Spiritual, witty, dark, intriguing with an air of unbound exploratory creativity, Billie Bottle’s Temple Of Shibboleth showcase the full width of their unique musical approach on their new self-titled album.
Opening with ‘In the Temple’, the album wastes no time, diving headfirst into the genre blending, intricate sound which ebbs and flows across the 12 tracks. Opening with haunting, hypnotic wind instruments, warming piano topped with spiritualistic, almost pagan sounding lyricism delivered with a silky yet commanding lead vocal.
As the track reaches the chorus, an unexpected electronic beat and quacking electronic bass enters, adding an R&B twist to the early section of the track. As the track continues to grow, it then reaches a swelling, beguiling 7/8 instrumental section where the true nature of the bands jazz/ folk/ psych sound truly shows it’s show in a magnificent and colourful display of musicality.
Elsewhere on the album, the restless, relentless array of musical instrumentation continues or the funky and choppy ‘The Wash’ and the etherial beauty (one of my highlights from the album) ‘Ironing Days’, both of which take a witty look at being a housewife, all painted with a jazz, richly experimental and musically depthy brush. ‘Ironing Days’ displays some stunning instrumental performances, from the bopping bass, to the swelling Pink Floyd-esque synths to the soaring saxophone – a brilliant example of jazz that pushes the boundaries.
Passing through tracks which display a big band, honky tonk style sound and others which lean into vast, field-recording/ sound effect interludes, chopping time signature changes and electronic elements, even stepping into the realms of hyper-pop at points – the album’s latter stages display a disregard for genre in an expansive, bonkers musical approach that delivers on some brilliantly entertaining, musically intense soundscapes.
Closing with the Rich, 7 minute stunner ‘The Rest’, the album is given a fittingly epic and rich closing track.
A beguiling, beautiful, musically complex and always boundary pushing album full of brilliant moments, Billie Bottle’s Temple Of Shibboleth deliver big on their self titled 12 track. It’s not an easy listen, but it’s not intended to be, this is experimental, heartfelt expression that captures a yearning to create, to truly immerse yourself in your art. At points it does feel like the band overstep the boundaries and the music becomes very hard to keep up with but it almost doesn’t matter when the music is so well put together and so complex. Always pinned together by the expressive, energetic and always wonderful charismatic lead vocals, when the music does leap into the dark, it’s always pulled back from the brink of a sensory overload with the well thought out vocal lines and brilliantly executed lyricism.
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