BOP & Degs - Island On My Own (ft. Gabriella Bongo)

If you have been clocking BOP’s name on track after track lately, Island On My Own shows you the songwriter rather than just the breakbeat scientist. This one is built around voices, Degs delivering his warm half-sung half-spoken flow and Gabriella Bongo floating a gorgeous hook over the top, and the drum and bass underneath almost serves them instead of the other way round. It is liquid at its most song-shaped, verses and a chorus you could hum in the shower, the breakbeat rolling gently enough that the whole thing could pass for a soul record that happens to run at 174 bpm. The theme is solitude, making a quiet peace with your own company, and Degs sells it without tipping into either self-pity or fake positivity. The bass is soft and enveloping, the chords jazzy and unbothered. My only quibble is that I wanted the drop to open up a little more than it does, it stays so polite it never quite lifts off. But as a headphones record for a slow evening it is lovely, and Gabriella Bongo’s hook has been trailing me around all day.

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