Sydney based artist Jonti has released his long awaited album, “Tokorats”. After a 5 year hiatus he has returned to us with a beautiful body of work. It is incredibly conceptual, well thought out, offers a diverse array of sounds and moods and collaborates beautifully with Sampa The Great, Hodgy and Midnight Mutants. The whole 15 tracks tie together almost in unison, taking you on a journey of emotions and strong feels.
The opening track ‘Lotus’ sets the mood for the album, followed up secondly by ‘Alien’, which is a bit more upbeat and keeps your mind in check for what’s to come next.
‘Island Rose’ follows shortly, a collaborative track with Sampa The Great. It’s a wonderful beat, filled with a great kick and a truly divine flow complementing the production perfectly. This is most definitely a combo I’d like to see more of in the future. ‘Tokorats’, the title-track of the album, is a real groover and shaker, drawing some awesome similarities to some old school Mo Town records, hints of jazz and blues throughout, yet still incredibly modern and fresh.
As the album progresses and reaches the middle section, it can get a bit experimental and could lose the attention of some, but that’s quite short lived as before you know it you’re at ‘Animah’. Another collaborator piece with Hodgy and Midnight Mutants, it’s got a mean as hip hop flow with euphoric synths rising from the back ground, building up this incredibly atmospheric and feel good head bopping jam. Something you can close your eyes and just enjoy listening to.
The album wraps up on a rather experimental avenue, with ‘Papaya Brothers’ being my personal favourite of the last four songs. It has a really strong Bonobo vibe going on, with a nice amount of percussion and keys. It’s a really nice sounding number. Overall the album is a great piece of work, taking you through potentially the journey that Jonti himself has been going on since we last heard from him.
I certainly hope that we don’t have to wait another 5 years to experience his amazing artistry of sound. All in all this covers all the bases in having something to listen to, something to dance to, and something to think about. Although I can definitely recognise it’s not going to be everyones cup of tea, it hit in all the right places for me.
Rating: ★★★★
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author: Elliott Armour