'i fed thee rabbit water'
Released: March 2007

This is a 7-track mini album released on Drift Records.

i   heads off dogs
ii  alone with the beast folk
iii the evil twin
iv fare thee well feral child
v dead mermaid
vi you gave birth to a horse
vii buried in the black snow

some words about it.

There's not likely to be a more arresting opening couplet to an album this year that "I spent the summer cutting heads off dogs/I spent the winter trying to sew them back on", which announces the arrival of singer-songwriter Lawry Joseph Tilbury, aka Birdengine, as a new voice on the folk scene. Tilbury displays the same quiet understatement and backwards weirdness as Bonnie 'prince' Billy, but transposed to Dorset. Listening to I fed Three Rabbit Water is like visiting a museum of curiosities packed with shelves of malformed foetuses and two-headed dogs pickled in jars; the songs are full of rustic-mythic weirdness, with Tilbury singing about dead mermaids, feral children, "beast folk" and sewing his eyelids shut, his voice little more than a murmur on tracks such as 'The Evil twin" and "you Gave Birth To A Horse", while his arrangements rarely stray beyond gently plucked guitar and ambient noise. There's something sinister in his woodshed – and you ain't form 'round these parts, are you?

                            Andy Gill, The Independent, 30/01/07



Introspective Dorset folky chap tells us *I Fed Thee Rabbit Water*

Like the Fife-based Fence Collective, the loose Drift Collective from
the West Country and Brighton are friends who make music for themselves before audiences - and it particularly shows on this strung-out, rareified acoustic gem from Lawry Joseph Tilbury aka Birdengine. A perfect counterpoint to labelmate 30 Pound Of Bone's raucous pub-friendly shanties, Tilbury's music has the nervy pastoral loneliness of immediately post-Barrett Floyd (think *Cirrus Minor* and *Julia Dream* from *Relics*), relishing every scrape of fingers on acoustic strings, every rough edge of cracking voice. The intimate detail of sound - recorded entirely on 4-track cassette - is a reminder of how much of an intrusion digital meddling with music can be; the birdsong on *The Evil Twin* sounds as far from affectation as it could be. There's a witchy weirdness to this all - titles like *You Gave Birth To A Horse* give that away - but it's a very beautiful record.
                            
                            Joe Muggs, Word Magazine 07/03/07

 



Hailing from the rolling hills of Dorset Birdengine aka Lawry Joseph Tilbury is soon to become a one man revolution in folk. Shunning digital techniques the whole of his debut LP for Devonshire collective Drift, 'I Fed Thee Rabbit Water', exposes a major talent yet to be uncovered and was entirely self recorded on a four track tape recorder, aided only by a Dictaphone.

7 tracks deep 'I Fed Thee…' is a 25 minute pastoral masterpiece, isolating the listener in a world so strangely unique it's an almost chilling experience. Sounding somewhere between ancient sea shanties and modern day folk Birdengine's brand of musicianship is as unique as it could be with nylon strung guitars taking centre stage along with his divine crooning.

There is a definite air of magic and mysticism in the music's eerie simplicity. Tilbury spins tales of mermaids, dead rulers in glass prisons and the lunar cycle, never once leaving his fingers on a single note for too long crafting what sounds like an effortless aura of shrouded calm destined for desolate pastures and walkmans alike……..

                            www.music-zine.com 05/02/07

 


It's dark down in the Dorset woods with a title like that, and tracks that include Alone with the Beast folk, Fare Thee Well Feral Child and You Gave Birth to A Horse, you can make a fair stab at what Lawry Joseph Tilbury's (for Birdengine is he) debut mini-album is going to sound like, before you've heard a note. And you'd be right. Recorded on cassette (really) this is dark and sinister nu-folk from the backwoods of deepest Dorest. Accompanied only by an acoustic guitar, tape crackle and the occasional snatch of birdsong, Birdengine's murmured vocals tell tales of strangeness and charm, darkness and mystery. It's an older England that these songs come from, a pagan land, where mythagos and weirdness lurk in the depths of the primal woods, glimpsed out of the corner of an eye, there but never truly seen. Unlike say the Handsome Family, who mine a similar vein but leave it leaven it with black humour, Birdengine plays it straight. From the startling and shocking couplet 'I spent the summer cutting heads of dogs/ I spent the winter trying to sew them back on' you know this is for real. There's nary a hint of pretension – no mean feat with this sort of material and sound – but there is the sense that it really is music Birdengine has made for himself that's just happened to be released, and who cares what anyone thinks of it, which is rare indeed. RABIT WATER is only 25 minutes long, and that's as well, as the land it comes from is not a place where too much time should be spent. It's not a place for everyone either, but those who do visit will find that it has a strange and compelling beauty ..

