Bonobo – Animal Magic

Some 19 years after it first slipped out, Bonobo’s fine debut album “Animal Magic” gets the reissue treatment, this time on tasty looking yellow vinyl. Simon Green’s style has evolved considerably in the two decades that have passed since the album first hit stores, but his ability to craft gorgeous tunes has never changed. “Animal Magic” was more sample-heavy than his later work, with Green combining killer vocal and instrumental lifts with jazz-flecked basslines and woozy musical motifs of his own with punchy beats that variously doff a cap to hip-hop, downtempo grooves, trip-hop and nu-jazz. In other words, it’s an evocative, soothing and hugely enjoyable sample patchwork that remains a laidback classic almost 20 years after he first made it.

Sleepy Seven (5:21)

Dinosaurs (3:58)

Kota (5:24)

Terrapin (4:39)

The Plug (5:16)

Shadowtricks (4:08)

Gypsy (3:36)

Sugar Rhyme(4:46)