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MH-244 Bibio - Hand Cranked  Following the success of his debut album, fi, Wolverhampton, England's Stephen Wilkinson, aka Bibio, has assembled Hand Cranked, a fourteen track collection of idyllic found sound and lazy Sunday musical ramblings. The release maintains a stylistic bond with his debut, again focusing on his love for saturated guitars, warbling effects, and natural beauty, although this time with a slightly more whimsical feel. An increased confidence is also evident, both in the heightened virtuosity of Bibio's guitar playing and with his first appearance as a vocalist on the track, "Abberiw." With his first two albums, Bibio has established himself as an exciting new talent, and Mush is proud to provide him an outlet for his work. |
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| Reviews Summary |
| Utterly evocative and painterly - All Music Guide / Simply beautiful - One Week to Live / A lovingly-crafted, hand-made gift - Mojo / A quietly captivating assemblage - The Daily Telegraph / Just fantastic - Lodown / A fine wordless yarn - Miami New Times |
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| A flutter of acoustic guitar strings, as pure as bells, opens this album of pastoral wonders. But not all is as it initially appears. The clean-picked notes double and triple up, digitally manipulated in Steve Reich-like phase-shifting sequence. Hand Cranked is based around simple, repeating guitar figures interspersed with beguiling electronic melody and distant, ambiguous noises off. Its best moments share both the disorienting otherworldliness of Boards of Canada and the vaulting ambition of Folktronica pioneer Four Tet. Bibio, a man called Stephen Wilkinson from the Black Country, uses location recordings - made on cassette - plus dictaphones and a "half-broken" sampler to give his music a slightly warped, blurred edge, with the homely feeling of a lovingly-crafted, hand-made gift. It is the sound of an imagined rural England as it might be heard in a surreal daydream. - Mojo |
