Live Review: Bonobo, Bifold, Oisima

The club fills up rapidly as Oisima provides the aural content, the Adelaide product sidestepping his jazzier selections for sounds of a denser variety. Although the mixing is pretty jammy at times, no one seems to mind at all and there’s enough eclecticism in the beats to give us a good stretch out before the main game.

It’s a half hour past midnight; the room is peaking with anticipation for Bonobo, and when the British sonic shape-shifter emerges, waves of adulation roll from the floor to the stage. The intro to 2010 album, Black Sands acts as our beginning tonight, the haunting violin providing a watershed moment barely a minute into the set. Following that, Kiara arrives. The room moves in unison as Bonobo’s sonics warmly wrap around us. Temperature levels instantly spike; couches are being used as makeshift podiums. The sound is a clifftop and we can see for miles. 

With a bountiful back catalogue to pull from, Bonobo picks only the finest cuts for our aural pleasure. Kong floats with a majestic ease, the found sounds the British producer incorporates into his music on show. He also peppers the set with a number of tracks from his watershed 2013 album, The North Borders, most notably dropping Know You and a muscular version of the hypnotic Cirrus.

Adding to his own quiver, Bonobo welcomes kindred music from his Blighty home – Leon Vynehall’s Butterflies and the at-times unnerving Nuits Sonores by Floating Points. He takes us on a journey to a place that’s breathing and alive, soundtracking a rainforest rave party in amongst the bricks and mortar. As this happens, the crowd’s thirst for more becomes insatiable and hands continue to rise and fall with the layers of earthy bass.

The two-hour mark comes and goes. A stripped-back, string-based finale tapers away and a huge cheer erupts. Bonobo smiles, returns applause, then winds it back up again – he’s not finished with us yet. The Arty remix of London Grammar’s Hey Now is a natural selection that provides, *gasp*, a singalong moment of sorts. More strings are introduced and they show us the door as majestically as they first let us in. Tonight we witnessed a master at the height of his powers and we’re all better for it.

The three-pronged attack of Bifold then keeps the party moving into the haunting hours, playing some bass-rich gold (see: Caribou, Can’t Do Without You) and a filthy selection of assorted bangers – house music of the tough variety. We definitely should be going home, but we can’t bring ourselves to leave. The largeness continues – we’ll deal with the consequences at a later time.