Swim, the first record by electro-pop musician Daniel Snaith (a.k.a. Caribou) since he won the Polaris Music Prize for 2007’s Andorra, is worth every penny of that $20,000 prize money. Sometime after Andorra and experimenting with his live-band Caribou Vibration Ensemble at last year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties fest, Snaith crafted Swim‘s delicate balance of traditional, electronics-driven dance music and textures of more experimental sounds and musique concrète. Caribou delivers in concert as well, thanks to a clever integration between live instruments and Snaith’s electronics – but there’s no prize money for that.
This article appears in May 13-19, 2010.