Caribou — The Milk Of Human Kindness

The Milk Of Human Kindness

Domino/Outside

Marc Boudignon (CHARTattack)

04/19/2005 9:27am

Dan Snaith can finally exhale. Under the pseudonym Manitoba, his previous album, Up In Flames, was a psychedelectronic masterpiece, a puffed-up purple haze fashioned with the premise in mind that more ain’t less, more is excess. The critical praise rolled in and the legal problems followed right behind. Snaith continued to hold his breath as the lawyers went to work on his trademark-infringing moniker, but, like a phoenix rising out of the ashes of a burning heap of judicial paperwork, Snaith was reborn as Caribou.

Now, with his second name and third album, Snaith has cause to find some pause in his music. The Milk Of Human Kindness is another masterpiece, albeit one of a different elk... er, ilk. Think kraut-rock through his splendid aurora borealis filter, or hip-hop grazing in a rural field of opium-laced poppies. Every one of these 11 expanding and contracting tracks defy description, except possibly this one — Snaith’s rhythms don’t just breathe, they hyperventilate.

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