First off, the Saturday before last marked Bonobo's Outlier debut at Printworks, and my last weekend living in Surrey Quays - went out with a bang. I mean, as ever, Printworks was phenomenal, and the line up, particularly Leon Vynehall, Omar S, Auntie Flo and the man himself, banged hard. I don't want to go too much into detail with the supports, but in the press halls there was an even distribution of house and techno and classic club sound that counteracted Bonobo's hopping between ambience and anthem. Vynehall dropped 'Coorabell' by Floating Points getting me very excited, I mean the song itself sounds like Printworks to me to be honest. That being said, the biggest surprise came from Auntie Flo being by far the best support for me, in the (much, much) smaller dark room at the back. The African polyrhythms and chants that echoed around the four walls were undeniably ecstatic, the energy was kept up constantly and even though it was boiling in there I was finding it really difficult to leave. It's certainly nice to hear songs you know a lot in a set, but I knew one track out of what I heard ('Siku' by Nicola Cruz), and was still consistently entertained. Absolutely loved it, need to see him again ASAP, and it would have stolen the show for me if it wasn't for what was to come...
Bonobo was very clearly the main draw of the event by the sheer mass of people that filled the main room before he began. I feel like he gets a lot of slack for being marginally too commercial or safe with his sound, but I would always defend him on that. For me, there's still as much excitement in pleasant and peng sounds as there is in experimentalism, and while he does have a few redundant tracks there's plenty that I've never got tired of. As it was a DJ set, I anticipated a couple of his songs being played, so by opening with 'Bambro Koyo Ganda', 'Linked', 'Flicker' and 'Cirrus' in a row, I was satisfied, the crowd was satisfied, the Lord Above was satisfied. Those stunning chord progressions and pitter-patter drum beats are wonderful live, and 'Linked' in particular, with the extended acid melody transformation over the drop, was a bombshell I'm so glad I didn't miss.
As the set continued, he's a big fan of classic house bangers with piano chords etc.; maybe in a different setting I'd be more skeptical but the grandeur of Printworks suited it - big and bold bodes well. In fact, nothing had the room more elated than O'Flynn's 'Sunspear' making an appearance. Guys. It was pure joy in that hall. I was going out for air and heard the little intro coming in, dove back into the crowd just in time for the silence to drop before that huge trumpet fanfare blasted out of the speakers. I could tell a lot of people around me didn't know the track but were absolutely loving it, so it was certainly one for everyone. The lighting was unreal also, with the whole rig descending to just above the crowd at points, more colours and beams than you can count, and at one point the entire screen behind the booth was lit up with this deep, powerful red that just sunk into everything it touched. Bonobo made more nods to his Fabric album with 'Jacquot' by Poté, and towards the end there was this surprise appearance by Skrillex for a quick b2b which seemed really random at first. However, 'Midnight Hour' has been one of my favourite recent drops, and so when it came on it was like the whole thing was especially for me (lol). All in all, a great six or so hours of music, and as ever it was over too soon!
Moving on from live to recordings, three big albums dropped last Friday, from Floating Points, Tourist and Jacques Greene. They're all really strong, but to quickly discuss in that order, Floating Points has provided us with forty four minutes of genius. It ranges from classical music with 'Falaise' to heavy drum and bass with 'Bias', because of which I find it impossible to ignore Aphex Twin influences. That being said, it's certainly and completely his own style, and I haven't heard anything like it before. It's fantastic, although perhaps slightly too academic in its complexity for easy listening. Tourist's release takes the other end of the scale, and pretty much every song on it indulges your ear with euphoric melodies and harmonies. The title track 'Wild' harks back to ODESZA, and 'Kin' for me is the standout, with a catchy male vocal sample and numerous silences effectively punctuating the five minutes. Jacques Greene's album takes the cake for eclecticism, with a variety of moods and sounds throughout. There's a lot of interesting sampling, for instance in 'Do It Without You' and 'For Love', and the lyrical style and voice in 'Night Service' gives me references to that classic queer house sound which has been so influential. Oh, and the album art is so lovely. It's got that emotive strength of Rothko's paintings and I would kill for a poster of it! Or the vinyl, whatever.
That's all for this week, just to add, I have decided to do a playlist to upkeep what I've discussed / songs I'm particularly drawn to, and I'll update it with each post to keep it fresh, please follow it here! I think it'll be a nice way to continually keep you involved in what I'm excited about. I have another post coming out for Pretend next week for a really, really exciting gig I went to on Saturday. Keep an eye out on Instagram etc. for it, and have a lovely week. xx
