Bleep

Collection of early works from Bibio. Including:

Fi

Debut album from Stephen Wilkinson, aka electronic musician Bibio. Originally released on Mush Records in 2004, the album introduced the world to Wilkinson’s pastoral electronics, found sounds, and guitar lines. The mixture of ambient electronics, atonal drones, and natural sounds proved infectious, though as often imitated as this style of music is, few pull it off as well as Bibio.

Hand Cranked

Back in the days when the contentious term ‘folktronica’ was being fought over, legitimate genre tag or not, the music world was grappling with the groundswell of musician-producers surging acoustic guitars with the uncannily jolted approach you’re likely to hear from an electronic artist. Bibio appeared to be at the forefront of such a stylistic misnomer, and while the organic finger-picked compositions of his breakthrough second LP, 2006’s Hand Cranked, is undoubtedly folk-oriented in the vein of Robbie Basho or John Fahey, while simultaneously sounding completely other; a musical-anthropological folk study shot to Earth from the dark side of the moon, or extracted from an alternative dimension time capsule.

Vignetting The Compost

Bibio's third full-length originally released on Mush. Crackling with the freshness of dewy sun-kissed spring morns, what we lucky listeners get is a cornucopia of found sound, circling guitar shapes and dusty, lo-fi resonance. Distant highlife phrases swim through the mix of downbeat drones and softly flickering beats, while folk influenced arrangements flirt with a wistful sense of nostalgia, broken 78 discs and humming phonographs. Occasionally Bibio's delicious vocal sometimes permeates the glow adding another layer to the thick dreamscape.

Ovals & Emeralds

Skewed melodies and a bank of analogue equipment his lends each of these tracks a dusty, sepia-tinged character. ‘The Death of a Trapeze Artist’ rolls with awkward, muffled keys and swimming melodies, ‘Carosello Ellitico’ could be a cut from a lost 60s demo, and ‘Six String Marenghi’ briefly casts a fleeting sense of positivity before ‘Polycoulrophon’ jars like a late night flick through the TV channels. Whether these are just crooked snapshots, or broken interludes, ‘Ovals and Emeralds’ is worth it for the exploration alone.