Caribou / Manitoba (Dan Snaith) - Classic or Dud?

Been listening to this all morning on the iTunes radio stream. Seems pretty low-key, but enjoying it so far ...

https://boilerroom.tv/recording/caribou/ would have been fun to have been in this crowd.

Caribou - Can't Do Without You (Tale Of Us & Mano Le Tough Remix)

https://soundcloud.com/taleofus/caribou-cant-do-without-you-tale-of-us-mano-le-tough-remix

Nice review Ned, unsurprisingly

Opening this up from a CD through big speakers and it sounds absolutely amazing, which is obviously no surprise. The bass is fabulous; I think he's learnt some lessons over the four years since Swim, which I still love but which occasionally lacked a little bottom-end.

Owen's down as playing violin on Silver, but I'm damned if I can pick out a 'natural' string sound; I'm assuming it's run through a pedal or something?

It's a rack unit thing. On "Silver" I'm using my "Penderecki" patch, you can hear 16-stages of pitch-shifting creating a string ensemble sound, then I sweep the expression pedal downward and the pitches expand outward by a couple semitones in each direction. It's a patch I've been using on everything these days.

Got really confused for a sec and thought snaith was posting here

not to say I'm not happy to see you posting here too, just already knew you did

Giving this my first couple listens. I love "Back Home" especially. Generally very good.

This is his best album I think, the first one I've been tempted to go back to, and his vocals are less intrusively awful than they were on parts of the last album. I still find myself wishing he wouldn't lean so much on certain production crutches (faded/dusty synth sounds, woozy detuned pads) though, at this stage they feel like aesthetic shorthand.

Love the whole thing but Silver is just astounding. Really enjoy Dan's production crutches tbh.

Yeah I was listening to the album earlier today and thought "if I were on ILX right now I'd post about how great Silver is".

I love that Owen will come on here and explain something like that. Not that I have a clue what it means most of the time, as a complete nob-musician. Thank you, Owen!

dying at "complete nob-musician"

skin flute

belly trombone

etc

hahahahahahaha totally hadn't noticed that!

Oh my.

Just entered the UK chart at #8 - quite a surprise.

Woohoo!

Awesome!

But, y'know, this shows how few albums are being sold, I suspect, rather than that Snaith is now a pop star.

Kind of hooked on this album. Vinyl is cheap too.

Is it an Arthur Russell sample for the drums on All I Ever Need?

This is a lot better than anything he's done previously, the growing influence of club sounds really suits him. I much prefer this to the Daphni album, which was really enjoyable big dumb fun but felt functional rather than accomplished.

Listening to this for the first time gave me the same feelings I got on first listening to Four Tet's There Is Love In You (dancefloor direction, big step-up from previous work) so given how much more interesting Four Tet got from that point I'm really keen to see what's next.

I thought I heard a Kelly Polar drum sample in there somewhere.

haven't gotten a chance to check out the new record yet but i'm enjoying this:

http://boilerroom.tv/recording/caribou/

This record is excellent -- really nice meld of the Daphni dance sound and that Caribou mood. Only complaint is that the extended mix of "Can't Do Without You" shoulda replaced the 4 minute version! Still great. Vinyl sounds especially great, too.

Owen: if you still around, are there any other recordings out there where you use this patch? It sounds amazing and I want to hear more of it.

Regarding Caribou: He's been interesting to follow since he called himself Manitoba but couldn't have guessed he'd be this good, I was expecting Kieran Hebden to become the better, bigger artist but Snaith has surpassed him in almost every level.

Well, yeah, I use it with almost every one of my clients these days tbh, esp. the ones with zero-budget. Dan wanted it because he likes the sound of direct piezo pickup violin recording, which is cool, because violinists typically can't stand that sound. As for the machine, when the pitches are close together it functions like the ensemble setting of an ARP Solina, and it expands outward to full microtonal clouds. There are no "proof of concept" recordings yet, unfortunately, but one day I'll get to it. I use it a lot live, both with my own shows and Foxes In Fiction, either as a rack thing or a scaled-down pedal board equivalent.

ok. i think there is something i must be missing with this album.

let us kno if u figure out what it is

i've tried. many multiple listens and i don't find this to be anything special. i don't hate it or anything... just nothing stands out to me.

four tet is still a more interesting listen for me, good thing we don't have to choose between them.

they will be battling one another to death next week, actually.

Don't get me wrong, I love Four Tet. I just think that Caribou has gone farther with his sound while Kieran has been mostly distracted in all sorts of experimentation without an objective or signature sound in mind.

Caribou's output makes more sense as a whole and you can see clearly the evolution of his sound.Four Tet has been meandering here and there and it's a hit or miss for me. This is, of course, just my humble opinion.

Also, Caribou's live set is more interesting that Kieran's (who in my opinion is not great at dj sets) and that has definitely helped in making Caribou more 'significant'.

very true, 2+ drummers is always a good idea.

Snaith seems a little more focused somehow, like I can picture him putting a lot of stuff aside as "not a Caribou track," so that he winds up with a pretty distilled sound and concept. Kieran seems to put out more throwaway material.

And thanks Owen! Had no idea you collaborate on the Foxes on Fiction album. Loved their 2010 release, didn't know they had released a new one... a quick research tells me that it's only been released digitally and as a limited LP? Will it get a proper release?

I'll revive a Dream Pop thread so we can talk about it over there

Caribou doesn't have Hebden's gift for melody which is often completely sublime.

I do also want to say in Hebden's defense, holy shit @ this (which I first heard on a Daphni mix):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihnzf1YrW1c

hurting, i bet you would like Clap! Clap!: https://soundcloud.com/clakclakboomclak

Going to see him tonight!

Fantastic night! Hard to believe for me but I first saw Caribou/Manitoba over 12 years ago at Wonky. He was so friendly on the night then and what's just brilliant is not just how throughout the years he's stayed so sane but that even this evening, where he had played an amazing show to huge rock star adulation and could have wandered wandered off to the dressing room thinking 'job well done', he came out and spent time chatting and posing for pictures. How is he not more jaded?

His encore of "Sun" was (forgive pun) blistering! All of it, the new stuff, the slightly older songs - all brilliant.

Very happy!

1,000 song mixtape!
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4lEESSgxM_5O81EvKCmBIm_JT5Q7JeaI

New live EP w/ his live version of Sun, which is p different from the album version and is also like OMG maybe the best thing he's ever recorded? When I saw it live last year I felt like I was at an Underworld concert.

http://caribouband.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMLc89-ICro

my goodness