BIBIO_MIND BOKEH

trzeba trochę nadrobić zaległości, i wyjść z marazmu po wiosennym przesileniu ;D Płytka dość świeża, choć przez ślędzacych WARP'a już pewnie znana.. Szósty album artysty, trzeci dla wytwórni S.Becketta.. mnie osobiście nie powalił, nie ta para butów, zbyt indie, zbyt popowy.. choć dość przyjemny na słoneczne popołudnia ;)

recenzja dla FACT MAGAZINE:
"There’s something to be said for sticking to what you’re good at, and there’s something to be said for branching out. Unfortunately, on Mind Bokeh, the new album from Bibio, he does the latter in the dullest kind of way.

You can see why Bibio decided to bring the guitar to the fore and sing all over this album. His pastoral brand of post-Boards of Canada electronica, delicate and unassuming even at its crunchiest, is naturally unimposing and easy to neglect – the sort of artist where you’ll hear a friend playing his music, ask who it is, and think “yeah, I really should check that guy out.” Unfortunately, you rarely get around to it.

Mind Bokeh starts adequately enough, ‘Excuses’ capturing the foggy-eyed AM nostalgia that defined 2009′s Ambivalence Avenue album and adding more-than-acceptable vocals. The crushed bassline doesn’t sport much in the way of bite, but then that’s probably not why you’re listening to a Bibio record. He may have been taken in by the Brainfeeder fam a little in recent years, but as second track ‘Pretentious’ proves, his strengths lie in the highs of his music; the basslines never quite seem rough or natural enough, the 808s EQed to the point of no personality.

As this album goes on, though, it becomes more confused and diluted. It’s fine being torn between wanting to be Ariel Pink and Flying Lotus, but when that materialises as the beigest form of bedroom rock imaginable – such as on ‘Light Seep’, and the awful ‘Take Off Your Shirt’ – it’s time to take a step back. It’s a shame, as later tracks like ‘Saint Christopher’ are reminders that although Bibio’s no revolutionary, he’s able to make some wonderful music that incorporates both sampling and guitar-playing; in fact, it’s what he made his name on. We just never need to hear a song like ‘Take Off Your Shirt’ ever again.

Chris Campbell"


recenzja dla RA:
"West Midlands producer Stephen Wilkinson's 2009 Warp Records debut, Ambivalence Avenue, was a leap forward from the three albums he released previously for the Mush label, adding crunchy hip-hop beats and laid-back grooves to his existing sonic palette of bubbling ambient synths and electronically modified guitar. His latest offering, Mind Bokeh (a Japanese word referring to the out-of-focus area of a photograph) doesn't stray too far from that template, but it does mark a shift away from the pastoral folk stylings that have defined Bibio's output thus far, largely forgoing acoustic six-string strumming in favour of cut-and-paste psychedelic experimentation and confident, poppy melodies.

The album's opening track, "Excuses," provides an easy entry point into Bibio's world, with Wilkinson's soft, distorted vocals buried under a collage of chiming keys, electronic bleeps and glitch-hop beats that echo those of label-mate Prefuse 73. "Pretentious" and "Anything New," meanwhile, take a turn into Flying Lotus territory; fluttering harps and chopped-up flutes rubbing up against dirty funk synths. "Feminine Eye" is more chilled-out, a Dilla-inspired head-nodder complete with brass stabs. There are even nods to glo-fi artists like Toro Y Moi and Washed Out in "Light Sleep," a woozy blend of wah-wah guitar, squelchy Moog sounds and distant, tinny drum machine beats.

Despite his obvious mastery of electronic textures, it's the moments when Wilkinson draws inspiration from further afield that provide Mind Bokeh's highlights. "Wake Up"'s main hook comes courtesy of what sounds like a hurdy-gurdy; better still is "K For Kelson," where Wilkinson's vibrant guitar lines and enthusiastic percussion captures the joyous energy of African high-life. The rocking "Take Off Your Shirt," which pairs hair-metal riffage with pounding drums, is a move that initially sticks out like a misguided sore thumb, but eventually emerges as the album's most overt pop song.

Fittingly, though, the best is saved for last, with "Saint Christopher"'s fluid, overlapping guitars rippling across a minimal techno pulse; it's a trance-inducing teaser of what Wilkinson might create if he decided to make an album for the feet rather than the head. Mind Bokeh is another giant step for Bibio, and could yet prove to be the gateway to that much-anticipated dance floor record, but until then his place alongside the likes of Caribou—as a forward-thinking artist successfully combining experimental electronica with traditional song structures and a strong pop sensibility—is secure.


