Responsible for two incredible albums released only
a few weeks apart from each other earlier this spring,
Animal Collective have, in the space of a few months,
become the undisputed revelation of the year. Now, willing
to share their passion for this unusual outfit after
witnessing them in the flesh last February in New York
and bringing them over for a few gig last spring, Fat-Cat
collect together the band’s first two release
on one handy double CD for a much-deserved proper European
release.
Formed in 2000 by guitarist Avey Tare and drummer Panda
Bear, who had met some eight years earlier in New York,
Animal Collective progressively expanded to include
Geologist, aka Brian Weitz, and finally Deaken. The
collective have since performed a number of highly rated
gigs across the US, with a formation ranging from just
one to the full band, and carved a distinctive sound,
rooted in everything from Syd Barrett and Love to Fennesz
and early Bowie. Twisting popular music to the extreme
by means of intricate melodies, drones and atonal outbursts,
Animal Collective experiment with sound in an almost
entirely new and unique way.
Released three years ago and recorded by Tare and Panda
Bear, Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve
Vanished appeared on the Collective’s own
imprint, Animal. Described by TimeOut NY as ‘the
discovery of the year’, this album offers an incredible
range of ambiences and sonic moods. Based around Tare’s
erratic guitar style and Panda Bear’s often-cataclysmic
drumming, the songs are embroidered with strange electronics
and beautiful sweeping piano lines, curling around Panda
Bear’s vocals. From the strident interferences
of the title track, which opens the album, to the deceptively
simple pop melodies of Chocolate Girl and Everyone
Whistling, they assemble forever more complex and
fragile melodic structures. Panda Bear’s vocal
contributions are equally as intricate and diverse.
At times almost whispering in the background, at others
screaming, his inputs are continuously unexpected and
disconcerting, but provide a strangely consistent element
to the ambience of the entire piece of work. There is
an air of false naivety running through this collection
of songs, perfectly captured in the closing moments
of Alvin Row when the warped sample of a child’s
voice (obviously taken from some TV program of some
sort) is heard saying ‘my singing voice is gone’.
By the time Danse Manatee was released, Brian
Weitz, aka Geologist, had been playing with Tare and
Panda Bear for a few months. Feeding on the energy of
their live performances to break away for the perfection
of studio work, Danse Manatee appears more
abstract than its predecessor. Still finely balancing
abrasive soundscapes, complex orchestrations and naïve
melodies, Animal Collective expand here their sonic
realm further, with Geologist providing live electronics
and incidental vocals. If the compositions are not as
stripped down and minimal as those heard on the recent
Campfire Songs,
the songs appear less straightforward than on Spirit…
as the band start to experiment with acoustic drones.
The uncompromising first couple of songs here are just
pure noise assemblages as any musical elements get relegated
to mere background effects. Things take a lighter tone
on the following songs. While Another White Singer
is based around percussive sounds, evoking a subdued
version of The Creatures, Essplode marks the
return of proper melodies, if slightly broken and corrupted.
Nothing is very straightforward with the Collective,
and the twelve songs on Danse Manatee are all
equally as disturbing and fresh.
Despite these two albums being somewhat rather different
from each other, the driving inspiration behind these
twenty-two songs remains entirely unique and consistent.
Spirit… seems to establish the band’s
generic sonic space while Danse Manatee shows
the collective making a step toward the more refined
ambiences of Campfire
Songs and Here
Comes The Indian. This outstanding collection
is by far one of the most exiting records released this
year.
4.8/5 |
