Fibs

Fibs is the sophomore album of British composer and performer Anna Meredith. Drawing on her late-2010s experimentation in new mediums, the project sees Meredith embrace a range of new sounds and textures, while retaining the irreverent charm and compositional intricacies of her earlier work. The album was preceded by lead track "Paramour," released in July 2019. ~ David Crone|

Merging elements of pop, electronic, and classical music into a short-form, compositional indie electronica, British composer Anna Meredith made her full-length debut with Varmints in 2016. Between its arrival and the release of the follow-up, among other projects, Meredith reimagined Vivaldis Four Seasons for an immersive multimedia event (and later recording), she composed her first film score (Eighth Grade), she opened the Proms with a piece commemorating the end of World War I, and was made an MBE. She still managed to prepare a second solo album before the end of the decade. As was the case with Varmints, 2019s FIBS includes both songs and instrumentals. A reportedly time-consuming endeavor involving more and different instruments than on Varmints as well as more layers, its a vibrant, kinetic album with often relentless rhythms. These recurring 16th-note patterns are established on first track Sawbones, an instrumental with both acoustic and electronic elements, including playful, chiptune-type timbres and live drums. Sawbones seems to rev its engines as the layered tones pitches climb in unison to blastoff level in tandem with increasingly active rock drums, before it abruptly ends. The majority of the 11 tracks here are similarly urgent and animated, including a song like Killjoy, which, in addition to band instrumentation, features bright, a cappella-style, blended harmonic vocals. A couple of outliers -- or respites -- come in the form of Ribbons and the more nuanced violin piece moonmoons. The latters elongated solo melody and plucked accompaniment gradually devolve into tuneless rhythms and sound effects until layers are peeled away, one by one, at the end. Even Ribbons -- a whimsical, wistful tune with ethereal vocals, pulse-keeping tuba, hand drums, and scattered electric-acoustic atmosphere -- while less intense, is still inherently rhythmic. Its not until the aptly titled closing track Unfurl that FIBS offers percussion-free ambience behind Merediths celestial vocal line. Curiously named for nice friendly lies, FIBS takes listeners for a ride, so to speak, along the meticulously plotted rhythms of its very physical, narrative-free presentation, one that, in Merediths hands, is both stimulating and engaging. ~ Marcy Donelson

クラシックをバックグラウンドに持ち、映画のサントラも手掛けるUKの才女が作り上げたシンセ・オリエンテッドでオーケストラル・ポップなダンス・ミュージック・アルバム。バンド・サウンドで聴かせるフロアライクな歌モノからクラシックの電子音楽版と言えるインストまで、それぞれ閃きに満ちた多彩な全11曲をインディー・ポップ然とした意匠にまとめた、ある意味でのキャッチーさがいちばんの聴きどころと言えそうだ。
bounce (C)山口智男