I'd Love to Turn You On #233 - Bibio - Ambivalence Avenue

Bibio’s 2009 record Ambivalence Avenue is a great blending of electronic and folk elements. Bibio takes a surprising number of influences and blends them into a uniquely listenable experience. He is comfortable in multiple genres. He gently sings and strums, he creates ethereal sound collages, he uses naturalistic ambient samples, and he recreates the slinky funk of Sly and the Family Stone to be the rhythmic bed of a song. The impressive feat is that Ambivalence Avenue is comprehensive as a whole while containing a variety of styles, yet does not come off as scattered or rambling. The acoustic tracks feel warm, positive, and summery, and the electronic tracks are cool, groovy, and sonically searching. Ambivalence Avenue is a record that alternates between acoustic singer-songwriter type tracks and more dance-influenced instrumentals. The instrumentals focus on textural variations and explorations, while the singer-songwriter songs focus on universal human themes.

The song "Ambivalence Avenue" opens the record. It is a loping happy song describing an idealistic avenue with white hotels, trees, and an amber colored sun. “Watching ourselves as if seeing our future” - we are not exactly sure who is with the singer, but they are greeted by strangers who seem to be friends. Then they were escorted thru a Red Door Bibio goes on to say, but that is where his daydream ends. A quick look into the symbolism of a red door will tell us that it means welcome in the Eastern philosophy of Feng Shui, in early American culture, or means protection in Biblical times. It seems very in line with the theme of welcoming friends. The music is joyous and comforting, with melodies answering sung verses. After Bibio sings of his daydream ending the song plays on instrumentally for a minute or so.

"Jealous of the Roses" has a Sly and the Family Stone groove to it, but speaks of a melancholy soul, who is, as the title says, “Jealous of the Roses” and believes in specific times and places for happiness. The R&B groove contrasts with pensive lyrics which also contrast thematically with the first song. The first song talks of welcoming and friendship in a wishful daydream state. The second song speaks to jealousy, unhappiness, and to love as conformity. The second song uses the pronoun “you” so it seems clear that Bibio is speaking to someone else and that these views are not his own. This song is a great example of Bibio’s subtlety. The feel of the song pulling in a slightly different direction than the lyrical content. "All the Flowers" is an acoustic song with guitars and vocals. The song uses a flower as a symbol of being present in the current moment, and not caught up in the past or future. This can be taken as a statement on “mindfulness” that seems to be sweeping our culture currently but it may also reflect an underlying Eastern philosophy in Bibio when taken into consideration with the Red Door in track one.

"Fire Ant" is a sonic mish-mash of samples and sounds intricately woven into a groove. It begins using an ambient sample of children playing with music heard faintly in the background. A rhythmic foundation is introduced and different sounds are interjected above the groove. His choices of sounds truly are abstract and random. It is using repetition as a tool of development that we as listeners begin to be comfortable with these sounds as part of Bibio’s musical language. It sounds as if different vowel sounds such as "e," "a," and the words "ahh," "la," and "ga," have been sampled, treated with vibrato effects and made to duel each other. Eventually the groove cuts out and it is replaced with a single line, reverb-drenched synth plucking haphazardly along.

"Haikuesque (When She Laughs)" is an introspective song made up of a string of haikus. Some of the haikus are naturalistic, some of them are observational, and some of them repeated. The haiku that the title refers to goes: When she laughs/ The piano in the hall/ Plays a quiet note, comparing a woman’s laughter to music in an indirect, but poetic way. Another favorite of mine is Rocking chair/Is still without a rocker/But is still a chair. It has a sense of questioning: why is the chair still, because nobody is rocking it, no entity, or is it referring to the bottom arch that allows the chair to rock? The questioning, the duality, and the searching are all aspects that appear in multiple places throughout the record. The music for this song is more acoustic than electronic providing a gentle bed for the lyrics.

