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Caribou

The Milk of Human Kindness

Released 2005 on Leaf
Reviewed by silogut, Sep 2005ce

I gotta say I really love this album, OK its not exactly unheard of on unsung but by god it so much more vital than most things Copey has cared to rave about since the KRS . I so nearly didn’t buy it. The last foltronic effort I coughed up my most ernest on was ‘everything escatic’ by fourtet which features Kieran Hebden caught slumbering whilst his laptop drones on in autopilot. On top of which , a couple of years I back I bought Manitoba’s ‘Up in Flames’ to find that it was under conceived & perhaps a tad carelessy thrown together. However Manitoba’s forced metamorphisis into Caribou appears to have been the catylist to spur Dan Snaith to finally deliver . This material is just that much better realised with tracks like ‘A Final Warning and ‘Bees’ taking a destinctly Can/Neu groove as opposed to the aimless cut ‘n’ paste asthetic of much of ‘Up in Flames’ . The album is interspersed with some obviously DJ shadow inspired moments like ‘Lord Leopard’ & ‘Pelican Narrows’ and throws in some neat left turns like the Simon & Garfunkelness of ‘Hello Hammerheads’ being abruptly gatecrashed by the crashing miltary beats of ‘Brahminy Kite’. However the best moment is saved ’til last with the sheer exhuberance of ‘Barnowl’ as it cranks up and flows out into the panorama of the night leaving an all consuming mercurial haze that just makes me want to replay the damn thing over.