Caracol - Shiver

Reviewed by Tony King, host of Alberta Morning and A Time For Jazz

Playful exuberance, that invokes traditional French folk music with a dash of tasty indie pop thrown in for good measure, would perhaps be the best way to summarize Caracol’s brand new disc. It’s ironic when one considers that much of the material for this album was written while Montreal was thrust into a series of successive snowstorms.

Undaunted by the white residue gluing itself onto panes of glass like silvery spider webs during a very cold winter in La Belle Province, Carol Facal (aka Caracol) buried herself in her basement studio accompanied by a coterie of inanimate friends, including books of poetry, Art-Deco images, not to mention her faithful guitars, vintage amps and a few analogue synths. Each night as the city of Montreal was put to bed under a blanket of snow, shimmering white under the soft glow of street lamps, Caracol’s imaginative yearnings would come to life, inspired by memories, visceral experiences and a rich musical vocabulary. The resulting album is a mélange of both english and french language tunes that is brimming with a raw feminine sensuality that is unique to Caracol’s native city.

Shiver features a blend of folk, indie-pop and retro-soul and when it came time to lay down the tracks in the studio, Caracol enlisted producer Sebastien Blais-Montpetit (ADISQ Producer of the year 2011 and DJ Champion guitarist) who employed a selection of top notch musicians.

Caracol will be in Edmonton on the 10th of March at the Royal Alberta Museum with Amelia Curran.

February 24, 2012