                            Maverick Magazine 01/03/07


 

 
Birdengine's track-listing is as follows: 'heads off dogs', 'alone with the beast folk', 'the evil twin', 'fare thee well feral child', 'dead mermaid', 'you gave birth to a horse' and 'buried in the black snow.' Collaborations with X-Factor contestants surely await……….

Listening to Birdengine is like looking inside Bill Bailey's head. Goblin's frolic in mystic woods with West Country accents whilst Druid's conduct pagan ceremonies at midnight. Birds become musical instrument's and songs are entitled 'fare thee well feral child' and (the rather matter of factly) 'you gave birth to a horse'. Effectively it sounds like Leonard Cohen in a Thomas Hardy novel.

So what's it all about? I think only Birdengine's other self Lawry Joseph Tilbury knows. The album is recorded on a 4-track tape recorder, and woodland creatures, rustling trees and an absence of anything electronic, all contributes to an extremely lo-fi feel.

Birdengine incorporates post-rock experimentalism, glimpses of folk and often incomprehensible lyrics to produce a mini-album (7 tracks) of weirdy beardy music. Highlight for me was 'buried in the black snow', which uses a delicately played acoustic guitar to accompany lyrics about his childhood explorations in the Dorset woodlands. The result is a piece if music that could feature on any horror flick. The same could be said for most of the album.

Inevitably as a fine line between artistic genius and pretension is tip-toed along, the appeal for artists like Birdengine is always going to be limited. It's often unnerving and uncomfortable to listen to, though somehow I don't think Mr Tilbury will mind, he'll probably be on an acid trip at a midnight séance as we speak.

                            Dave Allen, www.subba-cultcha.com 03/11/07



Birdengine "I Fed Thee Rabbit Water"
A modern day madcap singing fireside tales of otherworldliness where faceless horses dwell amongst feral children and dead mermaids. These are the mesmirising and addictive sounds of a reclusive songwriter who spent far too many childhood nights playing alone in the woods. The woodland will never be the same again.

                             www.soulgeneration.co.uk 04/11/07



Ramshackle retrospective of a reclusive artists' rural childhood

'I spent the summer cutting heads off dogs, I spent the winter trying to sew them back on'. So sings Lawry Joeseph Tilbury over music box, nylon string guitar and haunting melodica on opening track off 'I Fed Thee Rabbit Water'. This collection of seven songs is magically creepy and sparsely epic, capturing the imagination with tales of dead mermaids, kings trapped in jars, feral children and the moon.

'Alone With The Beast Folk' has a dark, twangy folk feel. Scratches vinyl crackles and an achingly melancholic guitar line make up 'The Evil Twin', later to be joined by birdsong and whispy backing vocals. 'Fare Thee Well Feral Child' is an eerie ode which brings together Sparklehorse distorted vocal effects and Antony style harmonies to provide a luxurious listen. Lawry's style has been compared to that of Daniel Johnston but also has touches of Tiny Tim and Withnail soundtrack composers David Dundas and Richard Wentworth.

'You Gave Birth To A Horse' (another awesome title !) sounds like an acoustic Muse classic recorded in a gothic ditch. 'Buried In Black Snow' is Lawrys warped wish to 'talk with the livestock', an off kilter folk feast.

Both unnerving and intriguing in equal measures, feed thyself some Rabbit Water.

