This is music? A case of the Emperors New Clothes

Among the least debated and theorized, No wave, was a short lived avant-garde scene that emerged quietly in the late 1970s in manhattan. Though No wave somewhat intentionally went against the recycled rock and pop established styles common at the time, it was honestly more of an experiment with what sound could do, (or not do), and more specifically, what could come from the relationship of noise and dissonance. It generally reflected themes of nihilism and confrontation. Essentially, No wave was a backlash at new wave. Though paradoxical to say so, no wave will never entirely be able to cut its umbilical cord from new wave. No wave reflected a nihilistic social consciousness of  dissent emerging at that time. Despite this attempt to disassociate, No wave, ironically if I may say so, had a profound effect on culture to come, inspiring themes in the development of fashion, film and visual art. No Wave was a fairly direct reflection of culture bleeding from the concrete cracks of New York City sidewalks, about as honest as creative expression could be.

The most recognized and perhaps the most popular child of the No Wave movement is Sonic Youth, who managed to remain staunchly independent despite gaining in popularity.  Whats interesting about Sonic Youth being among the more known No Wave movement bands, it that sonic youth also happened to mark the end of the No Wave era. Their beginning was one of avant garde theory and powerfully raw live energy. They were later able to compose more conventionally structured songs that were easier on the ears but still refused to sell out to mainstream audiences.  Their eventual surrender to harmonious melody and aesthetic betrayed some of the main principles of No Wave and led to the demise of the movement overall, birthing a new era of alt rock reminiscent of No Wave dregs that catered more to general human music aesthetics, always wavering between industrial grit and ephemeral beauty.

No wave has not spawned any recent revival. It came and passed.

Bonobo: jazz for people who hate jazz.

It is relatively hard to dislike bonobo. A versatile artist from Britain that put out a couple albums at the dawn of 2000, this monkey did not actually become visibly recognized too much until Black Sands, a 2010 album that finally put Bonobo on the map of electronic artists that mattered. While I would not argue that Bonobo is in the class of electronic music, it would not be devastatingly wrong to say that Bonobo creates his own category, one whose primary ambition seems to be in creating ambiance, one with jazz undercurrents, partnering trip-hop with beautifully executed industrial and classical fragments, reflecting the height of trip hop influence.

Bonobo is a hard artist to place in any distinct category on its own but wavers somewhere in the realm between electronic; 

nobody wants to admit that they hate jazz, but jazz is surprisingly unpopular. Even if people won't admit it, they will be willing to say its "not their favorite."

Maybe its all the confusion and chaos, maybe the lack of repetitive expectation the more robotic limb of our subconscious hungers for. Bonobo allows for none of that. Bonobo takes sugary echoes of jazz and dissolves it in industrial beats the average post post post modern loser can resonate with.

Black Sands and North Borders, the two most recent albums, undeniably remain his most popular works. In MY opinion, however, his masterpieces truly lie in his early sketches; before vocals were even a thought, Bonobo was penetrating the air with haunting ambience that had just enough lightness of being, mass, and density to complement the atmosphere, many miles away from his so called "evolved" (No pun intended) slatherings of complexity in sound and texture that feature contemporary established artists.  I recall when his single, Cirrus, came out; it was a hint at his new direction with the albums to come and was really quite the tease. He moved away from artist and closer to simply a producer. And this is not to say that his later work is not good, in fact, musically speaking, his albums are fantastic pieces of electronic music. But they'll never have the subtle stirring of those primary works of anomalous individuality that transcend the cruel, dirty prison walls of genre.