31. Up In Flames – Caribou (2003)

Looking back, there’s really no other way to say it: I went positively bat-shit for Up In Flames. Half electronic, half 60s psychedelia, this record reinvented Chemical Brothers’ big-beat into an organic compost of live-drum crashes with the innocuous vocal melodies of the Electric Prunes. From the hammering, far-East spirituality of ‘Kid You’ll Move Mountains’ to the heady grooves of ‘Hendrix With KO’, Up In Flames maintains a wide-eyed, drugged-out hippie-dom that may be post-modern but never approaches pastiche.

In truth, I overplayed it. Watched Manitoba become Caribou over three shows in just under a year’s time, and adored every second of each explosive set. Dan Snaith’s subsequent work lost much of the red-sand grit that made Up In Flames such a convincing hybrid and, while I’ll keep tabs on his future work, Caribou will always be Manitoba for me.