an album that gives clear indication of the type of sound that would soon make Bonobo a globally recognised name.

    Over the years, ‘Dial ‘M’ for Monkey’ has remained a fanfavourite and a standout release in Bonobo’s now illustrated back catalogue.

    For fans of Jon Hopkins, Four Tet, Caribou, DJ Koze, Burial, Little Dragon.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Noctuary
    2. Flutter
    3. D Song
    4. Change Down
    5. Wayward Bob
    6. Pick Up
    7. Something (Longer) For Windy
    8. Nothing Owed
    9. Light Pattern
    10. Pick Up (Four Tet Remix)
    11. Behind The Light

    Bonobo

    Fragments

      Fragments is the most emotionally intense record that he - aka Simon Green - has ever had to make. It’s no surprise that it’s also his masterpiece. The album features Jamila Woods, Joji, Kadhja Bonet, Jordan Rakei, O’Flynn and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. Born first out of fragments of ideas and experimentation, the album ultimately was fused together in a burst of creativity fuelled by both collaboration and Green’s escape into the wild.

      Fragments is a series of 12 sonic affirmations, featuring some of the hardest and most hip-shaking grooves that Green has ever created. The ballads are perfectly placed throughout; they capture a world in flux and glow with hope. Coaxing the ideas out initially took some hard work. The constantly-touring Green creates best while on the move; the global shutdown forced him to stand still.

      Musical themes began to arise through Green’s exploration of modular synthesis, recordings he had made of harpist Lara Somogyi, his work with arranger and string player Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, his own playing of the Fender Rhodes and more, as the album was created, recorded and mixed by Green over the past two years. The album also came into focus as he sought refuge on solo adventures into nature, away from the shutdowns and wild fires and into the blazing California desert.

      “Tides,” featuring Chicagoan singer and poet Jamila Woods, acted as a catalyst, and the album began to click into place around it. “I knew I had a centrepiece, I knew how it was all going to sound,” he says. Working with arranger and string player Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, musical themes began to emerge. Recording orchestral musicians in actual studios helped bring the songs “out of the box” even more.

      A rhythmic framework started to come together too: the structures of UK bass music and rave began to seep into beats that would become tracks like “Otomo” (eventually co-produced by O’Flynn and featuring a sample of the Bulgarian choir 100 Kaba-Gaidi), and “Sapien.” The ”old school, Detroity, Moodymann and Theo Parrish inspired” “Shadows” was recorded with friend Jordan Rakei. “Rosewood,” “Closer” and “Counterpoint” each start with an ecstatic snap to them, but snake down surprisingly different paths. Somogyi's harp and Atwood-Ferguson's strings mingle together on the beatless “Elysian.” Two ballads flesh out the second half of the record: “Day by Day” featuring Kadhja Bonet and “From You” featuring Joji.

      It's about the dancefloor in many ways, about how “I remembered all over again how much I loved crowds and movement and people connecting with each other,” Green reflects. But the positivity isn’t just in the uptempo rhythms: even the most introspective and melancholic pieces have joy in them.

      STAFF COMMENTS

      Barry says: A stunning new LP from Simon Green's Bonobo, fusing the clattering percussion and smooth rolling basses of 2010's 'Black Sands' with the more soulful, smooth sounds of the more recent outings. It's both a perfect artistic statement, and a wonderfully evocative listen, including some of the biggest names in modern soul and electronica. Brilliant.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. Polyghost (feat. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson)
      2. Shadows (feat. Jordan Rakei)
      3. Rosewood
      4. Otomo (feat. O’Flynn)
      5. Tides (feat. Jamila Woods)
      6. Elysian
      7. Closer
      8. Age Of Phase
      9. From You (feat. Joji)
      10. Counterpart
      11. Sapien
      12. Day By Day (feat. Kadhja Bonet)

      Bonobo is an artist who explores elements of instrumental hip-hop, electronica and ambient with live instrumentation and enjoys an illustrious career with a sea of collaborators ranging from Erykah Badu and Andreya Triana to Rhye and Nick Murphy.

