Bonobo - Black Sands

Bonobo's Black Sands captured a unique moment – it was adored by critics, being placed in Resident Advisor’s and DJ Magazine’s Albums of the Year charts and also by fans, selling over four-hundred thousand copies worldwide so far. Influenced by the divergent, bass-driven strands of the UK electronic music scene at that time, Green artfully fitted those evolving sounds into his own wider vision. The record’s lasting importance stems from the depth that he found in those combinations, rattling two-step rhythms and heavy pressure sub-bass twinned with carefully crafted songwriting and lush, brightly-realised instrumentation.


It’s a record that’s both timeless and wonderfully of its time. From “Kiara,” which weds cinematic, string-laden composition with chopped up vocals and luminous synth arpeggios, to “Eyesdown,” where subterranean swells of bass meet Andreya Triana’s warm, peerless vocals, the album is effortlessly multi-faceted. Listening back a decade later, it still sounds just as beguiling, emotive and transportive as it did the first time round.

Ten years on, and the record marks an important step in Green’s stealthy but unstoppable rise to being one of the biggest electronic artists of our times. He now boasts six albums to his name, including career-defining 2017 album ‘Migration,’ which reached the UK Official Charts Top 5 and received two GRAMMY nominations (as did his 2019 single, ‘Linked’), and he has played to sold-out concerts across the globe, bringing his revered live show to multiple nights at Alexandra Palace, Glastonbury and Colorado's Red Rocks Amphitheatre.