Now that I’m neck-deep in the bodacious new Caribou record, Swim, I’ve had the chance to really savor opener “Odessa,” (yes, I know, it’s been floating about on the internet for some time already) and there is no doubt in my mind that the crazy keyboard sounds which drop at the 4:05 mark derive from a Casio Tone Bank keyboard. I have a personal attachment to the Tone Banks—there was one a CA-110 in the basement of my parents’ old home that I used to rock on until I blew out the speakers, and two years ago I purchased another to recapture some of that childhood joy (it’s on both of the USF releases, so feel free to insert your own nostalgia/man-child/chillwave joke here).

The Tone Banks are sort of goofy. They’re not as flexible as more complicated synths, and their presets all sound kind of ludicrous on their own. With a Tone Bank (at least the ones I’m familiar with), it would be near impossible to produce any of the rich, voluptuous synth sounds that are currently fashionable. Caribou manages to integrate the Tone Bank in “Odessa” pretty skillfully. The setting he’s using (“plunk extend” or maybe “twinkle echo,” if memory serves) doesn’t sound too eccentric or distracting in the overall mix. Who knows—I have a sneaking suspicion that the gorgeously distorted steel drum noises from the album-highpoint chorus to “Jamelia” might also be from a Tone Bank. It’s oddly comforting to know that even the silliest gear can continue to find a home in cutting edge music, long after the shelf-life of its factory settings have expired.

You can download “Odessa” here if you haven’t already, and Swim is set to drop on 4/20.