Caribou converted their booming electronic sounds into a gentle acoustic vibe on an unforgettable Monday night
As Jacki Liebezeit from Can said,“If there is no repetition, then there is no groove”. Such words must have had a huge impact on Caribou’s new material from his forthcoming album, Our Love, which is out in stores now. As expected from Metropolis, opener, Jessy Lanza, hits the stage perfectly on time and starts performing her tracks from her debut album, Pull my Hair Back, which sounded quite groovy, serene, ambient, and very nostalgic. There’s a sense that the sound comes from the 80’s, notably channeling sounds from other dance-pop and post-disco acts such as, Shannon, Q Lazzarus, Depeche Mode, Michael Jackson and so on. Tracks like “Against the Wall”, “Kathy Lee” and “Keep Moving” had some really delicious electronic hooks that jived really nicely with her airy, atmospheric, and sassy soprano vocals. The samples and the loops in her music sounded so well produced and methodic. There is no doubt that she consecrated much of her time and effort into studying the production and exact sound of 80’s dance-pop music. All in all, it was a very solid opening act and definitely one of the best new artists of that genre to come out this year.
Finally, the act we’ve all been waiting for. Hailing from Dundas, Ontario, Caribou (also known as Manitoba and Daphni), along with three other musicians coming out on stage dressed in Mr. Clean outfits, Caribou kicks off the set with their eponymous track, “Our Love”. However, with the use of live and electronic instrumentation, they basically converted all the purely electronic sounds in their album into a more live and acoustic sound with the use of delayed guitars, bass guitars, and a drum set. These provided a more psychedelic pop sound with some elements of house music. That approach reminded me a lot of Caribou’s older material and sound.
Nevertheless, they performed tracks off of their latest album almost effortlessly and confidently, despite the strong presence of electronic instrumentation on the record that had to be translated into acoustic instruments. The music and the light-show got everyone in the crowd to really enjoy the punchier live sound– nearly everyone had very positive experience, and danced the whole way through. One other great thing about the show was that Caribou solely performed his latest material with the exception of some of his most popular tracks off of his previous records such as, “Odessa”, “Sun” and “Jamelia”. All in all, this show got me to purchase the two records at the merch table!
