Bleep

Bibio’s ‘Silver Wilkinson’ evidenced the producer on top form, wringing out delicately textured electronic music from an intriguing armoury of squeaking machines and folk instruments. ‘You Won’t Remember..’ is beautifully melancholic, with vocoded vocals rendered unusually warm and sensuous above twinkling guitar picking. There are a pick of similarly understated and affecting guitar-led cuts to choose from, with ‘Sychamore Silhouetting’ drawing lines between Nick Drake and the ambient music of Brian Eno, and ‘Raincoat’ being a charming up-front folk song, albeit with an attention to production which relieves it from being mere pastiche.

Perhaps the most interesting tracks, however, are where these core folk elements are placed in dialogue with electronica influences. ‘Business Park’ skilfully widens out a plonking square wave synth pop march into a broader, more cinematic effort at a natural pace, recalling Four Tet’s more pastoral work, while ‘You’ suddenly opens out the misty atmosphere which mostly prevails with garage vocals and a shuffling beat. ‘Mirroring All’ feels like a blissed-out cousin of Forest Swords’ most recent work, with a jazzy guitar chord sequence propped up by a ghostly offbeat constructed from the rattling sounds of perhaps the lead instrument, or maybe its environmental surroundings. ‘Silver Wilkinson’ feels like a generous but intensely personal record, drawing upon classic influences, but offering distinct ways to articulate how they might be put together in constantly changing patterns.