Pitchfork: Album Reviews: Bibio - Mind Bokeh
"Stephen Wilkinson's Bibio project continues to surprise, pushing further out of his comfort zone and venturing boldly into new territory. [Mark Richardson]"
June 10, 2009
Album review: Bibio - 'Ambivalence Avenue'
Nostalgic and warm electronica that'll put its hooks in you
6 / 10
He’s named after his father’s best fishing fly, but the pastoral folk moments on Stephen Wilkinson’s fifth album of chummy electronica pale next to the glut of nostalgic yearning. Several tracks sound like Moog-y TV themes from the ’70s if they’d been composed by Afro-pop man Bassekou Kouyate and uploaded from old vinyl, thanks to Wilkinson’s penchant for recording on to “half-broken samplers”. If that’s the sound of his childhood suburbia, the Black Country native brings us up to date with fine, dislocated disco (‘Fire Ant’), echoes of dubstep and mangled vocals that sound like Charley Says, none of which threaten the barbecue mood. By the final third, however, the houses on this avenue begin to look very similar.
Chris Parkin
Click here to get your copy of Bibio's 'Ambivalence Avenue' from the Rough Trade shop
8.5
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