- Slippery rhythm tracks to send you into space.
- There's a bright, slippery energy moving through the Swiss-Congolese producer Bonaventure's new record, Mentor. Where her debut EP from last year, Free Lutangu, was oriented around fierce barrages of drums and vocals sampled from artists likes Sister Souljah and Beyoncé, Mentor strips away the heavy percussion in favor of trance-like melodies and gentle rhythms influenced by kizumba, tarraxo, Ivorian Coupé-Décalé and European dance music.
Given Bonaventure's interest in science fiction and the idea that "humanity sees mentorship in extraterrestrial forms of life," there's a sense of textural symbiosis running through the record. "Physarum" puts glistening stabs reminiscent of Lorenzo Senni or Mechatok in conversation with whispery percussion. The hardstyle kick at the beginning of "Impetus" sounds particularly weird—that is, until Bonaventure pairs it with more tightly wound drums. "Mentor" and "Nemesis" are the EP's more rhythm-based club tracks, but they're complemented by whizzing melodies. The blend of high and low tones on "Colony," featuring the Vancouver artist Debby Friday, recalls Free Lutangu's propulsive motifs.
On "Both," the writer and artist Hannah Black, Bonaventure's frequent collaborator, somberly tells us that "both apocalypse and utopia are already here," until the track climbs higher and higher, ending at its melodic peak and leaving the listener on the precipice. It's a fitting end to an EP that guides us to an unresolved—though not necessarily unexpected—place.
Tracklist01. Physarum
02. Mentor
03. Nemesis
04. Colony feat. Debby Friday
05. Impetus
06. Both feat. Hannah Black