Bibio

With Mind Bokeh, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2009's Ambivalence Avenue, Bibio (aka Stephen Wilkinson) proves he isn't afraid to continue to push his sound into new places. The African-tinged folk guitar motifs are much less present. Instead, nods to Philly soul and '70s analogue keyboard sounds dominate. "Excuses" starts off delicately, but steadily builds into a dense montage of speech samples, Game Boy bleeps, Machine drum-like beats and seemingly everything but the kitchen sink. As soon as you begin to get close to comfortable, the processed rock of "Take Off Your Shirt" comes out of left field, sounding like Thin Lizzy meets Ratatat. With memorable vocal hooks, myriad samples and plenty of funk, Mind Bokeh may leave some listeners scratching their heads at the somewhat ADHD approach, but it is an album that succeeds at being highly eclectic, resulting in a sound that could only be Bibio.