      His highly textural aesthetic translates into an ethos that looks to introduce a more open musical palette without losing sight of its past. His mix supports 10 exclusives or unreleased tracks, including 2 from himself and another from his rare pop-up alias Barakas. Employing the multi-instrumental arrangements of his own work in this 74 minutes of house, techno, electronica and breakbeat, each track exudes character and allows animated melodies to wander and develop, all the while grounded by an acute sense of harmonic progression and rhythmic precision.

      STAFF COMMENTS

      Barry says: Featuring a diverse range of artists and genres, it becomes clear where the mix of instrumental hip-hop, traditional electronica and house meet in the euphoric middle-ground Bonobo treads. A superb compilation and a fascinating timeline of Bonobo's considerable influences with the dance floor as the focus.

      TRACK LISTING

      CD:
      1 Bonobo - Flicker
      2 Bonobo - Boston Common
      3 Poté - Jacquot (Waters Of Praslin)
      4 Alex Kassian - Hidden Tropics
      5 Âme - Nia
      6 Durante - Maia
      7 Dark Sky & Afriquoi - Cold Harbour
      8 Bonobo - Ibrik
      9 Olsen - Femenine
      10 O’Flynn - TKOTN
      11 TSHA - Sacred
      12 Will Saul - By Your Side
      13 Titeknots - Buzzard Walk
      14 Dan Kye - Focus
      15 Barakas - Roach
      16 R. Lyle - Perpetrator
      17 Rhone - Mirapolis (Laurent Garnier Remix)
      18 Throwing Snow - Rheged
      19 Nepa Allstar - The Way
      20 DJ Seinfeld - Stargard
      21 Earth Trax & Newborn JR Ft. Annjet - If You (Club Mix)
      22 John Beltran - Collage Of Dreams

      LP:
      A1. Bonobo - Flicker
      A2. Poté - Jacquot (Waters Of Praslin)
      A3. Durante - Maia
      A4. Dan Kye - Focus
      B1. Dark Sky & Afriquoi - Cold Harbour
      B2. Bonobo - Ibrik
      B3. Olsen - Femenine
      C1. TSHA - Sacred
      C2. R. Lyle - Perpetrator
      C3. Throwing Snow - Rheged
      C4. DJ Seinfeld - Stargard
      D1. Nepa Allstar - The Way
      D2. Bonobo - Boston Common
      D3. Âme - Nia
      D4. O’Flynn - TKOTN

      Simon Green, aka Bonobo returns with his sixth album – the masterful, magisterial “Migration” – is a record which cements his place in the very highest echelons of electronic music and indeed, beyond. By turns lush, manic, beautiful, melancholy, joyful, packed with both emotion and technical skill, this is perhaps his most ambitious attempt yet to capture the very textures of human existence in his work, as Green says of the broad dynamics on the album, "Life has highs, lows, loud and quiet moments, beautiful ones and ugly ones. Music is a reflection of life."

      It is a theme with a personal as well as a sociological aspect to it. Last year, a close family member passed away. “My Family and I are all disbanded and spread to far corners of the earth,” explains Green, “In the end we did the funeral in Brighton. My own personal idea of identity, where I am from, and what home is, has played into this record and its migratory themes. Is home where you are or where you are from, when you move around?”

      It's tempting to relate Green's emotive aesthetic to his sense of dislocation. He grew up in rural Hampshire with a father heavily involved in the British folk scene. "We would have endless folk jams in the house. There would be random banjo and violin players crashing in the garage for the weekend.” Not that he was necessarily feeling his dad’s taste at the time: “I was a grubby little skater back then, listening to alt-rock, hardcore and hip hop”. But no doubt this phase was an early musical education, indeed Green started learning to play guitar, piano, 4-track tape recorders and effects pedals in this period, building up soundcscapes from an early age. His move to Brighton is also a key influence; his skill at drum programming harks back to his days DJing and producing in the small, musically fertile town. Under the initial guidance of Tru Thoughts' Rob Luis and at nights such as Phonic:hoop where he began to regularly play all-night DJ sets.

