A bonobo is a species of monkey similar to the chimpanzee. It is also the pseudonym for Simon Green, a British-born electronic musician who I have followed for the better part of 20 years. I have consistently held him within the top 5 (personally ranked) musicians that I have enjoyed over the years, and he holds a place up there even today.
I struggle to find exactly how I was introduced to Bonobo, but I will work my memory to discover. I was extremely open minded back through my college years. I pretty much listened to all types of worldly music, including Russian, German, Japanese, and Brazilian music.
I recall the first song of his that really stuck with me was called “Flutter” and was actually from his second album Dial ‘M’ for Monkey. If memory does serve, what happened was I had discovered an artist named Amon Tobin back in college around 2005. Amon had scored a video game called Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory which is a “stealth game” similar to the Metal Gear games where the goal is basically to sneak through areas undetected towards a goal destination. When I discovered Amon, I followed his record label Ninja Tune to discover more artists like him, which ultimately lead me to Bonobo as he was a current label mate. This recollection of mine may or may not be accurate–but if I can dig up my old LiveJournal entries from college I probably could find some more substantial information. For now, let’s go with this.
By the time I had been introduced to his music, he’s already released two albums: Animal Magic (2000), and Dial ‘M’ for Monkey (2003). These albums are very similar in their laidback minimalist vibe. I find it difficult to fit the music into a genre, but if I needed to, I suppose it would be downtempo. It made great music for studying or relaxing in candlelight.
I listened faithfully to both of his albums until he released Days to Come in 2006. This album seemed more polished than his previous releases. I would say at this point that I was a bona fide fanatic. I appreciated how consistent his album quality was.
I followed in acute anticipation through his continuing album library:
- Black Sands (2010)
- The North Borders (2013)
- Migration (2017)
Additionally, I caught his one-off remixes and associated albums including his contribution to the Late Night Tales series. My wife and I managed to catch him in concert on two separate occasions: a DJ set in October 2014 in Orlando (as pictured in featured image) and a live concert in April 2017 in New York City. As of 2020 he has been releasing singles, but I will remain vigilant for his future album releases.