K is for Kelson – Bibio K is for Kelson – Bibio (Free Download / Buy)

Bibio (@bibio_) is Stephen Wilkinson, an English producer and musician who specializes in a distinctive blend of electronica and folk blanketed in a coat of hazy keyboards and alluring vocal melodies. He studied music in London, much like wunderkind James Blake, and also like Blake, he doesn’t let his past music education get in the way of making soulful, machine based tracks that are based primarily on feeling, not theory.

It’s not terribly surprising that Wilkinson got his start with a little help from seminal Scottish electronic act Boards of Canada, who are responsible for passing on Wilkinson’s early demos to hip hop label Mush Records. Mush is probably most well known for releasing Aesop Rock in the early 2000’s, along with a number of sadly forgotten indie rapper records as well.

Beginning as an instrumental artist, he started adding vocals on his second record, Hand Cranked. His singing didn’t really come into full focus, though, until 2008’s Ambivilance Avenue, my personal favorite of his albums and the most consistent with quality all the way through. It’s chock full of awesome pop tunes that feature his ear for lush textures and ability to create an alternate reality to lose yourself in. For Wilkinson’s new album under the Bibio moniker, Mind Bokeh, I was hoping for a replica of his 2008 LP. While I don’t mean to say that he didn’t deliver something incredible, I wasn’t knocked off my feet either.

Mind Bokeh was released March 28th on Warp Records and represents a continuation of the style Wilkinson became comfortable with over his past few albums, including the remix heavy The Apple and the Tooth. Upfront vocals and a reliance on consistent keyboard synth patches provides a cohesive feeling to the record, but he also delves back into some of the more instrumental material he produced on his first release. This focus on atmosphere and spacey electronic flourishes are certainly present and work to his advantage.

A bigger focus on harsh drum programming has come through here as well, as evidenced in songs like “More Excuses” and “Anything New”. Though it has vocals, “Feminine Eye”, with a creepy keyboard line that you might hear in the supermarket, sounds like a beat that indie rapper MF Doom might be found rhyming over. “K is for Kelson”, however, is the obvious lead single and the go to summer jam on the record. For me, the only completely disjointed song, and one that I just do not understand, is “Take off your shirt”. Centered around arena rock crunch guitars, it sounds like a bad b-side Weezer power anthem and doesn’t fit in well with the other tracks at all.

While I enjoy this record, I don’t think it’s his most focused effort or the best that he’s released so far. That being said, the album proves that crafting great and enthralling music is still completely within his capacity, despite the lack of central theme in Mind Bokeh. There’s still some great stuff here, though you may have to just be in the mood for it.