Bonobo

My relationship with Bonobo is long, personal, and often vaguely referenced when I'm trying to describe the music that resonates with me.

Sometimes, when I'm looking for a single musical instance of what makes me feel happy, I reference what hearing "Terrapin" for the first time felt like. Some music touches a nerve, some music inspires you to action, some music encourages you to punch things, but Bonobo will forever be the music that calms every nerve, encourages me to calmly take stock, and then punches me in the stomach.

The world could be burning around me, which it is.
The walls could be being built around me, which they are.
The tears could be streaming down my face on an almost hourly basis, which is terrifyingly true.

Amid all of this confusion, pain, and insultingly inhumane contempt, I have Bonobo.

When Migration made it across my messy desk full of little reminders that I'm too busy to be writing about music for free, I was knee deep in cleaning up after six months of bad decisions based on blind hope and a want for something better. Without getting too personal, I had let my lofty intentions cloud my ability to reason, and it took getting slapped in the face over a dozen times to realize that I was about to put my family at risk for years to come if I didn't admit I needed to move on.

After three simultaneous listens to "Break Apart", I had calmed myself to the point of accepting my decision, and then when "Outlier" came on, I got up and humped the computer speaker in celebration of such a soul cleansing realization.

Bonobo has that uncanny and oh so fucking necessary skill of crafting these enlightening rhythms and tunes that have left indelible marks on my alternating regression into childhood and gradual progression into adulthood. But I'll be straight with yous guys heres, Migration might be my favorite shit so far.

The two tracks "Kerala" and "No Reason" are already two contenders for my favorite track of 2017, and while I have already spent hours on each track already, I can pretty much guarantee I'll have clocked a month each playtime by year's end. I''m beyond addicted to these two tracks, but the progression of "No Reason"'s vocals and layered percussion is all I've thought about since it unraveled in front of me. 

How one artist can invent music so intricate and compelling that it physically soothes the aches and pains that go along with life righ meow? Fuck if I know, but I've been loving the fuck out of Migration and I will continue to allow it to keep me from the internal breakdown so many of us are capable of.

In 2017, let's use the music we love as a distraction from crumbling, but instead of ignoring the work we have to do, let's just fucking do it.

Yes, I wrote all that shit to myself, so fuck off.