                            Americana UK 28/02/07, Jason Walnut





Birdengine is Lawry Joseph Tilbury's musical project, and this is a mini-CD release after a previous EP. I really had to listen a lot of times to this dreamy Birdengine album, suitable to fly away into thoughts and for daydreaming, before being able to take a writer's distance. Lawry did a remarkable job with his 4-track recordings. He sings most often with himself in close harmonies or with different voices, from melancholic to wordless musings intertwined with the lyric parts, to musical theatre, with velvet curtain, once or twice with a telephone like voice, and with birds whistling in the background. Also two guitars (banjo somewhere as well ?) drift well with open tunings and with some changing directions as if walking through a labyrinth garden, noticing local life, but singing about the whole range of surrounding space.

                            www.radiocentraal.be

'birdengine ep'
Released: 12 Dec 2005

birdengine's first ep was a vinyl only release in november 2005 on benbecula records. it is a collection of experimental tracks made using homemade tape loops, broken keyboards and a dictaphone or two.


i   Headache (Days 3, 7 and 9)
ii  Thought Of A Falling Glass Man
iii What I Do Is Secret
iv  Let There Be Rope Tied Around Their Middle
v   She needs more memory

Benbecula records asked Adam and Shelley at Sherbet if they would like to make a video for a track from this ep. the video for 'thoughts of a falling glass man' is viewable on my page.

lawry.


"This ep sounds like the culmination of Coil and My Bloody Valentine collaborating via some third unknown supernatural force."

                            Warp


The English Channel must generate a mighty fog, because Lawry Joseph Tilbury's been lost in it for years. Luckily he brought along a dusty four-track, some lost children, a nylon guitar, and an analogue synth or two (maybe he pulled a red wagon behind?). This 12" EP—served up on the heaviest vinyl I've held betwixt me fingers—starts off as unassuming folktronica, nice but not drop-your-jaw-and-slap-your-cheek, before diving headlong into psych stew experiments, circus noise tape collage, and keyboard drone dirge.

Largely beatless, this EP certainly doesn't step on Dan Snaith's or Keiran Hebdan's toes, eschewing the entirety of folktronica clichés. Still the tag feels proper in part, for the sweetheart-done-gone melodies and dusty bucolia suffusing the tracks. Acid folk is a more useful referent: Comus deconstructed and tied back together with bent circuits. Making this, dare I say, the first relevant work of…freak-folktronica.

                            Bryan Berge, Stylus



Birdengine: Birdengine EP
Benbecula

As a child, Lawry Joseph Tilbury stole into the forests surrounding his home and, using a broken nylon guitar, a record player, and a couple of scratchy records, created ramshackle serenades to the woodland creatures and the moon. Though today an adult living in Brighton, he's never lost that idiosyncratic sensibility and now, rejecting computers and digital gear for the tape cassette, records under the name Birdengine uing a 4-track recorder, Dictaphones, home-made tape loops, and music boxes. What results are creaky compositions realized with decrepit instrumentation and steeped in scratchy hiss and rust, not so much from some other universe but from some other era. Still, the first thing one notices about this 12-inch-only release is the vinyl itself, a slab so thick it could repel cannon fire, though the focus shifts immediately the moment his surreal collages of mechanical noises and dusty keyboards rise like ghosts from the grooves.
"Headache (Days 3, 7 and 9)" perhaps best exemplifies his sound, with melismatic acoustic whorls coalescing into wavering melancholia. The dirge-like "She Needs More Memory" veers closest to a traditional electronic style with a weave of high-pitched melodies and guttural tones underlaid by curdling beats. The three remaining pieces pursue a more collage-oriented approach, with what sounds like a chainsaw roaring alongside minimal piano sprinkles in "What I Do Is Secret." Carnival melodies rub shoulders with noisy blasts in "Let There Be Rope Tied Around Their Middles" while "Thoughts of a Falling Glass Man" combines hydraulic clanks, rapidly picked strings, and woozy orchestral samples in strange manner. Those looking for kindred spirits might imagine Birdengine as an eccentric third cousin to The Brothers Quay who likewise embrace a refreshingly ancient-modern coupling in films like Street of Crocodiles and Institute Benjamenta.

(Speaking of visual imagery, a remarkable animated video of "Thoughts of a Falling Glass Man," produced by Sherbet using considerably more current production methods, is available for viewing at the Benbecula site.)

