While EDM producers and DJs continue to be a dominating force in contemporary 21st century music, there is a conscious and positive shift in the current electronic music subculture towards artists who re-interpret the pulsating mechanical rhythms of dance music with live instruments; and passionate music lovers' appetite is quickly rising for this creative evolution.
Canadian composer, musician and mastermind behind the ground-breaking electronica outfit Caribou, Dan Snaith has crafted a seamlessly hybrid and accessible marriage between modern EDM music and the experimentation of psychedelic and even prog rock bands from the late '60s and early '70s.Caribou's live concerts match the ambition of their recordings, transcending the listener into another sonic realm and employing kaleidoscopic, enthralling video projection visuals behind the band's powerfully musical performance.
Their music penetrates the listener viscerally and is a multi-sensory experience that taps into the energy of the audience, who are very much at the centre of it to create an exhilarating experience that awakens all your senses.
Caribou's touring itinerary for the new year was to visit Australia in support of their 2024 LP 'Honey' including a date at Sydney's iconic Enmore Theatre (3 January).
The quartet came onstage and opened up with their catchy, house-inspired composition 'Volume', its pulsating rhythmic beat and addictive drum snares warming up the crowd to a night of hypnotic and tantalising songs that would make everyone escape and forget about the world outside.
Once the video screen started spurting out colours and the bass began to reverberate through your body, syncing your heartbeat with the rhythms, it was all about losing yourself and feeling at one with this musical journey.
Sometimes it didn't feel as though the musicians were even there as the psychedelic spirals on the screen became the centrepiece of the show casting a mesmerising glow over the crowd, yet the silhouette of the band members was always visible enough to recognise their application to their instruments and talented performance.
Unlike other EDM producers who command the crowd to shout and cheer, Caribou let the music do the taking and as result, each song received a huge applause, and it was clearly notable how much joy and happiness we were feeling as we all began swaying together in a euphoric trance, united by the music.
At times Snaith's vocals added to the human quality of the music, but equally the band's use of artificial, high-pitch chip monk and slow, deep tempo vocals did not distract the audience who were having a great time dancing without inhibition.
It's worth highlighting the performance of their song 'Sun' as it's build-up crescendo of electronic drums and industrial noise truly became the high point of the concert as a tiny sun on screen grew larger and larger, and evoked a spiritual-like ritual to the celestial body that gives us all life.
Time really slipped by and the final song of the evening had to be the infectiously industrial-pop single 'Can't Do Without You' giving a taste of Caribou's diverse and forward-thinking attitude to composing music.
Their music fits nicely into the zeitgeist of modern electronic music, yet it has an emotional depth that harnesses the timelessness of artists trying to express for themselves what it means to be alive; the way video art and music combined can be a lif-changing experience amidst a sea of dancing bodies, where you feel a real sense of freedom and a profound sense of belonging.
In the end Snaith acknowledged that without all of us in the room, there would be no reason to play this music so ultimately this rave-like communal practice is deeply human even in age when technological advances in music instruments are testing the paradox between machine and organic sounds.
Electronic music in its history has been explicitly commercialised like any other genre of music and/ or art practise, but only an authentic artist can creatively compose electronica with imagination and humanity the way Caribou does.
