Album: Swim
Artist: Caribou
Born: Dundas, Ontario
Released: April 2010
Genre: Psychedelic Dance
Caribou (aka Dan Snaith, aka Manitoba) was a musician I had some trouble figuring out inititally. My first experience with his music was 2005 LP, The Milk Of Human Kindness, which sounded inspired by psychedelic rock and krautrock, especially the complex rhythms of songs like Brahminy Kite (see live version here). Then came Andorra (2007), possibly Caribou's most accessible and straightforwardly lovely record, awarded the Polaris Prize in 2008. There's a song on that album -- She's The One -- that's one of my favourite singles of the past decade. Andorra's pop sensibility is something that Snaith would maintain going in to the recording of Swim, but many other elements of his approach would change dramatically. Inspired by dance music DJ James Holden, and electronic music more widely, Swim contained a heady mix of psychedelia and club music. It's unlike anything I've heard before, right from opening track Odessa, which combines acid house beats with electric folk instruments (acoustic guitar and flute) to create an odd, but menacing sound.
LCD Soundsystem is one reference point, in the way that Swim's music is immersed in dance culture but also has great pop lyrics, often delivered in a weary, dispassionate voice (like the lovesick refrain in Odessa, "She's tired of cryin', and sick of his lies / she's suffered him for, far too many years of her life"). Relationship breakdown is the theme of several songs, with Leave House another track that deals in loneliness but manages to fuse dance and rock music with the same ease as James Murphy. Sometimes Snaith's voice can get in the way of a great tune, like on Sun, but often his vocals just softly float in the ether, forming a ghostly presence in the mix that's reminiscent of Arthur Russell. As well as Odessa and Leave House, other highlights on the record include Kaili, the more purely psychedelic Bowls and closer Jamelia, which ends the album on an emotional high. Full of odd sounds and underpinned by a trance-inducing techno beat, Jamelia bursts with moments of psychedelic colour and sonic intensity that are similar to the highs produced by Animal Collective. With a doctorate in mathematics from Imperial College London, Snaith is clearly someone with a restless, inquisitive mind whose music will never stand still.
Caribou (aka Dan Snaith, aka Manitoba) was a musician I had some trouble figuring out inititally. My first experience with his music was 2005 LP, The Milk Of Human Kindness, which sounded inspired by psychedelic rock and krautrock, especially the complex rhythms of songs like Brahminy Kite (see live version here). Then came Andorra (2007), possibly Caribou's most accessible and straightforwardly lovely record, awarded the Polaris Prize in 2008. There's a song on that album -- She's The One -- that's one of my favourite singles of the past decade. Andorra's pop sensibility is something that Snaith would maintain going in to the recording of Swim, but many other elements of his approach would change dramatically. Inspired by dance music DJ James Holden, and electronic music more widely, Swim contained a heady mix of psychedelia and club music. It's unlike anything I've heard before, right from opening track Odessa, which combines acid house beats with electric folk instruments (acoustic guitar and flute) to create an odd, but menacing sound.
LCD Soundsystem is one reference point, in the way that Swim's music is immersed in dance culture but also has great pop lyrics, often delivered in a weary, dispassionate voice (like the lovesick refrain in Odessa, "She's tired of cryin', and sick of his lies / she's suffered him for, far too many years of her life"). Relationship breakdown is the theme of several songs, with Leave House another track that deals in loneliness but manages to fuse dance and rock music with the same ease as James Murphy. Sometimes Snaith's voice can get in the way of a great tune, like on Sun, but often his vocals just softly float in the ether, forming a ghostly presence in the mix that's reminiscent of Arthur Russell. As well as Odessa and Leave House, other highlights on the record include Kaili, the more purely psychedelic Bowls and closer Jamelia, which ends the album on an emotional high. Full of odd sounds and underpinned by a trance-inducing techno beat, Jamelia bursts with moments of psychedelic colour and sonic intensity that are similar to the highs produced by Animal Collective. With a doctorate in mathematics from Imperial College London, Snaith is clearly someone with a restless, inquisitive mind whose music will never stand still.
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