About a year ago, Caribou mastermind Dan Snaith couldn’t swim. On a good day, he might get a decent doggy paddle going but, really, he could barely stay afloat. All that changed when his wife got him swimming lessons for Christmas. “Then I became completely obsessed with it and now I swim constantly,” he says. “The only times I really left the house in the past year were either to go out to a club late at night or, in the middle of making music during the day, I’d go to swim every day. It was important to get some distance, and ideas would percolate around in my head as I was swimming away. So it seemed like a theme that was appropriate.”
With its absorption of club culture sounds weaved within subtle pop frameworks, the 2010 release Swim is Caribou’s masterpiece–the record he’s wanted to bring to fruition for as long as he’s been making music. A Canadian from small-town Ontario now based in England, Snaith has been a leading figure in electronic music over the past decade. A mathematics scholar and an ingenious multi-instrumentalist/composer, he surprised critics and fans with 2007’s Andorra, a brilliant, electro-tinged pop breakthrough with a timeless grace that made most year-end “Best of” lists and won Canada’s prestigious Polaris Music Prize. After the startling infectiousness of Andorra, Swim–itself, nominated for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize–is a more complex, multi-layered affair-ripe with fascinating rhythms, instrumentation, and vocals (including those of Born Ruffians’ Luke Lalonde, who appears on “Jamelia”)-that becomes more alluring with each listen. And it’s got Caribou floating.
The Russian Futurists
Brief, exhilarating songs about love…of course, Pop is founded upon such foundations. But in Matthew Adam Hart’s gifted hands, our wonder and gleeful idiocy is laid out in rare, brilliant detail. Critics and the public alike have recognized in Hart one of the most impressive compositional minds to emerge in years – a talent simultaneously modest but mighty, plainspoken but rigorously intelligent, creating miniature electronic epics that sound as if they were spun from gold.
The Russian Futurists have three internationally acclaimed releases under their belt, and in 2007 Me, Myself and Rye was released; the amalgam of The Futurists’ hottest songs assembled from their three previous albums, digitally re-mastered. The Russian Futurists international profile saw them become UK-label mates with The Go! Team and The Pipettes, spawn a whirlwind experience that put them on a UK tour with Peter, Bjorn & John, North American dates with long time friends Caribou and Junior Boys and playing to 10,000 fans at the Mada Festival in Brazil, while receiving acclaim and praise from the likes of NME, Clash, Spin, Time Out London, BBC, and X-FM. All the while producer-songwriter singer Matt Hart was remixing the likes of Lo-Fi Fnk, Stars, Sally Shapiro, Dykehouse, Shout Out Louds, and Cadence Weapon. Born and bred in the cold and lonely Ontario, border-town of Cornwall, and raised on hockey [“loving the Leafs is like being in love with a terrible woman”] Matt found comfort in the simplicity of AM Radio. “There are (The Russian Futurists) songs that were produced to sound like they belonged there. I used to sit up at night and drink a bottle of red wine and listen to AM to get inspired. My roommates used to think I was kind of a weirdo when they would walk into my room at 2 am and find me drunk listening to ‘Buttons & Bows’. I would like to end up on AM when I’m old and grey.”
Surprisingly, Hart’s roots as a producer and arranger lie not in Pop. “I was a compulsive Hip Hop producer from age 13 to 19,” he admits, “and would finish a completed Hip Hop track, from start to finish, every day after school” This interest is still evident in the Russian Futurists’ electronic rhythms, but a passion for the Pop music of his childhood (Abbey Road was a prominent obsession) is the heart of The Russian Futurists. “When I eventually began to try to make music other than beats it wasn’t my intention to make Pop. It just came out. I felt I was being stifled by Hip Hop and wanted to experiment with melody.” Hart constructs his songs under the ongoing influence of Phil Spector, Brian Wilson “He showed me that Pop was able to be listenable and experimental at the same time”, Fleetwood Mac “They taught me how to be dramatic, plus I just love their music” Honesty shines through in all of The Russian Futurists’ songs – all the more remarkable for them having been conceived in Matthew Hart’s bedroom.
The Ebar 41 Quebec St. Guelph
Doors at 9:30 PM
All-ages/Licensed
$20 with non-perishable food item
$22 without
Tickets Available:
The Bookshelf – 41 Quebec St. – Guelph
Orange Monkey – 005 Princess St. – Waterloo
CSA Office – University of Guelph – UC Room 274
(non-perishable food items will be accepted at ticket outlets)
All food items collected will benefit the Guelph Food Bank.
musicprogramming [at] gmail [dot] com
UPCOMING KYEO SHOWS:
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 16: BORN RUFFIANS – FOND OF TIGERS @ Ebar – 41 QUEBEC ST. GUELPH – 10:00 PM – $10 w/food donation /$12 – AA/LIC benefit for: www.outontheshelf.ca www.bornruffians.com www.fondoftigers.com
THURSDAY OCTOBER 28: CFRU GLAM SLAM BALL – ft. KING NEPTUNE & HIS TRIDENTS – SHEEZER @ Ebar – 41 QUEBEC ST. – GUELPH – 10:00 PM – $12 w/food donation /$14 – AA/LIC benefit for: www.cfru.ca
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 12: JASON COLLETT – AL TUCK – BRY WEBB @ Dublin Street United Church – 68 SUFFOLK ST. W. – GUELPH – ? PM – $? – AA www.sundaycinema.ca www.arts-crafts.ca
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 18: GRAND ANALOG – D-SISIVE @ Ebar – 41 QUEBEC ST. – GUELPH – 10:00 PM – $12 w/food donation /$14 – AA/LIC benefit for: www.outontheshelf.ca www.myspace.com/grandanalog www.myspace.com/dsisive
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 15: STAY OUT OF THE MALL IX – RICKWHITEALBUM – ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS – RICHARD LAVIOLETTE & THE OIL SPILLS @ Ebar – 41 QUEBEC ST. – GUELPH – 9:30 PM – $10 w/food donation /$12 – AA/LIC benefit for: www.cancer.ca www.myspace.com/rickwhitealbum www.myspace.com/1hundreddollars www.myspace.com/richardlavioletteandtheoilspills
THURSDAY DECEMBER 16: STAY OUT OF THE MALL IX – TBA – METZ – PS I LOVE YOU @ Ebar – 41 QUEBEC ST. – GUELPH – 9:30 PM – $10 w/food donation /$12 – AA/LIC benefit for: www.cancer.ca www.myspace.com/metztheband www.myspace.com/psiloveyouband