Caribou In the Studio

Despite having produced some of indie electronic-rock’s grandest opuses, Dan “Caribou” Snaith has never worked in a professional studio. He makes all of his music alone in his tiny, apartment bedroom with little more than a computer, a cheap sampler, and a handful of instruments. But as evidenced by the songs “After Hours” and “Desiree” on his new LP, Andorra (Merge), it often seems like he has a 50-member orchestra under his spell. Since 2001’s Start Breaking My Heart (recorded as Manitoba), Snaith has crafted a vibrant, Technicolored sound that embodies the raw wilderness of his upbringing in rural Ontario, Canada. XLR8R rang up Dr. Snaith (he holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and is barely 28) at his current home in London to talk about tiny spaces and huge sounds.

XLR8R: You used to loop samples to compose songs in the past. Did you use that same technique on Andorra?

Dan Snaith: This is the first record where I didn’t record like that. It’s the first time that I’ve actually written things before I recorded them. In the past, it was always just building upon loops and writing things as I go, and just making stuff up to put over top. But this time, it was much more about writing things and [having] the whole arrangement in my head before I started recording.

Many of the vocals on Andorra resemble those found on ’60s pop albums. How did you record them?

I actually recorded every instrument that needed a microphone with this Russian microphone, an Oktava MK-012, which is just like a condenser microphone. It’s really bright-sounding. I recorded all of the vocals with that and I then used a TL Audio channel strip as a pre-amp. As far as getting the vocal sounds that I wanted, it’s a lot of layering. I’d record a part [numerous] times and layer them on top of one another. I tend to either like the dry sound that’s panned hard left and right, or use a kind of reverb on some of the vocals.

How were the drums recorded? The beats blend well in the mixes.

On “Melody Day,” I recorded the drums in our rehearsal studio, but then they actually knocked down that studio a few weeks after I did that. For all of the other tracks, it was usually just a floor tom, a snare, and a hi-hat or cymbal in my room, with the same overhead and a [Shure] SM58 [mic] under the floor tom. It was like a really, really stripped down kit… It’s me playing this weird, Frankenstein kind of kit with two shitty mics on it. I’d then play it twice and layer it on top of one another.

What software do you typically use?

I use Acid, which is the most basic audio-sequencing software on the market. I use a really old, expired version. It [enables me to] do some really simple things, like putting layers on top of one another, allowing me to loop bits or put in a few effects, but not anything like fancy reverbs or compressors. Any of these music programs that are out there do all the things that I want, so it’s not really a question of that being a big part of my sound or anything.

What’s your secret weapon in your studio?

The Boss Dr. Sample SP-303. As well as it being a sampler, it also has a line-in, a pre-amp, and a whole ton of effects on it. I don’t use any amps for guitar or bass or keyboards or any of that stuff; I just plug them straight into this thing and then I can put effects on it really easily. I tend to record effects and all of that kind of stuff on this thing rather than doing it later on. I put vocals, guitar–anything–through there… it’s a versatile little thing. The only thing that I’m really looking for is for everything to be really easy and intuitive to use so that I don’t spend all of my time fiddling with gear.

Given your education background, I’m curious if you use mathematical theories in your music.

Not at all. People think of mathematicians as being really methodical and being really careful, planned-out kind of people, but a lot of them that I met are the most scatterbrained, absentminded-professor type of people. That’s definitely the way I record. There’s crap piled up everywhere, a microphone falls over in the middle of a take, and everything is a bit of a mess; everything is plugged into the wrong thing, the levels are all set wrong, and it’s a constant messing around. As far as using formulas, it couldn’t be further from the way I record.

Justin Martin Chaos Restored with Justin Martin

“Ghetto Train”’s got it going on, but you don’t need Martin’s debut mix of funky, jacking house to hear his track, which is sharper than much of what surrounds it here. Martin, along with Claude VonStroke, is currently making Frisco capital-F fabulous with his ability to both suss out dancefloor-igniting tracks and create his own. So why does Chaos Restored only intermittently go bananas? The “Train” rolls in around the 15-minute mark, dragging some serious weight (Spincycle, Jimpster’s remix of Motorcitysoul’s “Aura”), but loses a bit of steam, despite both men (the narrator on Martin Landsky’s “Let Me Dance”) and congas coaxing you on. The tempo seldom changes–until Martin’s “Stoopit Crunk-Ill Hyphy Mix” of Worthy’s “Crack-El” arrives, blips and bleeps flaring out over a backdrop of finger snaps. Now that’s unusual. Martin might’ve switched it up more throughout, but Chaos is still fairly beautiful in theory.

