Customer Reviews

Animal Magic

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For better or worse, the Internet has made it easy to satisfy a jones. No matter how exotic one's taste is, a couple of clicks will have your yen bubble-wrapped at your door. Unfortunately for me, my jones for Amon Tobin was satisfied too quickly. I needed more. With the release of the "4 Ton Mantis" single I got more. (Excuse me? Just what does Amon Tobin have to do with Bonobo? Just a moment. I'm getting there.) The "4 Ton Mantis" single featured a very tasty remix by Bonobo, a remix that triggered the jones. After too many search engines coughed up pages listing scientific papers on Australian pygmy monkeys (that's what a bonobo is), I bought the CD sound unheard, and now I have a new monkey on my back.

The Amon Tobin vibe is definitely there, especially on "Dinosaurs," "Shadowtricks," and "Sugar Rhyme." Both artists groove hard and share a fondness for muted horns (I think they may even share samples of muted horns) that make for fine nocturnal listenings. Mr. Tobin even gets a thanks in the liner notes. But where Amon Tobin is all about beats, Bonobo has a keen ear for melody and a lighter touch programming drum and percussion tracks, making him a little easier to listen to. Still, it's a fine line and I can see time adding layers of rhythmic complexity to Bonobo's compositions. In any case, if you jones for a tasty, noirish blend of beats and jazz, "Animal Magic" is a fine fix.

Addendum: The "Album Details" makes reference to "Some Sitar." "Some" is a recurring bit on a single track ("Terrapin"). I suppose it qualifies, but if you're looking for a heavy Indian influence, look elsewhere.

This is a fantastic album. All you have to do is put it in and play. If you are in a bad mood it will relax you. The songs start nice and mellow and gradually get a little bit harder. I bought this album without listening to any of Bonobos music before. I playedd it to a group of my friends and they all wanted to buy a copy. Whether this record is played at the lowest or highest setting on your volume control, it will allways sound like a cold strong beer on a hot sunny day. Even if you dont like dance music this is an essetial C.D to have in your collection.

This is such a great morning record, perfect for a quite Sunday of coffee and contemplation. Sad that the record has such a cheesy title (sounds like a bad metal album). It's all pretty mellow, certainly not a record for the dancefloors. Beautiful melodies and gorgeous sounds drift throughout, creating a sound that is ambient at some moments and cinematic in others. There are some 'noirish' moments, as the other reviewer mentioned, but it's not that way in the same way as, say, the Troublemakers album 'Doubts & Convictions'. On the whole, the atmosphere is pretty lush and dreamy, the emphasis on strings and piano plus the welcome addition of some understated and quiet organic guitar playing adding up to give the whole record a very coherent sound. Check out the aforementioned track 'Terrapin' with it's gentle sitar riff and bobbing beats, as beautiful a downtempo track as you're likely to hear.

This one is not as deep and good as many of Bonobo's other efforts. That's not to say is not a good album. It's OK, it just lacks a lot of the depth, variety, and musical intelligence that is obvious and plentiful in "Dial M For Monkey" or "It Came From The Sea".

The music is very loopy and uninspiring at times, but somehow he manages to make a decent album. Much more downtempo and slow than his later work and quite eclectic.

Best song IMO is Silver. If the rest of the album would have captured the essence of that song, we would have had another masterpiece in our hands...

This is a good electronica CD. There are catchy tunes through out which are immediately accessible. What prevents this CD from being an electronica classic, and makes it lower quality that Dial M for Monkey (Also by Bonobo), are two things:

1. There is not enough depth on the tracks. Each track has a few different parts, and just a few layers of instrumentation. In comparison, Dial M for Monkey, is much deeper. There are many more layered parts within each track, and each song has more parts to it. Long story short there is more complexity to Dial M for Monkey. This added complexity makes Dial M grow more interesting with each listen, while Animal Magic gets old after many listens.

2. Animal Magic features some "spoken word" vocals. Basically some guy who sounds like a TV ad from the 1950s repeats cheesy spoken sentances in some of the songs (fortunately there is not too much of this). This is totally hacky and I can't believe someone would still use this technique. This was cliche in the early 90s. Why do I want to hear some nerdy voice say "each time you hear this record you will relax even deeper". <gag>

Overall all this is a good CD though. I do enjoy listening to it, and every Bonobo fan should pick this up as they will like it. If you can get only one Bonobo CD, however, get Dial M for Monkey.

Animal Magic, Bonobo's first album, is simply that: magic. From the opening strains of "Sleepy Seven" to "Silver," the entire album is filled with such a depth of emotion that you forget how beautiful the songs themselves are. "Dinosaurs" goes for a slow, lumbering funk, buoyed by a trumpet that almost sounds like a brachiosaurus call. "Terrapin" is one of the most compiled tracks from the album, and for good reason: starting off with a single sitar, the track emerges from its cocoon to become a butterfly, unfurling its wings. "The Plug" goes for melancholy instead, with equally gorgeous results. Albums like this really make compulsive buying worth it.

I really enjoy this CD - there are all kinds of different musical styles that are blended together well and flow into each other smoothly. I especially like Dinosaurs, Kota, and well, actually I like it all. If you are a dance performace artist this would be an excellent CD to use for your pieces. The music itself will create images for you to build on.

Listening to Bobobo's (Simon Green) debut album, i wonder why isn't Bonobo's name revered along other electronic music luminaires like Amon Tobin among music connoiseur's.
Like his labelmate and friend Amon Tobin, Bonobo's music is a collage of disparate (mostly) acoustic musical elements (hi hop drum rhythms, spoken word snippets, standup bass, sitars, acoustic guitars, string sections, saxes, etc) put together in a imaginative and cohesive way to create something new and exciting.
In this album, Bonobo is the closest thing you would hear to Amon Tobin's groundbreaking early work without the Drum and Bass workouts and brazilian percussion. Every track is a different and touching song, with unique musical elements that will have you humming and listening to this album for hours over and over again: The unintelligible female vocals on "Sleepy Seven", The snaking sax lines in "Dinosaurs", The acoustic guitar arpeggios and weird distorted synths on "Kota", The impossibly high-pitched female vocals and sitar on "Terrapin"...

I own an extensive Electronic music collection with hundreds of albums and over 10000 songs, anything from Aphex Twin to Zoviet France, and this is one my favorite albums in my collection.
If you like downtempo / Chillout music, you must get this album, you won't be dissapointed!

I think this album is amazing buy it now listen to terrapin. Thats my favorite track. I love the tranquility of this album it is superior to Dial M not saying that dial M is bad at all i just like this one i have all of his releases and this is my favorite along with Solid Steel. Solid steel is a radio show on the bbc strictly for dj's set up by the dudes from herbaliser. if you get stuff for free off limewire put in solid steel try and find rjd2 and dk sick sick sick. then gett all the solid steel sessions off ninja tune label Herbaliser mr scruff dj food + dk

'animal magic' is not a groundbreaking album. it sure does have some nice music involved, though. the first time i heard the song 'the plug' i nearly lost my mind. it is the ideal song for me. most of the album is the same, however, not as strong as the above mentioned song. bonobo has released some very laid back jams here. there are lots of nice beats as well for those of you who enjoy the beat-oriented pieces. i know everyone compares everything to boards of canada and i can't say that this album is an exception. it is very similar in feel. very beautiful and chill.

check out tracks: sleepy seven, terrapin, the plug, and shadowtricks.

hope you enjoy it as much as i do.