"And Ben Bondy, who until now has primarily dealt in disorientingly dubby ambient music, has emerged with something resembling a singer/songwriter album, but not quite. Bondy, a New York/Berlin-based producer who's made a name as part of the latter's cozy Kwia collective, has built a sprawling body of work across a number of labels representing the bleary haze of the left-field electronic underground."
"This isn't the first time Bondy has strolled on the indie or cloud rap side of the tracks, but nothing he's released previously could prepare you for opening track "Bend," with its tropical blend of amapiano log drumming, Alex G guitars, and Auto-Tuned sighs. Picking up the thread on the dembow-powered minimalist R&B of Organ Tapes and Palmistry, Bondy brings a lushness that stands apart from those artists' MIDI-controller-and-a-mic ethos."
Ben Bondy shifts from disorientingly dubby ambient production into a confessional, genre-blurring acoustic laptop pop on XO Salt Llif3. The New York/Berlin-based producer draws from a sprawling left-field electronic background across labels like West Mineral Ltd., 3XL, Motion Ward, and Quiet Time. The record repurposes club and indie sounds, mixing amapiano log drumming, Alex G-style guitars, Auto-Tuned vocals, shoegaze distortion, and trip-hop moods. Opening track "Bend" exemplifies the tropical, dembow-powered ambition, while "Dreamseed" and "Ur Ghost Is My Shadow" develop into distorted shoegaze and trip-hop spirals. Collaborations include Berlin singer Kissen. Pop influences are treated as material for experimental collage.
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