      STAFF COMMENTS

      Barry says: Has it really been almost 4 years since Bonobo's last full-length? Yes! yes it has, but the wait has been worth it. This is an altogether more soulful affair, still packed with the sort of downbeat rhythmic mastery you've come to expect but imbued with a melancholic and matured aura that only adds to mr Green's veritable mastery of his craft. A triumph.

      TRACK LISTING

      1) Migration
      2) Break Apart
      3) Outlier
      4) Grains
      5) Second Sun
      6) Surface
      7) Bambro Koyo Ganda
      8) Kerala
      9) Ontario
      10) No Reason
      11) 7th Sevens
      12) Figures

      Bonobo

      The North Borders

        'The North Borders’ is the eagerly anticipated fifth studio album from iconic Ninja Tune artist Bonobo, and features appearances from Erykah Badu, Grey Reverend, Szjerdene and Cornelia.

        Three years on from his breakthrough album 'Black Sands', 'The North Borders’ has kept to a similar widescreen electro-acoustic soundscape, providing us with another selection of upbeat downbeat gems. Opener 'First Fires' has the melancholy and post-dubstep clicks and blips of a James Blake production, given extra similarity by Grey Reverend's vocal. Bonobo has been playing with 2-step rhythms for a while now (check 'Black Sands' favourite 'Eyesdown'), and now with the UK garage revival in full swing, cuts like 'Emkay' and 'Know You' sound right on point for 2013. House cuts like 'Don't Wait' and 'Antenna' lead the way to an alternative dancefloor, while 'Cirrus' features a similar intricacy to Kieran Hebden's polyrhythmic creations. Star guest Erykah Badu adds typically sublime vox to string-laden wonky-hop cut 'Heaven For The Sinner', while upcoming singer Szjerdene is equally ear-catching on future R&B essentials 'Towers' and 'Transits'. 'Jets' expands on the kind of crackling atmospherics of a Burial production, adding lush strings and organic percussion. 'Sapphire' has a rolling dubstep rhythm, but with plucked harps and vocal samples sewn into the mix. Bonobo leaves us wanting more with the beatdown downbeat album closer 'Pieces', featuring sweet vocals by Cornelia and uplifting strings and woodwind.


        TRACK LISTING

        01. First Fires Feat. Grey Reverend
        02. Emkay
        03. Cirrus
        04. Heaven For The Sinner Feat. Erykah Badu
        05. Sapphire
        06. Jets
        07. Towers Feat. Szjerdene
        08. Don't Wait
        09. Know You
        10. Antenna
        11. Ten Tigers
        12. Transits Feat. Szjerdene
        13. Pieces Feat. Cornelia

        Bonobo

        Black Sands

          Simon Green aka Bonobo returns with his fourth, most eagerly-anticipated and most accomplished album to date, the magnificent "Black Sands". Green proves once and for all with "Black Sands" that he is an artist and producer with his sights set on much higher prizes than to rule any dusty sub-genre of dance music. Green's mix of beats and breaks (from the mellowest downbeats, via jazz breaks to UK garage style grooves and Afro-tinted jauntiness) with a melodic sensibility make for a great listen. This is a record of epic reach and massive emotional pull, all held together by Green's understanding of composition and arrangement of live instruments (most of them also played by him) as well as his complete mastery of the tricks and techniques of the digital age. "Black Sands" is the most contemporary record he has ever made.

          Bonobo

          Dial M For Monkey

            Second LP from Brighton's Simon Green (ex of Tru Thoughts, now on Ninja Tune), and it's an absolute gem. He ploughs a similar melodic, semi-acoustic furrow to Lemon Jelly, but with more of a jazz edge, and none of the increasingly annoying whimsy that that duo employ in their music. A perfect mellow, gentle sound-of-the-summer LP.


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