Distance in Static: Bonobo hands the mic to six voices

Distance in Static is the most sociable album Simon Green has put out under the Bonobo name. Six vocalists occupy the front of the mix, the strings remain clean, and the drums continue pointing at a dancefloor. It arrives on Ninja Tune, and it's the strongest thing he has released in years.

Green is an English producer and DJ, born in 1976 and long based in Los Angeles. He emerged via the Brighton label Tru Thoughts, declined offers from XL and Mute to remain there, and put out Animal Magic in 2000, a downtempo debut that gained a cult following. Ninja Tune signed him in 2001 and has retained him since: Dial 'M' for Monkey, Days to Come, Black Sands in 2010, The North Borders, Migration in 2017, Fragments in 2022. The thread across those records moves from sampled trip hop to live instrumentation, and guests played a role early on. Nicole Miglis sings on this one. She initially appeared on 'Surface', from Migration.

Distance in Static comprises fourteen tracks, due September 11. Arooj Aftab, Nicole Miglis, Joy Crookes, Nilüfer Yanya, Ichiko Aoba and Kanako Yamamoto all feature, and the guest list is the architecture rather than the trim. The album is as concerned with rest as it is with movement, and the tracklist acts that way.

'Dawn' opens it: 1:13 of strings, no beat, a curtain rather than a song. 'Cycles' takes the theme from that intro and turns it into the first dance move, and twice during its run the beat falls away and climbs back. Then 'Fire on the Water' brings Arooj Aftab in and drops the tempo hard. 'Drift' stays down there, a lounge cut where the bassline carries more of the tune than anything else does.

'Talk to Me' is nearly a single. Nicole Miglis drifts above synth pads and a humming bassline, placed far enough forward that the air around her is audible. 'Uncasually' reduces the same concept to its essence: a sparse house structure, a steady kick, clean synth droplets. 'Always on Your Side' is the centre of gravity, with Joy Crookes singing softly over an arrangement that gives her ample space.

'Youth's Fountain' shifts the atmosphere. Nilüfer Yanya's delivery stays near spoken word while the horns open up behind her, giving the record its one true jolt of alt-pop. 'Shokoufeh' draws its title from the Persian term for blossom and occupies a cooler, Middle Eastern-inflected space. 'Equinoctial', featuring Ichiko Aoba, is the most gorgeous passage here: fingerpicking and synth pads, weightless, the finest cool-down on the record. 'Mercury' ends with Kanako Yamamoto over the strings and fingerpicked guitar that began everything, percussion drifting in and out until it ceases.

Play it on a Sunday and it works. Play 'Cycles' or 'Uncasually' at one in the morning and it works harder. Anyone who has stayed with Bonobo since Black Sands will recognise the instincts here in better order, and anyone who only knows the singles will find this less anonymous than they expect. It sits near Floating Points at his most melodic, the softer end of Caribou, and the calmer half of Four Tet's catalogue.

The sag occurs at the midpoint. The stretch from 'Uncasually' to 'Me and You' holds the fewest guest features and the least to latch onto: the grooves are solid, the songs are slighter, and the ordering begins to feel like a tracklist instead of a set. 'Dawn' is likewise a 1:13 intro you'll hear no more than twice before skipping.

So: a four. The case comprises 'Cycles', 'Talk to Me', 'Always on Your Side' and 'Equinoctial', four tracks where the strings, the guests and the low end all align. Black Sands still surpasses it. This one demonstrates how far he will go to let another person's voice be the point.

The tracklist

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