Minus Records Expands, Contracts

If you thought that ambient producers and obscure sound-art nerds were the only folks weird enough to worry about “sonic molecules” and “inaudible space,” the odds are, 12”s from Richie Hawtin’s Minus imprint aren’t taking up much of your crate and record shelve space. Carrying on with the imprint’s mission to hone in on the deepest (albeit the most minimal and spacious) techno available, Hawtin and co are releasing EXPANSION/contraction, a seven-track exploration into the in-between.

Due out November 20, the CD/LP features Deep Dish member Dubfire, Jesse “Heartthrob” Siminski, Minus staple Marc Houle, JPLS, and more. While EXPANSION is filled with plenty of the fuzz and sporadic bleeping that all of the aforementioned producers have become synonymous with, it still possesses the dancefloor depth that the minimal world has been waiting for. Just listen to the spooky panning and heavy-hitting bass on Troy Pierce’s “Oxytocin” for proof.

Tracklisting
1. Dubfire “Emissions”
2. Gaiser “Mute”
3. Heartthrob “Roundabout”
4. JPLS “Isolate”
5. Mark Houle “Porch”
6. Plastikman “Risk Assessment”
7. Troy Pierce “Oxytocin”

Modeselektor “Edgar”

Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary (a.k.a. Modeselektor) have owned the year 2007, what with the release of Happy Birthday!, an exhilarating trip through the world of bass-driven techno, some well-attended tour dates, and, of course, a spot on the cover of XLR8R 112. Keep a watch on these guys in 2008. Their energy, humor, and general zest for music should ensure many fine things are yet to come. Photo by Birgit Kaulfuss.

Modeselektor – Edgar

DJ Rekha DJ Rekha Presents Basement Bhangra

New Yorkers have enjoyed Rekha’s Basement Bhangra parties for a decade, but with her debut mix album, the London-born DJ fixes her sight on the rest of the country. Though a few names here would be familiar even to Middle America (the once-Jay-Z-remixed Panjabi MC and Wyclef Jean guesting on one of Rekha’s own tracks), bhangra–the combination of traditional Punjabi folk elements, especially vocals, and electronic beats–never quite achieved household-name status in the States. This compilation, though, shows the skills that have kept Rekha’s party going for so long, particularly her expert programming, with hip-hop- and dancehall-derived bhangra. Here’s hoping this set is more than just a one-off.

Ams Uno Animated Stagnation

Rhode Island isn’t exactly a hip-hop hotbed, but it still managed to spawn trio ClokWorx, rapper Ams Uno’s crew. Uno aims to be one of hip-hop’s prophets, but he does best when he’s least self-conscious about that goal. On “Uno Potato,” for example, with a deft twisting of nursery rhymes, Uno’s slightly nasal flow makes his point playfully. In contrast, the reggae-inflected “Soul Contribution” wears its ambition too nakedly. Still, Uno shows a range that even some seasoned MCs never develop, from the spare, quick-moving “Standing in the Reign” to “The Uninvited,” with a percussion break that mirrors his crazed lyrics. Maybe Rhode Island deserves a spot on the hip-hop map after all.

Enon Grass Geysers…Carbon Clouds

Enon’s fifth effort in eight years, and their most Brainiac (frontman John Schmersal’s first band) record since their Believo! debut, is everything we’ve been waiting for from these sometimes brilliant, sometimes frustrating indie-pop pervos. Gone is the trip-hop/new-wave schizophrenia that held Enon’s last outing, 2003’s just plain ridiculous Hocus Pocus, back. From the opening seconds of “Mirror on You”’s junkyard-tech vocal fuckery and growling bass, it’s clear that, after a decade, Brainiac’s mourning period is over. Guitars shriek, percussion clatters, electronics whip, and hiss. “Dr. Freeze” courses with barely-in-control bee-swarm synth and–spit flying–Schmersal’s barely-in-control vocal grimaces, which two tracks later, on “Peace of Mind,” he fully unleashes and lets his falsetto rip. Yet below it all still rolls the pop sense–the clean lines, the structures–that ensures Enon will never be a tribute band, but one that knows, and honors its roots.

Shocking Pinks Shocking Pinks

Shocking Pinks might raise the batting average for New Zealand rock, but beware of frontman Nick Harte’s sentimentality. “Oh Emily, oh Emily/I get jealous/When you’re holding hands/Kissing behind the stands/Because I need romance,” he mopes. How emo. The Pinks otherwise deliver solid, lo-fi excursions in this reissue of the ex-Brunette’s solo work. The rich guitar textures are often soaked in mountainous, neo-shoegazer haze, and Harte has a knack for melody, on tunes like “Blonde Haired Girl,” that recalls the best of early ’90s buzz-pop. There’s also DFA-approved cowbell disco on “SmokeScreen,” and a meditation on piano drones in the curious “23.” As long as Harte doesn’t need to cry on your shoulder, everything’s fine.

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