A deft and distinct musician, one-man act Bibio rightly earned his reputation as a genre-dabbler with his Warp Records debut "Ambivalence Avenue" last June. Each track played like a cut from an eclectic mix tape, colorfully mixing Simon and Garfunkel-esque harmonies, wobbly dubstep bass and vintage funk samples. Four months later, Bibio released his latest album, which seems more content with looking back than pushing forward. Although "The Apple and the Tooth" features four new tracks, the remaining eight are remixes of songs from "Ambivalence Avenue."
When the bulk of an album is remixes, it can be hard to pin down a central idea. While the guest artists who contribute to "The Apple and the Tooth" maintain Bibio's glistening production values, the tracks fail to coalesce as fully as the songs on his earlier albums. After all, Bibio's work has always been characterized by the coherence inherent to the one-man approach. There has always been something distinctive about albums that are written, performed and produced by one person.
By deferring to other artists to remix his work, Bibio loses some of the charm that made "Ambivalence Avenue" such an interesting listen. While all of the remixes are sonically distinct from their sources, the spark in the originals is occasionally lost and is not replaced by any new idea.
Such is the case with Clark's remix of "S'vive," which removes the pulsating bass and synthetic guitar embellishment of the original and fails to replace them with anything as dynamic. Instead, he pumps the track full of confounding vocal samples that fail to resolve, keeping the listener trapped in a rhythmically and melodically uninteresting motif. Unintelligible syllables are repeated endlessly, while a strange '50s-era vocal line haunts the background without melody as a tacked-on afterthought.
Thankfully, the other remixes offer more interesting takes on the originals. Wax Stag's remix of "Sugarette" eschews the rhythmic shuffle of the original for a more melodic approach. The charming lurch in the original's bass line gives way to a new synth melody, which complements the textures of the song more precisely than the original.
The Gentleman Losers' remix of "Haikuesqe" features a new acoustic rendition of the song, stripping down the reverb and atmospheric rhythms of the original to subtle piano accompaniment and a stronger emphasis on the track's vocal harmonies.
The last track of the album features a reworking of "The Palm of Your Wave" by Bibio himself. Less compelling than the original, the new version replaces the folky ,finger-picked acoustic line with a choppier electric guitar adaptation. While the original drew its strength from the intimacy of the vocals and solo guitar, the new version adds baroque ornamentation to the mix and detracts from the simple, effective melody of the original tune.
The four originals that open the album reflect the inconsistent quality of the remixes. The title track reiterates the fusion of the folk and electronic guitar that characterized "Ambivalence Avenue" with less punch and vivacity. "Rotten Rudd" takes an esoteric acoustic guitar melody and plasters it over heaving rhythms that stagnate the piece, leaving the listener in the same place after the song as he or she was. "Bones and Skulls," like the title track, seems to reiterate the less interesting pieces of the preceding album.
"Steal the Lamp" is the real gem on "The Apple and the Tooth." Driven by raindrop-percussion and ethereal synthetic pads in the background, this track highlights Bibio's talent for electronic composition and interesting vocal harmonies better than anything else on his newest album.
All in all, the new tracks on "The Apple and the Tooth" feel more like B-sides to their predecessor than parts of a new album. Hopefully Bibio's next album will be marked by a more adventurous attitude and a desire to push beyond the electro-acoustic sound that he dwelled on here.
