Following the release of his seventh studio album ‘Fragments’, Simon Green aka electronic maestro Bonobo’s first stop on the UK leg of his world tour was, of course, his former hometown Brighton. With a 4,500 capacity, Brighton Centre is easily the city’s largest music venue and it’s no mean feat to fill it up, but as Canadian electronic musician Jaques Greene brought his support slot to a close, the huge space did indeed, begin to fill with excited punters, who have a lot of pent up gigging to get out of their systems. The last time Bonobo played the Brighton Centre was five long years ago in 2017, so anticipation and expectations were higher than usual.
Bonobo walked on stage first, dressed all in black with bright yellow socks and Nike high tops, followed by an impressive eight-piece band. Simon took his position on a raised platform with guitar and synths. As well as a pianist, drummer and bass guitarist, there was a string section comprising three violinists and a double bassist, plus a horn section with trumpet, clarinet, saxophone and flute. The scene was set for a full, rich sound.
Opening with ‘Rosewood’, the lead single from ‘Fragments’, the music was complemented by a large screen showing visuals of flowing molten lava. The band remained in silhouette with rose pink lasers flashing for the duration of the song, before it changed to white lights and watery visuals for ‘Counterpart’. Singer Nicole Miglis then appeared on stage in a yellow satin dress, long pink gloves and sky-high platform boots to perform ‘Surface’ from 2017 album ‘Migration’, which she originally featured on. Her vocals were a little hard to hear on the low notes, but sounded clear on the high ones. Another two songs from the latest album; ‘Tides’ featuring Jamila Woods, which ended with a gorgeous string outro and ‘Shadows’ featuring Jordan Rakei, rounded off the first phase of the set.
‘Kiara’ from 2010 record ‘Black Sands’ got the crowd warming up, one woman in the middle of the standing area on someone’s shoulders, flailing her arms around. ‘Bambro Koyo Ganda’ featuring the vocals of Moroccan musical collective Innov Gnawa roughly translates as “a salute to a great man of the Bambara empire who can sing and dance well”. This seemed apt as the crowd got even livelier, especially during the breakdown midway through, accompanied by intense red and blue lights.
Building on the tempo, ‘Cirrus’ from 2013 album ‘The North Borders’ (yes, the man is prolific!) saw Bonobo playing a xylophone to create that unmistakable chiming before going in hard on the bass and morphing into techno with columns of turquoise and blue light across the stage. The song went through many more stages than the original, green strobe lights flashing all over the venue, before things calmed down with ‘Outlier’ and ‘We Could Forever’, which finished with a beautiful horn section. Simon paused to tell us this was his “first live show in the UK in four years and I couldn’t think of anywhere better”.
Miglis rejoined the band for a pared back version of ‘First Fires’ featuring Grey Reverend, whose voice is possibly too deep for Miglis to recreate effectively, followed by ‘From You’ featuring Joji and ‘No Reason’, wrapping the audience in soothing speckles of light, spinning slowly around the room. Grammy-nominated ‘Linked’ with its beeps, clicks and vocal refrain saw rays of rotating white light and ever-changing landscapes on the screen.
The energy was raised once again with an absolutely stomping rendition of ‘Otomo’ featuring Ninja Tune label-mate O’Flynn, heavy bass reverberating through our bodies, epic horns creating an immense sound and intense strobe lights elevating this further (shout out to the lighting technicians!). The crowd was bouncing.
Bonobo teased that he may give us two or even three more songs for the encore and he didn’t disappoint. After introducing the talented band members, they played ‘Break Apart’ from ‘Migration’ followed by ‘Stay the Same’ from ‘Black Sands’, transitioning into a crescendo of instruments and then into a version of ‘Kerala’ including a banging piano breakdown that blew the roof off. Before he left for good, he said “I’ve got to take a picture of you guys. This is insane!” It certainly was. Someone give this man a Grammy! He’s been nominated enough times.
Brighton Centre, Tuesday 3rd May 2022
Words by Emma Baker
Photos by Sarah Brownlow
