The Caribbean
The Australian music label Hidden Shoal Recordings today announced the release of the single ‘Do You Believe in Dinosaurs? (Scott Solter Remix)’ by American folk-pop deconstructionists The Caribbean.
The Caribbean has teamed up with engineer, producer, mixologist Scott Solter (Spoon, Okkervil River, The Mountain Goats) and Hidden Shoal to bring you Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean, an EP of dizzying curve balls that split the difference between glistening songcraft and complete re-construction. Solter’s chop-shop version of ‘Do You Believe In Dinosaurs?’ is at once stripped down and muscular – as if emanating from a ghettoblaster that slices and dices. The vocals from the original are all but gone, the rhythm section made guttural and immediate, and the modulating synths have been harassed and brought to the fore. Through his inimitable approach, Solter has managed to amplify and distill the original.
“You’re forced to occupy their barren pop architecture.... You don’t understand it, but, though you might not admit it, you do hope it will understand you. Or at least not destroy you...” – Pitchfork
The Caribbean is known for assembling songs and records via email and snail-mail, and although that creative model has been abandoned now the band members live in close proximity, the mind-set is locked in. It’s part of the group DNA. The idea of sending five tracks from The Caribbean’s 2007 Hometapes record Populations to Scott Solter to deconstruct, warp, and otherwise obliterate, was neither intimidating nor foreign. While Solter was busy toiling with 2” tape, textiles, liquid polymers, and computers in his North Carolina sound lab, the group became familiar with Hidden Shoal and it became clear to both group and label that the Caribbean/Solter EP was, conceptually, just the kind of project that might be perfect for Hidden Shoal to release. Once group and label began receiving rushes of Solter’s work, it became obvious that such a Caribbean-Hidden Shoal partnership would make creative sense.
‘Do You Believe In Dinosaurs?’ is available for free download from the Hidden Shoal Store until the release of Scott Solter Re-Populates The Caribbean on 2nd April 2009.
Hidden Shoal Recordings is an Australia-based independent music label that has earned a reputation for releasing exciting and engaging new independent music that is not bound by genre or style. Hidden Shoal Recordings was recently chosen as one of the top 10 favourite labels of 2007 by Textura magazine and has been dubbed “This generation’s 4AD” by prominent New York radio host DJ Mojo.
Label Site: http://music.hiddenshoal.com/
Label Store: http://agora.hiddenshoal.com/
The Caribbean: http://www.thecaribbeanisaband.com/
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
