Night Racing E.P. by Bonneville review
Bonneville is an electronica artist hailing from the Isle of Wight, whose influences mostly hark back to the golden age of electronic music. Bonneville lists his heroes as synth geniuses/producers like Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode,Yazoo, Erasure) and William Orbit (Bomb The Bass). There are also more modern influences like Goldfrapp and Orbital plus I detected some elements of modern house with the four-to-the-floor beats.
This E.P. comprises four tracks but is almost more of a mini-album, clocking in at about 30 minutes, with each track around the seven minute mark. They are all instrumentals that build gradually over the course of the track, so the attentive listener is rewarded. Instrumentals need strong melodies to hold the attention and fortunately Bonneville writes plenty, often the driving basslines being the most prominent melodic hook.
First track The Conqueror has a great bassline, then an equally memorable lead synth kicks in around the two minute mark that compliments the bassline nicely. The synth and drum sounds are what you would call ‘eighties’ but in no way does it sound dated, due to the modern production.
Aiming For Vegas, track two, has a psychedelic intro before another funky bassline kicks in. If Kraftwerk had ever made disco, it would have sounded like this.
Third track Solarize was my favourite with a great lead melody, the synth sound with an almost electric guitar-esque tone. The beat to this is a little more angular and complex, with subtle but intricate hi-hats. I loved the rubber band bassline on the second section. This would be a brilliant theme tune for a computer game.
Final track Night Racing is moody and mysterious as the title evokes, with a dreamy breakdown section and I liked the way the bass didn’t enter until two minutes in, very effective when it did.
Overall, it’s an excellent E.P. that is enjoyable just to listen to but any of these tracks would work well on the dancefloor or as the soundtrack to any kind of visual medium. With eighties ‘retro’ style acts like La Roux very popular at the moment, it is a good period for this style of music to get noticed.
