PopMatters: Bonobo, THE NORTH BORDERS

"You're waiting for the what to drop?"

To break one hiatus by breaking another: my first blog post in a month, linking to my first music review in three-and-a-half.  An excerpt:

If anything, Bonobo continues on his latest to forgo the kind of fashionable displeasure that might attract readier critical favor. But ifThe North Borders sustains attention with deceptive simplicity, that deception is itself deceptive. Green’s intricate arrangements—melodic but never quite melodies—cue ears to listen closely, but rewards are scant; as evasive as they can be, these tracks aren’t for chinstrokers. Perhaps the album will prove to have long-term potential, but for now, The North Borders might be too modest for its own good.

Although this album didn't exactly knock my socks off, I will vouch wholeheartedly for some tracks, such as "Cirrus," especially the cool-as-shit orphan media psychedelia commissioned for it:

Note: the producer of the record I reviewed is not, in fact, a dwarf chimpanzee.