Words /
Michael Dix"


a tu jeden z kawałków z albumu, do amatorskiego teledysku a'la Pszczółka Maja:

bibio - pretentious (video edit) from broken machine films on Vimeo.

CHECK!

THE WEEKND_HOUSE OF BALLOONS

mocno zgrzany singlem 'What You Need' czekałem z niecierpliwośćią czekałem na album i ... nie jest źle, wręcz dość przyjemnie, ale po takim singlu spodziewałem się czegoś epickiego ;)

tu dość pochlebna recenzja z FACT Magazine:

"This time last month, barely anybody had heard of The Weeknd. Now, it’s everywhere, and typically, a lot of the coverage has missed the point.

Writers from The Guardian, Pitchfork and more have already rushed to bracket this loosely anonymous project in with the dissolved, r’n’b inspired music of How to Dress Well and Holy Other. The connection seems to have been mostly made on the basis of the project’s vague anonymity and aesthetic (accurately described in said Pitchfork review as Spiritualized-meets-tumblr art porn), because musically there’s little that’s similar. At its heart, The Weeknd is just r’n’b – sure, it’s eccentric and ambitious, it doesn’t sound like it’s been made in a million dollar studio, and there’s a penchant for melting down songs into pools of post-production effects, but there’s also a thousand times more clarity here than what people are comparing it to. Some low-pass filters don’t suddenly make you Balam Acab.

One of the defining characteristics of your Holy Others, How to Dress Wells et al is shyness: the lyrics are hard to distinguish, and often sampled rather than the artist’s own. Sure, there’s a sadness to House of Balloons, but “better than your next man / and if we swingin’ I get dumber than the next man”? This album’s anything but shy – it’s fueled and numbed by coke, sexed out to the absolute max. It tugs your heartstrings by being unfulfilled and lonely despite all the glamour, drugs, girls and money, making you simultaneously relate to the artist while being in awe of their lifestyle. A new direction for r’n’b? It’s the oldest trick in the book, and writers who’re doubtless familiar with The Clipse, Jay-Z, N.E.R.D, Drake and the countless others who’ve pulled it in the past ought to know better.

It’s a shame, because House of Balloons features some fantastic songs that deserve to stick in people’s memories long after writers forget about tumblr’n’b or whatever they’re going to call this great non-genre. Drake’s Thank Me Later has clearly been an inspiration here, right down to the use of well-timed swearing and the juxtaposition of clichéd hood signifiers with regret-filled moments of poignancy. The Weeknd doesn’t deploy the latter as effectively as Drake, but it certainly slips up on the former less.

If The Weeknd blows up, then ‘The Morning’ will be the track that does it. One of the few songs on House of Balloons with a straight verse-chorus-verse structure, it’s got the hook and the slightly silly quotables (“drinking Alizé with our cereal for breakfast”; “got the walls kicking like they six months’ pregnant”) to make it. Most crucially, it doesn’t try to be too epic – even at a reasonably lengthy 5:14, it’s still the third shortest track on here. But, like Drake, it’s at The Weeknd’s most ambitious that it’s strongest, ‘The Party & The After Party’ a stunning two part symphony of soft guitar, distant duets and a bassline that rises and sinks like a fluffed pillow, and ‘Loft Music’ an intense stand-off that disperses into a cacophony of wails.

I don’t want to overuse the Drake comparison, and there’s certainly plenty to suggest that The Weeknd’s just as inspired by R. Kelly and The-Dream (frankly, who makes r’n’b and isn’t?), but you could easily call House of Balloons the Tyler Durden to Thank Me Later’s Ed Norton. You relate to Drake, but you don’t want to be Drake; to paraphrase Durden, you don’t want to fuck like him. When The Weeknd grubbily whispers “trust me girl, you wanna be high for this”, it’s a whole other story. This is a record that’s as ice cold as it is sad; for those who find Drake too much to stomach it might be off-putting, but for fans of the Canadian, it might just mark the arrival of a brand new obsession.

Tom Lea"


a tu wspominany wcześniej magiczny singiel:

The Weeknd : "What You Need" (NSFW Hasselhoff edit) from Gunnar Andersson on Vimeo.

ENJOY!



CHECK!