                            Textura.com


   

"This is my favourite Benbecula release so far"

                    Frog Pocket

 

Birdengine, Birdengine EP (Benbecula) 12"
It's wonderful what can be done with some old tapes, a 4-track, and a bit of imagination. When that imagination is as waywardly creative as Mr Birdengine's we end up with five tracks such as these and everyone's a winner. Weird? Mm, yes. A hit? No regrettably not probably. But very good? Oh yes, and that's underselling it by quite a bit I'd venture. Thank goodness for people like Birdengine and Benbecula.

                            robots and electronic brains

these songs were recorded on a 4-track tape cassette player between 1998 and 2003 in various rooms in dorset, manchester and wakefield.

copy and paste the link below to order.

http://www.benbecula.com/release/birdengine/birdengine_ep.shtml

This Birdengine live review is of a gig performed for the a recording of the Simple Folk radio show in September 2007. He played with Herman Dune member Stanley Brinks.

Birdengine is the performing name used by Lawry Joseph Tilbury a local Brighton artist originally from Dorset. I first became aware of this man when I originally moved to Brighton 3 years ago and saw someone who looked remarkably like Beck, everywhere I went. I think it was mainly the glasses that lead me to this comparison, that and the fact he had the same face. It wasn't until tonight that I discovered that this man was not in fact Beck at all, but Birdengine.

Birdengine removes his glasses to play live, so no one else saw the resemblance tonight and we were able to focus purely on the music. This is a good thing, as his music is quite wonderfully weird and unique. Although on record the instrumentation can be varied, tonight Birdengine simply played a guitar and sang. This was good as we could concentrate on his biggest asset, his extraordinary voice. The only other artist I can think of who might give an idea of how unusual it is is Antony, of Antony and the Johnsons. His voice is not like Antonys, just as different to the norm as Antony's is. Rather than describe it, I will urge you to watch the videos that follow and listen for yourself.

Like the act who followed, Stanley Brinks, Birdengines lyrics are humorous and are a key element of tonights performance. They summon up witchy supernatural thoughts as he sings about dying mermaids, a man who has 'hoof where toe should be' (the absensce of plurals in that line were the highlight of my day), and chopping heads off dogs. The mid song banter is also rather unusual, at one point he comments on the tiny man living inside his arm, when asked what he's doing there, Birdengine replys 'just trying to live his life, like the rest of us', poignant and imaginative, a fine combination.

Needless to say, I shall be looking out for this man again, it turns out he's just as much of a celebrity as his doppelganger Beck himself, well, should be at least.

Birdengine videos

Thoughts of a Falling Glass Man

Live recordings

Buy the EP!

Birdengine has a great EP 'I feed you rabbit water', you can buy from Amazon by clicking here, or by clicking on the image above.

If you live in Brighton, you can also buy the EP from Resident.

For more visit Birdengine's myspace, and his page on his label Benbecula records.

To hear tonights gig (to be broadcast on October 17th at 6PM on Radio Reverb) and more listen to the Simple Folk radio show.

If you want to see gigs like this keep an eye on our gigs in Brighton page, it lists all essential gigs and is updated weekly

Minerals Series, Volume 5: Early 4 Track Recordings
Released: 12 Dec 2005

Birdengines's 'early 4 track reordings ep' was released as part of Benbecula records' Fifth Minerals Series Box Set, 13 discs from various benbecula and fence collective musicians, released simultaneously, housed in there own box, artwork and strictly limited to 100 copies.

i - the final violent thrashes
ii - weird field
iii - faster little man
iv - death march for pigeon 739745b
v - i'm not completely in hiding now
vi - too late

"Birdengine follows up his debut EP in 2005 with a selection of even more obscure recordings from his 4 track archive.  Expect, unaltered, unmastered and unadulterated songs from the soul, complete with bone fide tape hiss - intact."

                            Benbecula Records

this ep is made up from the same collection of music as my first ep. songs recorded on a 4-track tape cassette player between 1998 and 2003 in various rooms in dorset, manchester and wakefield. it is available only as part of a boxset.

click on the link to order.

http://www.benbecula.com/release/various/minerals_series.shtml

lawry.