Bleep

BIB10 was a landmark album for Bibio, crystallising over twenty years of his music career with expert guitar-based songwriting. One year on, he follows up with the equally masterful Sunbursting EP, as per the tradition he has kept with every album since his Warp debut in 2009. Not only are these EPs epilogues to each era and album cycle, but also enticing little worlds of their own: from the incendiary and ecstatic beats of The Apple And The Tooth, to the haunting downtempo folk of The Green EP, to the synthfunk and soul stardom of The Serious EP. Sunbursting EP is no different, drowning in retro warmth, and the wide array of instruments and styles that has made each new release from Bibio a highly anticipated one.

Frequent collaborator Olivier St. Louis wades into the opening ‘Sorry (Won’t Cut It)’ with elegant, smooth harmonies, as the two show off even more of their golden musical partnership with a rippling, funky lilt and lightly swishing drums. ‘A Matter Of Fact’ rocks and rolls over snappy, choppy rhythms, while twisting vocoded vocals are reflected in the disco ball. The centrepiece here is undoubtedly ‘All Of The Above’, a multi-phased tour through infinitely groovy movements. Saxophone melodies flow besides rotations of sitar guitar and glockenspiel twinkles, before a soulful funk switch-up lands in passionate, intimate territory, lined with red velvet satin, and fur. ‘Clay Dots’ and ‘Sunbursting’ are a bucolic closing duo: the former’s sunset coloured guitar plucks croon in the seaside, melting over subtle drum machine pulses, before the EP leaves with introspective, fluttering notes from saxophonist Óskar Guðjónsson.

Expanding his latest musical chapter, Sunbursting EP is another round of rock and pop prowess from Bibio.