The next track "Sugarette" is a contrasting chugging, electronic piece with cut up vocals buried far in the mix. The texture consists of bubbling and gurgling mechanical beeps and bloops. It seems to be a sonic palette cleanser from the acoustic song that preceded it. The name seems to be a reference to this, but the question of how it functions within the diorama of Ambivalence Avenue must be guessed at since the meaning of the lyrics are so buried and disguised. How is it intended to function? My theory is that Bibio expresses emotional connection with lyrics and naturalistic sounds, and lets the programmed songs represent a more removed and less emotional space. These spaces are more about energy and movement, and less about some of the emotions that are involved in the songs with lyrics.

"Lovers’ Carvings" is an acoustic, lyrical track with a two-minute instrumental introduction. The content of the lyrics points to the enduring nature of love. The carvings may fade like a set of initials carved in a bench or a tree, but always remain and can be found to exist many years later. The music starts out with a guitar developing a theme in a solo context and after a bit a percussive cowbell sets a slightly faster tempo and the song is fleshed out with a rhythm section and vocals. This track has such a great feel to it, and just adds layers and builds up until the end. The concept is simple but the execution is impressive. "The Palm of Your Wave" is a melancholy last look back. Bibio uses the iconic imagery of waiting for a train in cold weather. How many movies has this played out in? A last wave from a cold train station. And the last thing I save is the palm oh you wave/ Oh, This moment please be forever. It seems to be an idealistic way to remember or reach out to a memory or a loved one. The music once again is a just a guitar and a voice.

"Cry! Baby!" and "Dwrcan" are both instrumental songs with masterful production. They both further point to an aspect of duality within the record - Bibio can be a producer and programmer, and also a singer-songwriter who tackles complex emotional themes. Why the duality in sounds? What does each represent? If separated perhaps two separate albums could be made, one of acoustic songs with lyrics, and one of programmed beats. Two songs might overlap, but instead of making two records Bibio has chosen to combine all the tracks on Ambivalence Avenue.

I originally started listening to this record because of the electronic tracks. I have to admit that after many repeated listens the lyrics have won me over and I now enjoy the introspective acoustic tracks more than the instrumentals. They have a wistfulness to them, almost like an old black and white film. Daydreaming of welcoming friends, jealousy, laughter, timeless love, and longingly looking to the past, these songs examine some universal themes. If you’re not already a fan I’d love to turn you on to Bibio’s Ambivalence Avenue.

-          Doug Anderson

I'd Love to Turn You On #205 - Sly & The Family Stone - There’s A Riot Goin’ On

There are certain records that for a variety of reasons fall into the category of inexplicable. Something in the writing or the recording process makes it live outside the rules by which we normally judge albums. What are some examples? Can’s Tago Mago, Brian Eno’s mid-70’s vocal albums, Bob Dylan’s Time Out Of Mind, Spiritualized’s Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, D’Angelo’s Black Messiah to name a few (although admittedly these albums are few and far between, which is ultimately why they are inexplicable). The king daddy of this type of record though is Sly & The Family Stone’s 1971 masterpiece There’s A Riot Goin’ On.

From the very first notes, we realize we are in an alternate universe. Thick, warm, analogue (this is an album to listen to on vinyl if you can get it) notes burble out like velvet, pouring from your speakers, as Sly straddles the universes of soul and rock, essentially inventing funk as we listen (we’ll let James Brown and George Clinton in there too). The songs all seem like clouds passing in front of Sly’s window that he is trying to grab, but they dissipate just as he gets his arms around them. The hits on this album – “Family Affair,” “You Caught Me Smilin’,” and “Runnin’ Away” – clock in at about 3 minutes each, yet each one feels like an epochal leap forward in the evolution of conscious soul. That’s part of the inexplicable nature of this album - time seems to come unglued; there is no sense of normal song length and structure, even though most of the actual songs (save two) are short. By all accounts the recording process was chaos, with Sly, rolling in dough and high as a kite, inviting friends (like Miles Davis, Bobby Womack and Billy Preston) to his rented home studio for days-long sessions that seemingly were producing nothing but enormous studio bills. Credits were not kept, tapes were erased, Sly himself overdubbed other people’s parts. However, Sly was indeed sly and as one of the most experienced and talented producers of the 1960’s, he took this molten insanity and turned it into a cohesive work of startling originality. There are no credits on the album, just a bunch of photos that capture the era, and this just adds to the inexplicability of the album.

