BONOBO
With yet another record of atmospheric splendour on the horizon, Bonobo’s reputation continues to spiral.
If you’ve stepped out of your house and into somewhere with any kind of atmospheric resonance over the last three years, there’s a good chance you’ve been struck by the music of Simon Green, aka Bonobo.
This is in no small part due to the majestic and soaring success of Black Sands, a record that gradually embedded itself into the consciousnesses of the wider public. Green’s new album The North Borders sits beside Black Sands in its richness of texture, while it also sees him step closer to his associate Four Tet in terms of dancefloor/experimental crossover appeal, suggesting Bonobo’s popularity could be further enhanced still.
Green’s commercial success has arrived at a time where perceptions regarding his music have shifted. Early efforts Animal Magic and Dial M For Monkey were gratefully received, but were, perhaps rather harshly, grouped in the commercially slick, Ministry Of Sound propelled ‘chill out’ bracket that dogged a large group of artists. An Ibizan sunset can be a lovely thing, but having connotations of the polarising Balearic isle applied to Green’s music acted as an indelible branding that in all likelihood caused more harm than good.
The good news for Green is that there are many of who believe he’s one of the most talented and unique producers operating today. Despite the ‘chill out’ rubber-stamp, much of the music Green was producing in his early years was extremely relevant for its time. Jazzy, downtempo breaks rubbed against meticulous production, a sound that was a very big deal at the turn of the century and won him a legion of fans.
What lifts Bonobo and Green above many other contemporary producers is the level of instrumental competence and musicality present on all his records. With Green recording, producing, layering and carving all the sounds himself, perhaps the biggest compliment he receives is that people frequently mistake Bonobo for a full band. The fact he’s managed to transform these composite parts into a fully working and technically awesome live show is further testament to a commitment to seeing his music realised in the fullest sense.
The North Borders is maybe a touch less ambient than Black Sands. First single Cirrus, is strikingly forward dancefloor material in the vein of the aforementioned Four Tet or Pantha Du Prince. Opening track First Fire is a brooding, bassy SBTRKT influenced head-nodder that sets a wonderful tone. Vocalist Szjerdene’s contribution is particularly prominent, and she’ll play the role of lead vocalist on the forthcoming tour. However, the most striking collaboration sees Erykah Badu taking the vocal reigns for Heaven The Sinner, a juddering stepper of a tune which immerses Badu’s distinctive charisma in languid dreamlike instrumentation, all harps and violin strings, that will inevitably draw comparisons to Flying Lotus.
While many of the signature elements which go into making a Bonobo record may have remained intact, when you’re dealing with a musician who can turn his hand to almost anything, you’ll see it’s impossible for Simon Green to make the same record more than once.
The North Borders sounds a lot more production-led, less like it was made directly for the live arena. Are we right in assuming that you’ve been listening to music from artists like Four Tet and Floating Points?
Yeah, I always have been. I know those guys personally, they’re friends of mine. But I suppose I’d been DJing before I did any of this and I used to do a weekly down in Brighton. I’d always come from that world, and I don’t think it had been represented to that large an extent. Those sounds might seem like a new direction for some people, but for me it’s always been there, I just wasn’t representing it as much as I have done in the past. I wouldn’t particularly call it club music, I’d just suggest it’s more in line with where I’m at now.
Was there a point where you felt people wanted you to make the same album again and again?
I’m still proud of those records I made at the beginning – Animal Magic and Dial M For Monkey – but there’s always a contingent of people who want you to keep doing the same thing over and over and never change. Everyone’s tastes develop and mine have developed. But the tastes of people who liked my first two records might not be in line with or have the same trajectory as mine. I shouldn’t, and don’t, need to worry about that.
The relationship between your really dynamic live show and the recording process has always been of interest to us, as you record almost every part yourself.
It’s a massive misconception, as a lot of it sounds like a band, but it’s just me in a room, playing all the parts. I still approach it like I would sample-based music. Even though it sounds like a room full of people, it’s still very loop-based. I’m still just making these little sketches and going into them with the sampler. The way that came about was that I wasn’t just comfortable with DJing as a way of touring. I also wasn’t comfortably with the nodding into a laptop thing, as that’s not how the music is made and it would feel dishonest for a live show when the music is made by playing instruments into machines. I couldn’t play it all myself, so the idea was to re-create the studio process and multiply myself five times.
