Stephen Wilkinson already has three releases to his name this year. An album and an EP on Mush Records, and now his first release on Warp. So it’s safe to say the Brit is on a creative run at the moment. »Ambivalence Avenue« is the culmination of his work so far. What was often lost in complaisance in the previous three albums is thought through to the end in a concerted way here, and this despite the fact that Bibio plays musically at many a wedding. »Fire Ant«, the first highlight of the record, begins with catchy beat games à la Atmosphere, only to chop up the rhythm like Prefuse73 through a coherently staged break. »Haikuesque (When she laughs)« – to name just one of countless examples – is exactly the kind of song that was expected on the last Koushik album but which it failed to deliver in terms of quality. The closing track »Dwrcan« is not only representative of a good, atmospheric and dense IDM tradition in name. The mixture is simply the right one here.
Ambivalence Avenue
