Posted in: Musicouching by sandhands on November 5th, 2009 | 0 Comments
A review of Bibio’s The Apple and The Tooth, released 9th November 2009 on Warp Records.
Having torn up his own rulebook with the release of his fourth long player ‘Ambivalence Avenue’ in June earlier this year, Bibio returns just a matter of months later with a new offering, ‘The Apple and The Tooth’. There was certainly nothing ambivalent about Ambivalence Avenue, with Bibio boldly striding away from the atmospheric folk-pop of his previous releases to create a record that embraces the experimental hip-hop of the likes of J Dilla and Flying Lotus as much as it does Bibio’s traditional ambient folk leanings, while tracks such as ‘Jealous of Roses’ leaves the listener wondering if their music library had shuffled to a George Clinton recording by mistake.
On The Apple and The Tooth, Bibio shows no sign that this musical innovation was a fluke. Very much a sister record to his June release, it features four new tracks – the title track, ‘Rotten Rudd’, ‘Bones & Skulls’ and ‘Steal The Lamp’ – as well as a collection of remixes of songs off Ambivalence Avenue. Since departing independent imprint Mush Records for the similar, yet substantially more heavyweight, Warp Records after the release of his fairly stale third album ‘Vignetting the Compost’ in February this year (yes, The Apple and The Tooth is Bibio’s third full release of 2009), Bibio has happily adopted much of the Warp dogma. Despite opening like the theme to a 1980s American cop drama, Steal The Lamp progresses in to a psychedelic dreamscape before teasing in a hint of dubstep and giving a firm nod to Warp legends Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, closing the track with scattered acid drum and bass patterns. The Apple and The Tooth and Bones & Skulls carry clear influences from Warp’s American contingent, the abstract instrumental hip-hop beat-makers such as L.A’s Flying Lotus, which are combined with the folk-pop guitar and vocals on which Bibio cut his teeth. Of the four tracks, Rotten Rudd is probably most evocative of the Bibio of old, yet it still injects a kick to the ambient guitar melody, with some pulsating bass making for a wholly more vibrant track than would have been found on earlier albums.
The remixed tracks from Ambivalence Avenue are further indicators of the Warp way of life. Prominent label-mate Clark gives S’vive the idm treatment, deploying some of his trademark gritty yet melodic electronica to thoroughly reconstruct Bibio’s original to typically spectacular effect. This is followed by a floating synth-pop reworking of Sugarette courtesy of Wax Stag, before Eskmo enhances the industrial sounds of Ambivalence Avenue’s closing track, Dwrcan, to add a thumping, towering drive to the track. Lone and his Dealmaker Records companions Keaver & Brause bring the glitch-hop on All The Flowers and Fire Ant respectively, while Leatherette casts a chilled out, J Dilla feel over Lovers’ Carvings. The most elegant track on the album comes in the form of The Gentleman Losers’ beautifully gentle remix of Haikuesque, stripping it down to a mournful guitar melody that works with Bibio’s beautifully poignant vocals. The weakest track on The Apple and The Tooth is Bibio’s own remix of Palm of Your Wave at the end of the record. The best mix of this song that Bibio’s produced is the original, wonderfully minimalistic version that appeared on Ambivalence Avenue, and this remix adds nothing to the track of any merit.
The Apple and The Tooth is an excellent accompaniment to Ambivalence Avenue, and is an indication that Bibio’s musical exploration looks set to continue and flourish. At the rate he’s releasing them, he’ll probably have another two albums out by the middle of 2010, and on this form that can only be a good thing.
