You don’t need to be Lester Bangs to know that Caribou’s an altogether different kind of musical animal. The dude was raised on a steady diet of Yes and Rush, and the blood of progressive rock flows strongly within him. He’s shy about it, like most, calling it ‘overblown’ and hinting at its pretensions, but the mere fact that he keeps making the references means it’s embedded in his subconscious. After a while, he found himself experimenting with more modern dance and electronica, but one need only listen to his music to hear that there’s as much Rick Wakeman and Aphrodite’s Child (and even Simon and Garfunkel) as there is Daedelus and Four Tet. His bio’s almost as interesting: he was even served by a private investigator at one of his gigs, subpoena courtesy of none other than Dictators singer Richard “Handsome Dick” Manitoba, who felt his name was being stolen (Caribou’s stage name was at one time also that of the Canadian province). Caribou appropriately calls Dick a ‘moron’ (I’m inclined to agree since the latter had the balls to ‘reform’ the MC5 in 2003, even though he’d never even played with them). That being said, it helps to have an open mind when listening to Caribou. It’s the prog soundtrack to carnival funhouses and stretch mirrors and makes me feel like a kid again. Check out his story on Red Bull Music Academy Radio.