Album du jour #6 - Dial "Brian" for Pointlessness

Bonobo – Dial “M” for Monkey (2002)

Prior Relationship to Album: Bonobo is a downtempo artist…I got this album back when I was working as the electronica genre director for my college radio station. It was a kind of fun gig, because basically I would get all of the electronica albums that labels would send us, and I would write labels asking for more…and I would get to copy everything before putting it in the cd changers. Although most of it was junk and didn’t end up in. Anyways, Ninja Tune sent us this record, and is one of my favourite labels. I know I’ve listened to some of this album before, but it has been so long I don’t remember a thing about it.

High Point: 06 “Pick Up”. I can’t think of any interesting ways to describe how and why this song is great, so I’ve asked They Might Be Giants to pinch-hit for me:

Low Point: The second half of 03 “D Song”. Starts off strong, and then turns into that Lunesta commercial where the magical green butterfly puts you to sleep.

What I Learned/Realized: Bonobo’s real name is Simon Green, is my age, and is from the UK (Brighton, to be precise). And he became one of the new “downtempo pioneers” at the age of 18. At the age of 18, I was playing a lot of Heroes of Might and Magic and thinking that I was cool because I would order the “feminine energy” booster pack with my Jamba Juice. I could be doing more with my life.

Future Relationship to Album: Try to listen to this album more….after I get published. (Although technically I have been – but that doesn’t quite count).