Caribou’s Swim is a journey through a tapestry of sounds – it will either find it enriching or it will drive you completely bloody insane. The following is my opinion of Caribou’s Swim.
In the late 90’s and early 00’s there was a club scene that was hooked on funk driven side of house music. These club kids prided themselves on being more mature, more refined –they wouldn’t let themselves be pigeonholed with the other eccentric club kids of the time. They searched for that DJ or producer that could deliver that magical beat, either created of found, that lives somewhere between jazz, funk, and 80’s synth rock. Dan Snaith as Caribou has done that for them on Swim
Outside of two or three songs Swim is a hard album to listen to, it’s not very accessible, it’s doesn’t allow simple listening. You are there not to participate but to simply listen. Swim is cold that way, but it can be argued that techno/house is always emotionally detached from it’s listener. There are lots of moments on Swim where it feel like you are listening to an experimental that wasn’t brought to full completion at times. The hypothesis could never match the results so the scientist just sort of gave up.
However if you can listen to this again and just do nothing but listen, like those sophisticated club kids, you’ll be chasing it down, listening each time for a new sound, and new element, and you’ll realize it has more emotion than a gospel song. It will find it’s place in your mind, and your heart, and you’ll come back to it, not all of it, but enough to remind you of the power of sounds layered one on top of each other.
What separated this album for me is that it sounds holistic through and through. Caribou, doesn’t change the instruments they use from previous recordings, they just change the limits that they are used wtithin. It’s a major step for any artist, but for Dan Snaith this is what he does, pushes his limits, the goal is not pass or fail, its the journey. As it should be – so enjoy it. It will enrich.
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