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CARIBOU VIBRATION ENSEMBLE
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Whispers of white smoke curl through the air as the house lights fade and suspense grips the packed podiums, intimate dancefloor and overcrowded stairways of London’s Scala. A wash of light beckons the 11-piece Caribou Vibration Ensemble to the stage, each dressed head to toe in white, to expectant hoots and cheers.
For only the third time (and the first since two special gigs back in 2009), Dan Snaith’s Caribou project is set to go extra-specially live. For anyone who has ever felt their spine tingle to the rhythmic atmospherics, winding melodies and ghostly vocals that made the Canadian artist’s ‘Swim’ Mixmag’s Album Of The Year in 2010, the prospect of Snaith plus Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden on synths and electronics, two drummers, a four-piece horn section and James Holden on a giant modular synth trigger is simply mouthwatering.
With the drummers stage front, Snaith to the side, Hebden behind him and Holden stage right (back turned, plugging and re-plugging wires like a head-bopping switchboard operator), the restless excitement is further stoked by the off-tune melodics and thunderous bass of ‘Hannibal’. Bicycle-style lamps flash into the crowd as the railroad-crossing bells, steam chuffs and clickity-clack rhythms of ‘Bowls’ conjure up a journey along a dusty North American train line before smoke veils everything from view.
From out of the mist rumbles a bouncing, acidic jam session, upping the tempo alongside Caribou’s mix of ‘It’s A Crime’ by Virgo Four before the synth chords and wistful vocals of ‘Leave House’ pound through a room drenched in orange. Then, out of a gasping silence, ‘Odessa’ drops, igniting a full-on rave, and flicker-book strobes capture the crowd’s euphoria at the rapturous cacophony of ‘Sun’.
As we catch our breath, the Ensemble switch into an indie-jam finale of ‘Skunks’ that sees both drummers standing on their stools for a synchronised showdown and an epic cheer finishes the night
