Bnjmn At Juno Download

Review: Ben Thomas aka BNJMN released an impressive debut album on Rush Hour earlier this year, and it's fair to say that 141 is a worthy follow-up. Mixing up warm Detroit-style textures and melodies with broken beats, BNJMN comes across like bass music's answer to Convextion or John Roberts. "One Sea" is a beautifully dreamy, mournful soundtrack that is every ounce as melancholic as John Roberts's recent album, while "We Are The Weather" nudges BNJMN towards the dance floor, with a rippling bassline underpinning the atmospheric textures. Thomas's willingness to flirt with different tempos and rhythm structures is audible on the drum and bass pace of "Inout" and on the aptly named "Hybridisation", where a shuffling groove calls to mind the middle ground between Berlin techno and dubstep. However, throughout this journey the one constant remains his love of atmospheric moods and tones. Essential.

Review: Having released his Plastic World album just earlier this year, BNJMN spoils us with another sizable package in the form of this 9-track treat. There's something pleasingly arcane about the way he uses the tried and tested 4/4 formula as a secondary backbone to the rich layers of textures. At times he can be gentle, at others quite manic, in the way that he triggers the elements in his tracks, but the harmonious tones always reach a sweet-natured conclusion. 'Wisdom of Uncertainty' is a prime exponent of the fairy tale sound he has cornered in which to express himself.

Review: Rush Hour's Direct Current series has already struck gold on several occasions - most notably the back scratching endeavours of FaltyDL and Cosmin TRG - however a shift upwards in ambition and a swerve in focus towards these shores has delivered a truly startling full length album from BNJMN. The latest alias of Ben Thomas, a young UK producer whose work has featured under a variety of names for labels such as Svetlana Industries and Tirk, Plastic World could feasibly be conceived as Thomas finding his true musical identity. This is an album that's covered in a glistening sheen of utopian futurism; from the grinding amphibian machine funk of "Wheels In Motion" to the more upwardly mobile jacking acid melodies of "Tunnel Flight", BNJMN seems to posses an innate and auspicious talent for creating music that's just as suited for the floor as your headphones. Whilst "Blocks" has been most commonly claimed as the track that will draw you in, it is perhaps "See Through The Stars" that leaves the most lasting impression, throwing together frosted soundscapes with throbbing bass and tingling percussion and washing them with rich sounding shafts of upwards electronic melody with jaw dropping results.