Bonobo - Break Apart (ft. Rhye)

As the years have stretched out, Simon Green aka Bonobo has been determined to apply his trademark - rich orchestration, clattering percussion and tightly-wound electronics - to new territory. By title alone, new album ‘Migration’ suggestions he’s looking to explore places outside of his comfort zone. And ‘Break Apart’, a collaboration with Rhye’s Mike Milosh, is like hearing the fabric of 2010 breakthrough ‘Black Sands’ smoothed out into a velvety, luscious wanderer, a stranger of its former self.

In the day job, Milosh’s own work with Rhye is all Sade-nodding, steamed-up R&B. Here, he finds himself the solitary voice in a smoky, ever-evolving haze. ‘Break Apart’ is a deceptively smart, complex beast, but it takes a while to evolve from smooth customer to something worth revisiting. But there’s a great deal of depth here - and going by everything lifted from ‘Migration’ so far, that’s a new trick Bonobo can add to his signature.