Caribou

24th April, 2010

Le Romandie, Lausanne

and

25th April, 2010

Palace, St Gallen

www.myspace.com/cariboumanitoba

The gentleman pictured here is Dan Snaith, the Canadian who essentially is Caribou. He lives in London, and it was there that he put together one of the most startling colourful albums of the last decade in 2007′s Andorra. It would be a stretch to say he took drumming to new levels, but the way he implemented a dual-pronged attack from a pair of percussionists (a little bit like the Mickey Hart – Bill Kreutzmann drum team in The Grateful Dead) was indeed very original. Few have the blissful pop sensibility of Snaith, and when that is matched to the boy’s affection for beats, you have something very wonderful. Live, with two drummers at the front of stage, it was majestic, and with ‘She’s The One’, ‘Eli’ and ‘Sundialing’, he confirmed himself as one of the most devastatingly catchy fellows in the business.

In 2010 there is a new Caribou album, Swim. It is, we can tell you, not as good as Andorra, even if it proves Snaith’s ambition and imagination knows few boundaries. It is a darker, more oppressive listen and much less accessible than Andorra. Not a bad thing, mind you, and could make for a very interesting live show in Lausanne or St Gallen, especially if he is with the same peerless band he was with last time… and he sets those drumkits up at the centre of everything.

They say: “Sometimes I am like: ‘Just fucking hell, I have been doing this for so long enough, I should be able to write a good track’. And then I sit down and make something terrible. But at the same time that is what makes it always interesting. If I was like: ‘Oh I’ve cracked it!’ There wouldn’t be that thrill.” – Dan Snaith

We say: Dan Snaith has a PhD in mathematics. That must count for something.