BONOBO レコード& CD

Review: Bonobo drops a surprise single dedicated to the very city he came up in, and made while he was in university at the time. Both untitled, and similar in tone to some of Four Tet's early work as 4T, these are lo-fi hip hop before that was a thing - the tracks chart herbalized flutey moods and strange mixy brews, and perfectly cross the threshold out from instrumental hip hop and into something more.

Review: Before he signed with Tru Thoughts 21 years ago, and many years before he became one of Ninja Tune's most popular artists, Simon Green AKA Bonobo was merely a bedroom DJ/producer knocking up tracks in his Brighton home. The two tracks showcased on this limited-edition "45" date from that period and have never before seen the light of day. A-side 'Brighton Tapes 01' is warming and hazy, with toasty chords, drowsy flute and female vocal samples and deep bass rising above crunchy, loose-limbed MPC-driven drums. Flipside 'Brighton Tapes 02', which contains the same high level of vintage cassette hiss, is similarly warming, with a sweet female vocal sample, snaking sax samples and rich Rhodes chords wrapping around a head-nodding hip-hop beat.