Just before he reissued two of his classic albums last November, British producer and multi-instrumentalist Bibio (a.k.a. Stephen Wilkinson) released “Petals,” the lead single from A Mineral Love, his forthcoming eighth LP. “I partly want it to sound like sampled records,” he said of the album in a statement, “but by crafting every single detail myself and colouring it to have familiar textures that resonate people’s forgotten memories.”
The studio version of “Petals” does just that, with guitar lines unwrapping and flipping inside out into backwards-masked versions of themselves. A Mineral Love isn’t out until Friday, but today we’re honored to premiere an intimate live session of “Petals,” which you can see below. While that familiar, layered guitar pattern is still present, it loops only intermittently and gently, keeping Wilkinson’s voice at the center of the song. “Don’t wear a tie that’ll choke you to death in the city,” he sings. “Spare the fret that’ll make you miss all of summer.” And while those lines seem optimistic and encouraging, the quietly rolling and relentless rhythm of Wilkinson’s playing makes you wonder whether the cycle can be broken after all.
A Mineral Love is out April 1 via Warp.
