Bleep

Migration sees Bonobo starting 2017 on a proper high. Hitting back with his first new album since 2013's The North Borders, Migration expands on his past cuts of live instrumentation with a well-informed jazz-heavy beat-rooted swagger to craft an album that expands on his impressive craftsmanship, whilst leaving you with a resonating and much-needed feeling of endlessly uplifting possibility.

Having kept a relatively low profile since The North Borders came and knocked many (us included!) sideways, Migration sees Bonobo back at the helm as a key player in the Ninja Tune roster. Evoking the label's past glories for beat-rooted experimentation, Migration carries a strong lineage for club sounds resonating around broken beat(s). Migration is centred around themes that look at "study of people and places", this is best described in the album's core theme by Bonobo as "It's interesting how one person will take an influence from one part of the world and move with that influence and affect another part of the world. Over time, the identities of places evolve." and this, is none more evident than in the genre-melting sounds from low-fi house, off-kilter hip-hop and library-rooted electronics that here, he has lifted influence from.

Calling on a wealth of talents to realise his vision, Bonobo has enlisted collaborations from all corners of the globe, both human and mechanical to craft the different roads that venture out from the album's centre point. From the LA band Rhye's, Michael Milosh from Canada, Australian Nick Murphy (aka Chet Faker) plus Hundred Waters member and Floridian Nicole Miglis; and Morocco-hailing, New York-based band Innov Gnawa. The latter group also contributed via means of a sampler; field recordings including a New Orleans fan boat engine, a tumble dryer in Atlanta, a Hong Kong airport elevator and the semi-silent sound of falling Seattle rain.

All of these sounds, influences and collaborations feed into what is sure to be hailed as the most captivating album from Bonobo yet. Moving in the same circles as Four Tet, Caribou and Jon Hopkins yet translating music that is sure to carry appeal for fans of GoGo Penguin, Oli Coates and the recent SW. SUED action. Migration, is Bonobo's route towards transforming the personal into the universal, a migration that once you set off on, will have you venturing onwards for a long time to come.