Do you think considering how saturated the market is with producers at the moment, there is a distinct lack of artists transferring their music into the live arena?
I think it’s a hard thing to do with music that isn’t made in that respect. I think a lot of electronic music is made with a mouse and a laptop. I’m lucky in that a lot of the sounds going into my music are from acoustic sources and real keys. It makes it easier for me to deconstruct that back into live music. It’s difficult for other people that are into making track music, it would almost feel forced if you were gonna play that live. It’s always down to what kind of music you’re creating. Little Dragon, in my opinion, sits on that balance between the production and the live show really well.
How do you see yourself then? Do you see yourself as multi- instrumentalist live musician, or a producer/DJ?
I guess these days as a producer/DJ, but I never thought it was that unique to be playing lots of instruments in the production, as there were always people I knew who were doing that. But the live show has really reinforced that and, to a lesser degree, changed people’s perceptions of what Bonobo is.
There is always a wealth of world music in your DJ sets. When you go away, do you hunt down a particular strand of world music? How do you go about informing yourself?
A lot of it is old and a result of digging in the crates. With something like African music you just dig it out, but I get help from collectors. People like the Soundway guys – there’s people like that all over the world. I would love to go on one of those really involved month-long digging trips, but there are also so many archivists who are bringing it to me, so I’m just tapping into it really. But I appreciate it and what these archivists are doing.
We read somewhere that you suffered from synesthesia?
I wouldn’t say I suffer from it, but I guess I can relate to it in terms of sound having character and seeing this sort of space full of colours and personalities all interacting with each other. I don’t know whether it’s technically synesthesia.
It would definitely make sense, as there is a sense of colour and light running though a lot of your work.
Yeah, I guess that’s what I aim for. It’s good that it comes across.
Some of the stand-out moments on the last record came from the vocal tracks. Could you talk us through the vocal offerings on the new album?
Well Erykah Badu is on there and a lady called Szjerdene. Erykah came around when we were in New Orleans last year. She was working on a project with Mos Def, Mark Ronson and a few others, so we met there and I ended up doing a remix for that project. Then we met again a few times later and I said I wanted to send her some music. Her approach is very much the same as mine in that it’s very music-led, it’s not the concept, it’s whether she’s feeling the tracks as to whether she’d be down to do something. With Szjerdene, I’d seen her playing a show with guys from London who’d recommended her to me, they told me she was just ridiculous. She’s going to be coming out on the road with us and be our main vocalist. There is another lady, Cornelia, whom I know through good friends of mine Portico Quartet. She did a track called Steepless with them and I was kind of blown away by her presence.
The fact you’ve managed to get to work with Erykah Badu must be another reinforcement of how well Black Sands went for you.
It’s crazy the way that record still has this presence three years later. Some records are around for the season they are released and then they disappear. It’s crazy, you never know what’s going to happen with it. You go into a period of studio isolation, making this music and then you go ‘oh, actually people are going to be listening to this now.’
It’s that uncomfortable or scary at all?
Yeah it is, especially after Black Sands was so well received, people are going to be like ‘well I really liked Black Sands, so this one better be good.’
Do you think you’ve finally been able to shake the whole ‘chill out’ tag that dogged you for a while?
It was really hard to get rid of that. When you emerge, it’s all about the scene you are associated with. That ‘chill out’ thing was kind of happening at the time and I got swept along with it. It’s really hard to get out of that constant association. Black Sands is still downtempo and quite chilled, but if you listen to Mount Kimbie for example, that’s way more chilled, but that’ll never get called chilled or downtempo.
No, it just gets called something even more stupid like post-dubstep.
It’s the same with the James Blake album, but because of when those artists emerged, they are gonna be post-dubstep. Even though James Blake’s stuff now is pretty much electro-soul, for want of a better word, he’s still going to get called dubstep, because that’s where he came from.
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The North Borders is released on April 1st via Ninja Tune. Catch Bonobo headlining Bristol’s Love Saves The Day festival on May 25th (tickets here) and Beacons Festival between 16th-18th August.
Words: Thomas Frost
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