King of the North

In the past 50 years, there have been but a handful of seminal live albums released. Among the best perhaps are Queen at Wembley, The Who’s Live at Leeds, Simon & Garfunkel’s The Concert in Central Park, and Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison. What made these albums so monumental was that these artists were not simply great musicians, but that they were entertainers in the rawest sense, that they put on a performance, something to see as much as to hear. Although this tradition may be something largely lost to many today, it is precisely the reason one of England’s most audacious electronic music impresarios, Simon Green – better known by his stage name Bonobo – chose to release his very own live album, The North Borders Tour. — Live. In these digitally flush times, virtually anyone can make a studio-quality album steeped in high production value sound with very little money. However, taking the show on the road still requires raw talent.

The North Borders Tour. — Live takes its name from Bonobo’s fifth studio album, 2013’s The North Borders. The live album was made during the course of an 18-month world tour, which saw Green and his twelve-piece live band, which includes drummer Jack Baker and the multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Michael Lesirge, as well as a keyboardist, a three-piece horn section, a bass player, and the beatific vocal stylings of both fellow Ninja Tune label mate Szjerdene (pronounced JhurDEEN) and Andreya Triana, who also lent vocals to several tracks on Bonobo’s 2010 masterpiece, Black Sands. The band played 175 shows spread across 30 countries and 3 continents. The 11 tracks (though actually 15 total as some of the songs are bundled together) that comprise The North Borders Tour. — Live were lifted from the albums The North Borders, Days to Come and Black Sands, and recorded during performances at London’s Roundhouse and Croatia’s Pula Arena (an ancient Roman amphitheatre), as well as at in-studio performances used for live radio broadcasts.

The album gets it going with the instrumentally delicious and danceable afro-inspired drum and bass beats on “Cirrus” which leads into the R&B fueled “Stay the Same” featuring Andreya Triana, whose voice melds beautifully with the sexy sax and flamenco guitar. Equally erotic vocals show up on “Heaven for the Sinner” sung here by Szjerdene, who steps in for studio album vocalist Erykah Badu.

The crowd noise then ignites the excitement of the eight-minute, erratic, string-driven symphonic fugue of “Prelude/Kiara/Ten Tigers” which blends seamlessly into the beautiful back-to back-pairing of “Kong/Ketto,” the latter of which features a lengthy and satisfying saxophone solo that bleeds into the uppity “Emkay” and then downshifts into the in-studio Szjerdene-studded ballad “Towers.”

The North Borders Tour. — Live largely cements Simon Green’s talent not only in the genre of electronic music, but in the larger world of music in general. Leaving the comforts of home, whether it be forcibly or by one’s own decision, is rarely an easy feat. However, what is lived, learned, and created from the result of such journeys often seems to forge the bettered self that emerges on the other side. With the release of The North Borders Tour. — Live, Bonobo can safely look back over the border, upon the electronic relics of the past – though likely only momentarily, for with this album he has made it evident he likely won’t stay settled for long.