As per usual for UK electronic artist Bonobo, The North Borders starts off extremely well. 'First Fires' punctuates a beautifully understated vocal performance from Grey Reverend with submerged synth droplets and fleeting, glacial, ASMR inducing pads -- all enhanced by a confident and generous allowance for negative space that seems to only come with experience. In terms of perfect intros, it almost stacks up to the double barrelled future classic of Prelude/Kiara from 2010's Black Sands. Unfortunately, in this case there isn't a whole lot of interest that follows.