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.

Tracklist 01. The Cranking House 02. Cherry Go Round 03. Quantock 04. Black Country Blue 05. Marram 06. Aberriw 07. Zoopraxiphone 08. Dyfi 09. Ffwrnais 10. Woodington 11. Above The Rooftops 12. Snowbow 13. Maroon Lagoon 14. Overgrown

Release Details Release Date: 03/07/2006   Running Time: 50:12   Download/Available/$7.00 1XLP/Available/$10.00 CD/Available/$10.00 Territory: World

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

Reviews

All Music Guide / Aquarius Records / Beatmag / Boomkat / Candied Pop / Download / Fact / Indie Workshop / Lodown / Lost At Sea / Miami New Times / Mojo / Norman Records / One Week to Live / Other Music / Pitchfork / Textura / The Daily Telegraph / The Wire / Tiny Mix Tapes / Tribe Nashville / XLR8R /

Bibio - aka British producer Stephen Wilkinson - creates a wibbly-wobbly, soft focus world of his very own. Hand Cranked, as its title self-depricatingly suggests, is an endearingly ramshackle affair, cobbled together from haphazard field recordings and sweetly off-kilter guitar parts. Judging by the amniotic bath of fuzz that lubricates the whole album, most of the sound sources that combine to make up these compositions seem to have been captured on a dictaphone. Wilkinson takes his nom de plume from a kind of fishing fly, as used by him and his father during trips to Welsh rivers, so it's not surprising that his music is suffused with a sense of nostaligia and animated by a winning way with small details. And as track titles like "Quantock," "Woodington," and "Overgrown" indicate, it evokes a rural sense of place, despite the giddily wayward tempos - at times, it seems like he's rubbing a finger against a tape capstan to modulate the pitch of the music. -The Wire