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

Sort of, Jordan. Sort of.

Stellar record. The single is my least favorite track but that's a minor quibble in an otherwise wonderful album. Mr. Snaith has done it again.

Shades of Junior Boys...but so much better. Sad ? Maybe. Moreso introspective. Gorgeous synth work and bass tones all over this thing.

I've only really listened late night on headphones so far, and once at my desk while working, but I'm pretty sure there's no brass anywhere, and no tumbling jazzy drum samples, either. Some violin on a couple of tracks? Had hoped Owen might sing on it but it seems like he played violin.

Silver really is amazing; that little vocal tick sample running through it ("hear it" or suchlike?) somehow really adds to the emotional tone rather than breaking it. And the synths, omg, so gorgeous.

silver definitely kicking hardest. back home is wonderful too.

title track's the only one I haven't fallen in love with so far

Interview: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/caribous-psychedelic-journey-back-to-the-club-the-birth-of-our-love-20140804

Woke up listening to this and one obvi connection is early Joy Orbison...especially the more blissed out side of things. The slower trax have a deep Chicago influence buried in there. This album is going to be awesome to hear on the dancefloor. People are going to be lining up to remix this thing that's for sure. The cool thing is that even tho he is working on the clubbier side of the spectrum it doesn't sound at all disposable. It's very much crafted and written to endure.

Listening to the recording this morning, not sure about some of the vocals, but the production is amazing as usual.

Also, REMIX ALERT - Can‘t Do Without You (Tale Of Us & Mano Le Tough)

Would love some more in the direction of Caribou Vibration Ensemble. Have their been any other releases than the cd that came free with the copies of Swim sold in Rough Trade?

Need to get to know this better, which will only really happen after I get the CD and live with it a lot, I guess, but I feel like it dips a bit in the middle; it falls into griddy, Daphni-esque stuff for a couple of tracks, but without the weird texture and intrigue of Bowls, say, or the edge-of-chaos-ness of Niobe, and loses some of the melody and emotion of the first few tracks and last few tracks. It kind of just sits there pulsing for a bit, which I'd normally love, but it's not grabbed me yet.

I think it's the title track, which reminds me of chunks of the last Four Tet album. It probably works really well in a club, and it sounds amazing phenomenologically, it just hasn't got the punctum, as Marcello would say, that his best stuff does. And the last minute doesn't quite go off like I'd hope.

But Silver, omfg, amazing, amazing, amazing.

Would love some more in the direction of Caribou Vibration Ensemble. Have their been any other releases than the cd that came free with the copies of Swim sold in Rough Trade?

there was a limited tour-only 2xlp

It probably works really well in a club, and it sounds amazing phenomenologically, it just hasn't got the punctum

Heard Tale of Us drop that remix in a set a couple weeks back, it stretches out and foregrounds the strengths of the original for a club or festival in just the right way.

Also, not sure what you mean by 'sounds amazing phenomenologically'? As opposed to? ;)

"it sounds amazing phenomenologically, it just hasn't got the punctum"

Planning to say this next time I'm at a gig

Remixing himself under a different name.

https://soundcloud.com/caribouband/our-love-daphni-mix

Not very well tbh!

sounds great to me! the original is nice but definitely did not realize the full potential of those late-'90s-house synth stabs

Anyway, my thoughts on the new one:

http://thequietus.com/articles/16324-caribou-our-love-review

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.