Bonobo - Migration review: ’bursts with richness and colour’

Six albums in, at 40 years of age, British producer Simon Green sounds more accomplished and confident than ever.

No longer tagged easily in awkwardly named dance subgenres such as trip hop and folktronica, he’s moving in a class of one today, mixing the organic and the electronic in captivating layers.

Migration has a nature theme – the single, Kerala, and its mix of digitally manipulated female voices and string samples was inspired by bird movement — and comes with a poetic essay by the Landmarks writer Robert Macfarlane. It’s all very pretty but far from background music.

Ontario sits astride a grandiose bass throb. Outlier moves from gentle beginnings to incorporate a wild synth loop.

With headphones on, the whole sounds like the arrival of spring, bursting with richness and colour.

(Ninja Tune)