The grooves on our Bonobo records have been worn smooth by our bar staff over the last two years. Bonobo is an in-house favourite and “The NorthBorders” and “Migration” are records that you’ll continually hear, oozing out of our Cafe’s front door in the middle of the day and spilling into the early evening. I’ve personally heard “Bambro Koyo Ganda” from his second LP “Migration” so many times that I can sing it from memory, which is impressive since I’ve never even been to Morocco, and can’t understand a word Innov Gnawa is signing on the track. But that is the charm of Bonobo’s music.
It can extend over both physical and musical borders, with an elusive charm that feigns categorisation. Elements of Downbeat, House, Electronica and Indie Pop, form the extensive bedrock from which Bonobo creates enticing musical landscapes with attainable access points from various musical perspectives. The English artist makes the kind of records that are perfectly suited for those uncertain moments, when you need to bridge a gap in a crowd through music. Through immersive melodies and dense atmospheres he crafts singular pieces that can be enjoyed at a superficial level, but also leaves something to be explored if you want to experience something a little deeper.
This is consistent of his latest release too, which is not an LP of new original material, but rather a mix. Fabric lured the producer over to the DJ booth, for the first mix in their new format after closing out the Fabric live chapter. It’s the first recorded mix from the artost since 2013’s late night tales. Bonobo strings together a selection of tracks from the likes of DJ Seinfeld, Throwing Snow, Âme, and Dark Sky, with audible whispers of his artistic voice coming to the fore within the grand narrative of the mix. Whereas his own music has mere fleeting encounters with the dance floor, this Fabric mix, is committed to the dance floor, especially during peak time.
Bonobo’s penchant for melodies add his personal artistic touch, elevating the music beyond the rudiments of DJ tools and drawing comparisons with Trance. There’s an uplifting element to the mix where it can move beyond the doors of Fabric and into any context like… oh I don’t know… a bar in Oslo? Theres’s an inextricable bond between this mix and Bonobo’s original work where it can occupy the same space on the shelf, even if its not an LP, giving “The North Borders” and “Migrate” a much needed break for a while while we wear this new record down to a smooth finish.