Black Sands - Bonobo

Track list:

1. Prelude   
2. Kiara   
3. Kong   
4. Eyesdown   
5. El Toro   
6. We Could Forever   
7. 1009   
8. All In Forms   
9. The Keeper   
10. Stay The Same   
11. Animals   
12. Black Sands

Running time: 54 minutes
Released: 2010

We circle back now to Bonobo. I loved, and still love, Animal Magic, but I have been disappointed in pretty much every other Bonobo release to some degree. I seem to keep buying them though. I am not certain why... perhaps because I want to believe the magic of that downtempo classic will be recaptured. I doubt it will be, and here we might pick up on some reasons why.

As I start this, I expect that there will be some decent tunes on here as well as disappointments. The question in my mind is in what ratio?

The Prelude has an oriental air to it, a piercing string melody that is very harsh to begin with but softens as a mellow keyboard appears underneath it. Not what I was expecting from a prelude at all; this I had almost already chalked off as for deletion but that is very unfair in truth. I like it as a starting point. There is no track break and so Kiara starts by seamless transition; somehow it completely changes the dominant theme almost immediately - whilst those strings appear again later, the track is centred around a pulsing electronica, beats and squeaks alike, clashes. It feels lacking in cohesion. Not all over the place and disconnected, just not brought together optimally. Or something. It isn't bad, it's just no Sleepy Seven or Terrapin. The curse of loving something so much that it means nothing can live up to it!

Kong is more immediately likable. From the name I was expecting more bombast but this is sweeter, lighter. The central theme, a wavy, floaty loop, gets old quickly though, and there is not quite enough else going on to cover for that until it drops out just after the 2 minute mark. Now my ear fixates on the drum loop and I am finding that has the same issue - initially interesting then turning to tripe on repetition. Funny how fickle we find we can be eh? I somehow cannot escape the feeling that I have heard it all before, to the point of desensitisation. It feels like... background noise? I don't want to damn this with the same breath as I did Quantic because it is better than that. It is more that this sort of music is so... institutionalised now, everywhere, and it is hard to call any of this particularly distinctive.

Eyesdown introduces vocals - quiet, indistinct vocals, but vocals non-the-less. This is one area where I was expecting disappointment but actually the vocal makes this tune work better than if it were not there, adding a dimension that is just not there without it and breaking up the generic tedium of indistinct shuffling patterns that feel so familiar as to be a little dull. When did I get quite so cynical? Again, not bad just a little lifeless. Thankfully you cannot say the same for El Toro. Taking a leaf out of the Prelude's book there is a strong string theme to lift this number, and the percussion is more prominent, louder and more central than the preceding tracks. These two factors elevate the tune to a

level above, more immediate and more engaging than its predecessors. It is still, alas, nothing like as immediately charming as the best tracks on Animal Magic but it is a cut above the rest of Black Sands to date. 

The next track keeps the stronger percussion and a more contrasting central theme, making it feel like he has found the voice for the record, but it has a cheesier edge to it that makes me shudder and think of bad 80s Hawaiian disco scenes in the movies of the day. Ugh. It gets better as it goes, losing the bad bongos feel to a degree but there is something in the staccato nature of the sounds here that really encourages images of gaudy shirts, floral necklaces and fat men with maracas. Do not want.

1009 returns us to more recent, but still bygone, days, its opening conjuring instead the sound of dial up routers connecting. This is just not relaxing to listen to at all, and if Bonobo does not have that, then frankly it has virtually nothing going for it. The tune gets a little more interesting and less bleepy as it goes but not enough to assuage that initial strong negative reaction and make me want to ever hear it again. I think its fair to say my disappointment is really kicking in at this stage - self-fulfilling prophecy or not. Ah, now that is better. There is a shimmering air to the opening of All in Forms that I rather like. I almost wrote "dig" there, but then I remembered this is not the 70s (when I wasn't alive to be so uncool). The track title seems odd, because the appeal of this track lies in it almost but not quite taking form. It seems to be a shift away from completeness at every step, like it is out of phase with itself somehow, and this is a really evocative ambiance for me. About half way it pulls together, losing the shimmer and taking shape as a simple little tune over a distant backing. Best tune on the disc so far - whilst El Toro was stronger and more stand out, this just has an x-factor, a secret ingredient that inexplicably binds it into a more immediately enjoyable tune.

Today is not the day I hoped it would be; not bright enough to tempt me outside, I was lethargic about rising this morning and that slowness is still with me. The music I am listening to half reflects that back with The Keeper which feels sleepy in its tempo. The vocal annoys me though - it turns what is a nice lazy tune into a bad RnB track (and there will be more of them in later listens, for sure). In my late teens I would probably have loved that, but those days were long gone before this album was released and so despite a good core composition for the way I am feeling right now, the fact I can't get past the vocal means another one for the scrap heap. If I can't enjoy the track when my brain is moving in slow-mo then I never will. I am happy to hear that mood is jettisoned for the following tune, but my hope sinks when a vocal comes in. Be fair, though... it isn't in the same boring lifeless class as what went before, and fits better with what is around it. There is a smoky, wispy quality to the vocal, a duskiness blown away by the clear melody that soars over everything else, drawing my ear away from the repetitive nature of the patterns at play. As the track ends I find myself pulled in two different directions by it which at least merits giving it another chance.

The last two tunes are longer, both over 6 minutes. This is a little bit of a concern when the style in general relies on loops and repetition to the degree that it does. However the opening minutes of Animals is pretty glorious, the percussion a rata-tat-tat of snares keeping a good pace whilst the melody wanders and wavers above. The blueprint changes up entirely just before the 4 minute mark too, meaning that the worry of long-term repeats is taken out of the equation. The high tempo beats recede a little - still there, but less audible behind a sparser and tinnier percussion and a jazz-like melody. I'm not sure which animals the track (or at least its title) is meant to make us think of, but that is an irrelevant detail I find myself unduly considering as the timer runs out on the tune. We are left, then with just the title track. 

It starts with an uncharacteristically slow pace, much more focus on the melodic than the rhythmic portions of the tune. When it develops into what sounds like a sad French movie soundtrack, a mournful quality in the clarinet(?) which carries the central tune lending the track its dominant tone. The quiet horns that rise in support further reinforce that Gallic air, whilst reminding me a little of Beirut. As the percussion picks up and becomes more of a central player you could picture Paris receding into a credits sequence. I really like this track - everything hangs together well and despite the sadness that comes through from the themes it feels as a whole like a very positive and affirmative way to close. It probably drifts on a minute or so longer than it needed to, especially as the themes are given that time to die out, sucking the life out of the track rather than closing with a positive decision but it ends the listen with me feeling much better about the album as a whole. There were tracks I will cut, but only a quarter of the disc in the end, when I feared it would be more. 

It isn't really fair to dismiss Black Sands on the basis that it isn't Animal Magic. If the same album was being trotted out several times then it wouldn't be so special, and I would likely have ranted about lack of evolution or creativity or something instead. It is totally fair to say that I don't hold this album in the same place in my heart, but there are some pretty neat tunes here all the same that I am glad to have and retain.