Every single song on this album is worth inspection, so let’s look at each one:

“Luv N’ Haight” – a wink-wink to the counterculture - it was issued as a single, and it sets the stage beautifully for this album. Disembodied vocals and keyboard jabs punctuate the roiling bass line. Like many of the songs on the album, it lacks traditional song structure, but rather takes a pounding beat and turns it into a statement.

          

“Just Like A Baby” - a bit more conventional structure, but still way out. A ballad with a classic slow funk burn. It highlights Sly’s incredible sense of restraint and subtlety. He doesn’t let the languid beat out of his sight for one second. And he resists every temptation to rev the song up into something other than what it is: perfection.

           

“Poet” - Sly was using a primitive drum machine on some tracks, and it is remarkably effective in combination with the airy sense of the songs and his spare keyboard parts. Again he shows amazing restraint in keeping a lid on this track. It feels like it could explode at any second, but instead it keeps an amazing shuffle groove going under the self-referential lyrics.

           

“Family Affair” - One of Sly’s greatest hits, it touches on issues of race and love and relationships in a poetic and beautiful way. The backing track boils along like a coffee percolator, with Sly giving a great vocal and his sister Rose providing amazing counterpoint vocals. A true classic.

“Africa Talks To You ‘The Asphalt Jungle’” - Side one closes with this almost 9-minute titanic shot of funk. All the parts lock together like some crazy psychedelic jigsaw puzzle, amazing bass playing up front competes with Sly’s woozy vocals as guitar scratches and tasty keyboard fills lurk around every corner. Like a Miles Davis cut, this sounds like it was extracted from some other endless jam, and in its own context succeeds magnificently as mountain of rock-solid funk. Once again, the theme of this album is restraint. For someone taking mountains of drugs, Sly had an incredibly cohesive vision for what this album was going to sound like. And as such, it stands as an album like no other he made. It isn’t a collection of songs - it is a sound statement.

“Brave & Strong” - Side two starts upbeat with a lurching bass line playing hide and seek with punchy horns and a typically indescribable Sly vocal. More than any singer I can think of Sly influenced a new generation of singers. He, like James Brown, reveled in his own unique ethnic brilliance. He wasn’t trying to fit in mainstream society, he was pointing to a place of pride in who you actually were.

“(You Caught Me) Smilin’” – The most irresistible track on the album, it also jumps like an actual hit single. Slap bass, one of his best “up” lyrics, horns that seem to come from the heavens like heralding angels, and classic Sly keyboard work. When I want to turn somebody onto this artist, this is one of the first songs I play them.

“Time” - Another slow, one might even say torturous, ballad. This song again shows off Sly’s vocal mastery above a simple drum machine beat and subtly placed keyboards, proving that less is more.

“Spaced Cowboy” - The most fun track on the album, and possibly in his entire catalogue, this song contains one of the most hilariously deranged vocals (including the great “soul-yodel”) placed squarely over a driving funk beat. An absolute must for mix tapes.

“Runnin’ Away” – irresistible, guitar-driven little ditty that is deceptive in its simplicity. It is actually an incredibly clever bit of writing that might not have sounded out of place on a Fifth Dimension album. Prescient lyrics that seem more relevant today than ever.

“Thank You For Talkin’ To Me Africa” - A monster! This is the demo version of Sly’s earlier hit “Thank You For Lettin’ Me Be Mice Elf Agin.” It is over seven minutes of pounding, perfect funk. Poppin’ bass, funky clavinet, a loping beat and Sly giving his best half-lidded hipster vocals. It is a foundation piece of all funk.

The overall effect of this album is like getting in a time machine and ending up in 1970 Los Angeles, wandering down a street at dusk, soul music blares from a window here, the thud of a truck there, raw emotional feelings of race, sex, drugs, politics seems to bubble up from the pavement. You drop to one knee, stick your ear to the ground and the inexplicable sound you hear is There’s A Riot Goin’ On.

-         Paul Epstein