New music: Bodhi – SY

Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re about to chill out. Bodhi’s new single is 90s house par excellence

Despite taking their name from a Buddhist tree of enlightenment, Cardiff duo Bodhi (Luke Welsby and Olly Howells) – signed to previous New Music alumnus Ifan Dafydd‘s Push & Run record label – thankfully don’t make the insufferable chillout music that inspiration would suggest. Their forthcoming single SY may start out with a fairly minimal beat pulse and chopped vocals but it soon transforms into classic 90s house, building slowly via distant percussion flourishes and expanding synths, before a delirious keyboard riff takes over. With an expert handle on dynamics, the whole thing drops out around the three-minute mark, patiently lingers about for a bit and then properly goes off via that riff and a looped female vocal joyously singing “sometimes you make me act so crazy”. The B-side to SY is the slightly calmer Emanation, which is also worth a listen, and if that’s whetted your appetite then they’ve also reworked the xx’s Angels into a much bouncier affair.

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