CVE Live 2011

Caribou are a hell of a live band in any situation, but if you ever get a chance to see Dan Snaith in his Caribou Vibration Ensemble configuration, you should take that chance. A few times over the past few years, Snaith has put together big all-star live bands to do some serious psychedelic channeling-the-stars shit, and he released a live album from one of those tours in 2010. Now, he's got another one. The new album is called CVE Live 2011, and it collects three longish live recordings from December 2011 - two from a show in Ghent, Belgium, and one from the next night in London. Both times, Snaith brought an impressive backing band with him; musicians on the recording include Four Tet, Sinkane, James Holden, and Enon's John Schmersal. Opener 'Bowls' is reinvented by combining the album version from 'Swim' with elements from James' Holden's own remix. The next track 'Ahmed, Colin, James, Kieran, Kyle, Rob and Steve' is an improvised collaboration between all the members not in the regular Caribou touring band and features Ahmed's drum kit triggering all the synthesizer sounds coming from James' modular synthesizer. The release closes with an epic version of 'Sun'.