It’s all about melody. And on Dial M for Monkey, Bonobo, the monkey king himself, is back with nine perfectly formed melodies on a perfectly formed album. Not an overblown or conceptualised one – just simple, plain and truely genious.

Refusing to imitate commercial lounge tunes, Bonobo has developed his unique melodic lay back style. A solid and inspering mix of hip hop, weighty jazz, broken beats, grooving funk, soul and a portion of psyche rock and drum and bass mixed in.

Bonobo’s sound rumors and comes to live beneath the surface. Slightly hidden organic, pastoral atmospheres and catchy melodies make his music come alive if you investigate it slowely. The intricacies of rhythm, the darker shades of the soul, and almost a sleight of hand, that meant that you could be in one mood one minute, and the next you would somewhere different.

From the opener, “Noctuary,” with it’s creepy stoned-Hammer feel, through the headnod sitar-funk of “Flutter,” on into the Rhodes-meets-Gamelan of “D Song,” the first third of the record sets out the tone for what is to follow all beautfiully melodic and perfectly assembled but with enough of a creeping undertow to stop the music becoming empty or saccharine. “Change Down” is all double bass folk and cut-up drums, “Wayward Bob” is a devilish waltz, while single “Pick Up” is a straight funk ‘n’ flute throw down. “Something For Windy”sounds like a dub of a postman on his rounds, “Nothing Owed” is epic pastoralia, while “Light Pattern” rounds things off with what sounds like the theme to the best TV programme never made.

True tunes with all instruments played, sampled and sequenced by Bonobo. True Ninja Tune sound. There’s nothing more to be said.