Caribou
Due to an annoying (and ludicrous) legal wrangle started by an ageing New York Punk, Dan ‘Manitoba’ Snaith has recently had to change his name to Caribou. You can be assured, however, that this won’t affect the quality of his output.
Snaith first came to the public’s attention in 2001 with the release of his debut album “Start Breaking My Heart”. It was a well constructed album of messed-up beats, future jazz and exquisite melodies. His next outing was 2003’s “Up In Flames”, this was a different beast altogether, gone was the chilled out elecronica, here was a does of 1960’s psychedelia. With loud drums, phased vocal harmonies and organ swirls “Up In Flames” was a wonderful summer treat. It also displayed a new facet of Caribou/Manitoba as the record was taken on the road with 2 live drummers and with Snaith switching around between keyboards, guitar and even glockenspiel.
With his new album “The Milk of Human Kindness” the formula has been twisted even further, elements of crazed carnival-folk sit alongside relentless stampeding beats, hypnotic psychedelia alongside pounding hip-hop. It is, at the same time, both retro and futuristic but with the sweetness of Dan’s vocal creeping in now and then it remains a startlingly human album. One to be savoured.