Following on from a string of acclaimed EPs, Bondi’s longed-for debut album ‘Space Logic’ is eventually seeing the light of day. Composed with an array of versatile voices and talents by his side, this maiden full-length sortie from the German producer takes us to sun-dripping yet ambiguous places as jagged and chaotic as their primordial rhythm, though continuously guided across these craggy reliefs by light and melody. Creating an immersive headspace skirted by ethereal indie-pop, desert psychedelia and bass-powered EBM bursts, Bondi shepherds his listener at the intersection of languid Californian tableaux, genre-unbound electronics and proper scope-expanding cinematic vibrancy.
The opening song, ‘Turning Blind’ feat. Jacob Drescher, works a typically hybrid seam of bass-fuelled folk leaning back against a road-trip-ready chug, both suave and dynamic in equal measure. 80s-minded to the core, ‘In My Mind’ feat. Save The Kid rolls out a further cosmic, Italo-friendly scenario, primed for hi-NRG boogie-down sessions down the basement, whereas ‘What If’ feat. Cile on vocals shifts gears onto candied, synth-splattered pop to compellingly romantic effect.
Reigniting the flame after their successful first collaboration (‘Head Over’), ‘Rosanne’ sees Bondi and Sinus dish out a superbly integrated slab of late- summer folk music, doped on muscular slap bass and fluttering guitars. Carving out a distinct sequence in the album, ‘Stay Runaway’ feat. French-Cuban vocalist Charlotte Colace weaves together elements of Torrini-an sludge and damp, Massive Attack-style trip-hop ambiences that emulate beautifully whilst developing their own intrinsically sensuous grammar.
Another collaborative effort alongside Berlin-based Italian artist Save The Kid, ‘Crystallized’ flexes muscles and seamlessly soars from near-tribal polyrhythms to kosmische-informed abstraction, as the vaporous ‘Concrete Ground’ feat. Cile elevates to the upper, most exhilarating layers of dream pop. ‘Stuck in a Blue Moon’ feat. Drescher returns to a more serene, ballad-tempo’d mindset, evolving into a club-ready weapon at some point, making it the perfect companion for transitional states on the dance-floor.
The sole Bondi-only tune on the album, the title-track ‘Space Logic’ entices us on a path of post-Andalusian, half-balearic escapism with its processed riffs and slo-hatching minimal churn on a space odyssean tip, before the final number, ‘I Need You To Hear Me’ feat. Drescher rounds it all off on a further syncopated note with its retro-gazing vibe and hip-rolling swagger, letting the pressure out with the kind of languid and debonair charm that shall realign your chakras out like nothing else.