Days To Come

A stylistic move toward a more organic, multi-layered, live sound, Bonobo’s fourth album still features some of his sample-heavy breakbeat science, but he also seemed to be looking outside Europe for some of his musical reference points and employed an expanded sonic palette including oboes, clarinets, horns and flutes. The album also includes four full songs rather than just instrumentals, with contributions from vocalists Bajka and Fink. 

The results are slippery to define: Days To Come carefully combines parts of jazz, folk, hip hop, and electronica while remaining cohesively Bonobo-ish. Transmissions 94 - Parts 1 and 2 is epic, stately ensemble jazz, the slinky rhythms of The Fever have an Afro-flavour, the feel of Between The Lines reflects vocalist Bajka’s background touring with gipsy jazz/folk bands while On Your Marks feels like a New Orleans second line jam meets, well, Bonobo. A glowing, bewitching development of his sound.