For much of the 1980s and early 90s, Tim Simenon-- both under his own name and as Bomb the Bass-- worked his way up the UK producer food chain, through his work with Neneh Cherry and later producing Depeche Mode's Ultra. The troubled and trying DM album work apparently took so much out of Simenon that he spent several of the ensuing years recovering. In fact, Bomb the Bass went largely quiet after 1995's On-U Sound clash Clear, with no new album released until 2008's Future Chaos.
After a 13-year gap between previous Bomb the Bass records, the announcement of Back to Light was a slight surprise. The new record refines the Bomb the Bass relaunch with the addition of Gui Boratto as co-producer. On paper, this is just what Simenon needed. Bomb the Bass have rarely been about exploring the outer edges of dance music, and indeed the mundane Future Chaos boasted only the barest of nods to then-contemporary trends. Boratto, on the other hand, one of the stars of the Kompakt stable, is a savvy pick to bring Simenon up to date.
Boratto's addition seems to have inspired Simenon to loosen up. The blueprint of the record remains familiar to anyone who's heard Bomb the Bass, but the tempos have been slightly upped, the beats aren't quite all weighed down by a shared dour gravity, and the songs given an almost dreamy nuance. Yet the album still mostly mines the same analog gloom of Future Chaos, which in turn recalled Simenon's decade-old work with Depeche Mode. Indeed, DM's Martin Gore even pops up on the instrumental album closer "Milakia", adding keyboards to a track Simenon concedes had been sitting around unfinished for over ten years.
That the song fits right in really says it all about the Bomb the Bass disc as a whole-- solid and mostly serviceable. Simenon and Boratto keep the dynamics so even and consistent that very little jumps out. There are glimmers of Boratto's playful light-touch gifts simmering beneath the surface of songs such as "Up the Mountain" (featuring singer Sarah O'Shura of Portland's the Battle of Land and Sea), "Blindspot", or "Burn Less Brighter" (the latter two of which feature Gore-y BtB regular Paul Conboy, as do two other tracks), but they're largely subsumed by Simenon's moodiness.
There's nothing wrong with being down, and Simenon does it well. But what Back to Light boasts in studio acumen it lacks in personality. One even suspects Kelley Polar and Richard Davis were also tapped as guest vocalists because their sensibilities were already so in line with what Simenon wanted to achieve and not because they had anything particularly unique or original to offer. From a pioneer like Simenon, the decision to tread water is puzzling, since he remains capable of so much more. After all, not many producers have as strong a grasp of songs as they do sounds, and Simenon has always been one of those few. Hopefully his renewed activity continues apace, and next time his instincts and collaborators encourage him to risk the unfamiliar rather than settle for safety and comfort.
