ATP-NY 2009: Caribou Vibration Ensemble w/ Marshall Allen (mp3s)

Earlier this month, WFMU brought an all-star crew up to Kutsher's Country Club for the second annual NY installment of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. For everyone who missed the live broadcast, we'll be archiving many of them for on-demand listening on WFMU's blog and Free Music Archive, starting this week. We've lined up a post a day from the likes of Deerhoof, Deerhunter, Atlas Sound, The Melvins, Grouper, Akron/Family, Black Dice, the Dirty Three (w/ Nick Cave!), and more surprises await.

Let's start things off with the 16-person Caribou Vibration Ensemble, which featured Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra for this special festival performance. The heart of Caribou is Dan Snaith, a Canadian mathematician, who started his musical project back in 2000 under the name Manitoba. Following the success of the 2003 album Up In Flames, "Handsome Dick" Manitoba of the Dictators claimed ownership over the name Manitoba and threatened legal action. Snaith decided to change his name to Caribou "while on an LSD trip with friends in the Canadian wilderness" (source). Caribou sounds a lot like an LSD trip in the Canadian wilderness, led by a mathematician with a PhD and a penchant for laptop IDM. Snaith has taken an increasingly organic approach to live performance leading up to the formation of the Vibration Ensemble.

Taking the stage at the Stardust Ballroom on Sunday September 13th, the Vibration Ensemble included every musician who has ever been a part of a Caribou live performance -- from frequent collaborators like John Schmersal (Enon, Brainiac) and Kieren Hebden (Four Tet), to the one-off special appearance of the legendary Marshall Allen (current leader of the Sun Ra Arkestra). All-in-all, the ensemble includes four drummers, a 5-piece horn section, and a choir to bring every thunder and peak of Carbou's music to vibrant life. Engineer Rob Christiansen did a fantastic job mixing this set, we hope you'll enjoy these four selections (after the jump):

"Skunks" is off 2003's Up In Flames, reissued in 2006 to reflect the name change. Original recordings of "Brahminy Kite," "A Final Warning," and "Barnowl" can be found on 2005's The Milk of Human Kindness. Multitracks from this session are on their way to Mr. Snaith's residence, and there is talk of an official release -- stay tuned to caribou.fm for news & updates about that!

Our next ATP post will feature Grouper, with lots more on the way. Stay tuned to the Blog and Free Music Archive for your daily dose.

Photo of Caribou Vibration Ensemble w/ Fourtet, Marshall Allen +many more special guests, live at ATP-NY 2009 is Creative Commons by-nc-sa Michaelz1 (via flickr). You can share these mp3s non-commercially under these terms.

Comments

[Jason]

This marks the Beware of the Blog debut of the FMA's brand new Embeddable Player!

There's html embed code for every FMA Album, Song, and Mix.

If you wanna embed this set on your own blog, go here to copy the code: http://tr.im/A0sT

[Dan Dzula]

Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You Thank You!

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=550415204]

super good.

[Greg]

We can skip ahead in songs now!

[Scott M.]

Wow, this sounds great! Nice work. I love that Marshall Allen is playing on this. First Steve Reid with Kieran Hebden, now Allen ripping with these youngsters. Impressive. ..could have been a case of too many cooks. Thanks for posting. (Love the embeddable player, too.)

[proteine]

Hi,
That All Tomorrow's Parties festival is a fantastic one.I am waiting for the Grouper's column.

[cd-r]

I wish I could only say glowing things about Flaming Lips' performance but Wayne Coyne really killed it for me. He spent far too much rambling about nothing and trying to cheerlead the crowd because our applause was apparently not enough for his huge ego.

[Mike Smith]

That's me shouting "Yeeeah!" after "Skunks." What a show! What a great recording! Thank you so much for posting these tracks. I've been listening to the Caribou single, "Odessa" like crazy, and it's really put me in the mood for more; this has been a lifesaver. I talked to one of the Ensemble musicians at ATP and he said they were going into the studio "soon," though whether as Caribou or the Ensemble I don't know. I would be thrilled with just an official release of this live show. THRILLED.