BONOBO - Distance In Static

Never change a winning formula, but what happens when repeating the pattern no longer yields the hoped-for results? Simon Green must have asked himself just that as he brought his eighth album under the Bonobo moniker to a close, going so far as to state that this will probably be his last release in the traditional sense under that name. Yet the urge to shake up a lucky, well-established language of his own had already surfaced with “Migration” and even more so with “Fragments”, introducing elements of world music into his personal, hard-to-classify electronic mix. It's an attempt partly repeated on “Distance In Static”, though with mixed results.

Just one listen to the first single “Me And You” is enough to notice that something, despite the meticulous production and unquestionable craftsmanship, isn't working perfectly. Despite the flawless structure and the ethnic shadings lent by the inclusion of a 1950 field recording from Malawi, the track never quite takes off. Its dancefloor attitude aims for immediacy, but nothing manages to scratch the surface enough to grab hold. It's a flaw that surfaces often throughout the record, especially in the clubbier segments, while things improve somewhat in the song-based format.

The presence on vocals of Arooj Aftab, Nicole Miglis, Joy Crookes, Nilüfer Yanya, Aanya Martin, Ichiko Aoba, and Kanako Yamamoto broadens the album's scope, bringing in multi-ethnic idioms and timbres without ever tipping into a patchwork effect. That's because Green chose every single piece with care, so that, for all the shifting textures, the whole thing coheres into a unicum. And that is where the real merit lies of an album that's pleasant to listen to but incapable of surprising.

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25/09/2026