Friday, February 18, 2011

The Electro-Lounge Series - #2: Bonobo

The second installment in the electronic/downtempo/chillout/trip-hop series focuses on Bonobo, a.k.a, Simon Green.

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Let us find some background information about him together, shall we?

He is a British musician, producer and a DJ, who released his first album, "Animal Magic" in 2000 (Tru Thoughts).

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He switched labels to Ninja Tune in 2001, but had an album of remixes released on Tru Thoughts in 2002.
In 2003, he released "Dial 'M' For Monkey".

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In 2005 he released "Bonobo Presents Solid Steel: It Came From The Sea. This is an album which is part of the Solid Steel series, a DJ mix album, in which various DJs contribute tracks.
"Days to Come", his third album, was released in 2006.

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Black Sands his is latest release, appearing on March 2010.
He has toured as solo-performing artist but also with a band backing him up, playing his studio material.

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His music is quite upbeat and even funky and has catchy short melodies. But he can get quite "experimental" and daring in the sounds he creates. With time he relied less on sampling and more on instruments embellished with electronic sounds. This possibly was reflected in the live shows switching to having the live-band setup. On "Days To Come" for instance he plays most of the instruments, apart from strings and vocals performed by others. There are also jazzy undertones to various of his pieces, adding to the cool and smoothness pace of his music, although there are moments where the music is not so "down-tempo". With Black Sands there is quite a hefty dose of the electronic side, yet it is rich with sounds that are decorating the pieces here. You have cool pieces like "Kong" and the songs "Eyesdown" (featuring Andreya Triana on vocals; appearing in two other songs as well), upbeat tunes like "1009" and "We Could Forever" with a groovy beat, heavily electronic compositions such as "Kiara", the charming "El Toro" with nice percussion and beats as well as various instruments and on and on...

Links:
Official website
Ninja Tune Youtube channel
Myspace
Facebook
Bonobo page on Ninja Tune



















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