Pick Up

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Bonobo's 2001 album on Tru Thoughts, Animal Magic, was one of the musical highlights of that year for me. Simon Green managed the conjurer's trick of creating organic music from looped samples in which none of the hard architectural edges that often characterise this kind of music and give it its 'tracky', 'bolted-together' feel were to be found. The raw material may have been bits and pieces from an audio wreckers yard but the Bonobo sound was put together in such a way that the whole was much, much greater than the sum of its parts. It seemed as if the individual samples had been reanimated and had jostled themselves together into new, snug fitting pieces of music that they had always been somehow destined for. And there were some fantastic hooks too - nearly every track had some motif or other that lodged itself in a nook in my brain and stayed there constantly wafting memories of it back at me.

His latest single Pick Up/Behind the Light, my first glimpse of his new material since he moved to Ninja Tune initially suggests that little has changed. This is groovy, easy going music that shimmies through a fragrant blend of weird and wonderful sounds ranging from the cooing of a female choir to the guitar-like Japanese shamisen. Pick Up features an upfront, brisk drum part accompanied by some extended flute noodles whilst Behind the Light is more homogenised with many different sounds taking the limelight at different places. The feel is laid back and dramatic in turns. Although the music in the second track is more interesting than the first both contain many of the hallmarks of style and craftsmanship recognisable in Animal Magic and they are a pleasure to listen to. However, unlike his earlier work these pieces are quite forgettable once they have finished - they leave little trace of memory other than the faint recall that it was a pleasant experience and I had no desperate desire to hear them again. Whilst the rich Bonobo sound has been retained and he sounds as competent as ever, some of his old charm seems to have worn away.