Album: Caribou

The Milk of Human Kindness, LEAF

Andy Gill
Friday 15 April 2005 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Dan Snaith used to call himself Manitoba, until he was subpoenaed for trademark infringement by "Handsome" Dick Manitoba, formerly of the useless proto-punk band The Dictators. Unwilling to waste money on lawyers, Snaith simply changed his nom de disque to Caribou for this follow-up to 2003's Up in Flames, though his working methods remain largely the same, with pieces built from layers of sampled sounds. Tracks like "A Final Warning" and "Barnowl" tick along smoothly like Can's Future Days, with a similar sense of cosmic outreach; "Pelican Narrows" features cascading droplets of twinkling keyboard tones, gamelan-style; "Drumheller" uses reversed string samples to acquire the smeary texture that helped to make Up in Flames so mysteriously moving. Balancing these is the more pastoral, guitar-based strain of tracks such as "Hello Hammerheads". And there are vignettes such as "Hands First" (a brief welter of drum-rolls) and "Subotnick", which, despite being named after one of the great electronic compose

Dan Snaith used to call himself Manitoba, until he was subpoenaed for trademark infringement by "Handsome" Dick Manitoba, formerly of the useless proto-punk band The Dictators. Unwilling to waste money on lawyers, Snaith simply changed his nom de disque to Caribou for this follow-up to 2003's Up in Flames, though his working methods remain largely the same, with pieces built from layers of sampled sounds. Tracks like "A Final Warning" and "Barnowl" tick along smoothly like Can's Future Days, with a similar sense of cosmic outreach; "Pelican Narrows" features cascading droplets of twinkling keyboard tones, gamelan-style; "Drumheller" uses reversed string samples to acquire the smeary texture that helped to make Up in Flames so mysteriously moving. Balancing these is the more pastoral, guitar-based strain of tracks such as "Hello Hammerheads". And there are vignettes such as "Hands First" (a brief welter of drum-rolls) and "Subotnick", which, despite being named after one of the great electronic composers, features a series of dramatic three-chord guitar flourishes. The best tracks are the mantra-like "Brahminy Kite" and "Lord Leopard", whose keyboard progressions sound like a "classical rap" from the likes of Kanye West.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in