Review: Bobo - Pt. I: I Hope I Never Experience It (Gestalt Records)

Since premiering Swedish producer Bobo's 'And They All Look Like You' back in July of last year, Bobo has stayed firmly on our radar. With two stellar vinyl releases lined up for this month alone on Gestalt and Gunfinger Food, I can't help but think he's one to watch.

'Pt 1: I Hope I Never Experience It' marks Bobo's debut on Tallinn's Gestalt Records and sees him join the likes of Harrison BDP, Doppelate and Adam Stromstedt. His debut album is split into two parts, with 'Pt 2: I Hope I Experience It' coming out in November this year. The names of the two parts reflect Bobo's wish to 'experience a good life and not total darkness' a state he never wants to encounter. This seems to be mirrored within the release itself with Bobo almost playing between darkness and lightness.

Take 'New Beginnings' for example, there is an undeniable euphoric joy in the jingly circling keys and yet there seems to be a darkness hovering at the edge, as the clashing chords are tinged with melancholy to create a powerful conflict between joy and sorrow - something that feeds into the post-rock narrative of his album.

There's also a real love for broken and break beat patterns that we saw in Jerk001, especially felt within the gorgeous 'I (Part 1)', and has become a defining feature of Bobo's production style. Probably, my personal favourite, part 1, 'I' utilises oscillating alien bleeps, floaty - even transformative - synths and clean breaks.

Paris Taylor also makes an appearance joining Bobo for 'w_ u' which layers cruchy, metallic clunks, a tense ringing bell which just builds and builds alongside chopped, elongated and euphoric vocal snippets.

And to think that perhaps Gestalt wouldn't have heard the album, as Bobo told me that he sent some demos over to Steffan at Gestalt who came back with: ”I don’t like the tracks in the demo folder but what’s this album?”. I'm very glad they did deep that little bit deeper.

You can catch Bobo's Part 1 of his debut album on the 23rd June on Gestalt Records.

A note from the producer:

”I wanna give a shout out to everyone supporting me in this simulation, all the cool stuff I’m allowed to do around my art is thanks to Jerk it (who kickstarted it with JERK001), Gunfinger Food who wrote to me after listening to Jerk001 and Gestalt Records for having faith in my art. BARS of Beats is special to me as I run it with my best friend Oblique who is a ridiculous producer. This simulation is filled with bugs and issues but I enjoy every 010111 of it thanks to people like this.”