Bleep

With three albums of electrified folk experimentation firmly under his belt, Stephen Wilkinson aka Bibio struck gold with 2009’s Ambivalence Avenue. Having spent years at the forefront of the dubiously-titled ‘folktronica’ movement, Wilkinson successfully shirked off the expectations of genre with his critically-lauded fourth LP, making further strides into vintage pop and folk rock territories without sacrificing any of the warm, fuzzy, lo-fi recording processes he championed along the way.

Key to Bibio’s transcendence is the multitude of styles and artistic choices made on this multifaceted LP. Tracks like ‘all the flowers’ and ‘abrasion' recall the classic pop songwriting of Simon and Garfunkel fed through an acid folk filter, soaked with a wistful kind of lovelorn yet upbeat melancholia, while swaggering funk in the vein of Sly and the Family Stone makes itself known in the wah-wah steps and falsetto vocalising of ‘jealous of roses’. Even with all these developments, the biggest surprise of Ambivalence Avenue is its heavy instrumental hip-hop influence, marched out in the sun-dappled beats and celebratory sample usage of ‘fire ant’ and ‘sugarette’.

Released via Warp, Ambivalence Avenue truly showcases Bibio as a stellar songwriter and forward-facing visionary, neatly melding folk, electronic and hip-hop into a singular sound.