Humour is something of a rare currency in music these
days, even more so when it comes to experimental music.
It seems as if a serious record has to be… well,
serious. How can someone be taken seriously if they
appear to have fun? Brooklyn-based Animal Collective
don’t take themselves seriously, and care even
less about what people think, and this allows them to
inject anything they want into their music, especially
humour, giving a truly unique touch to their already
unique style.
Founding members Avey Tare (vocals, guitars) and Panda
Bear (vocals, drums) have been friends for over ten
years, but Animal Collective effectively took shape
in 2000 when they started recording together. Their
first album, Spirit
They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished,
released that same year on their own label, went largely
unnoticed but had TimeOut NY describing them as ‘the
discovery of the year’. Their second album,
Danse Manatee,
published on Catsup Plate less than a year later, saw
new member Geologist (Brian Weitz), bringing some live
electronics and incidental vocals to the pair’s
mix of experimental folk/pop, with Deaken joining the
bands for live performances later on. It is as a quartet
that Animal Collective recorded Campfire
Songs and Here
Comes The Indian, both released in 2003, on
Catsup Plate and Carpark Records’ sister label
Paw Tracks respectively. While Here
Comes The Indian was developing on the structures
of the band’s electronic/noise/songs of its predecessor,
Campfire Songs
was recorded live in rural Maryland in a screened porch
on three MiniDisc players, revealing the fragile nature
of the band’s work in all its glory. Animal Collective
is not a stable structure by any means, and although
the band is officially formed of four people, their
live performances and recordings can feature any number
of members at any one time.
Sung Tongs was recorded in a house in Maryland
by Avey Tare and Panda Bear, and very much lifts off
where Here Comes
The Indian ended. Drawing inspiration on anything
from The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, Syd Barrett,
Gilberto Gil or The Incredible String Band, the pair
manages to produce once again a totally unique and precious
collection of offbeat pop. Perhaps more accessible than
its predecessor, at least in parts, Sung Tongs
is anything but a departure for Animal Collective. Yet,
their music remains as exiting and fresh as ever. With
myriads of incidental sounds, from street noises to
broken conversations and field recordings providing
background atmospherics, the pair’s songs are
intensely organic and alive while the stunningly focused
and direct melodies contribute to make Sung Tongs both
challenging and approachable.
The pair’s sonic experimentations take all sorts
of shapes on here, from the psychedelia of the superb
Who Could Win A Rabbit, Winter Love
or College to the drones of the epic Visiting
Friends and the incantations of Kids On Holiday
or the delicate acoustic pop of The Softest Voice.
Animal Collective have got a knack for taking their
influences and shaping them into something that is only
found in the band’s work. This album might not
go much further than its predecessors, but Tare and
Panda Bear are so good at doing what they do that it
doesn’t matter the least. Always unpredictable
and fiercely eccentric, Avey Tare and Panda Bear continue
to build on their previous work to present a record
that is, once again, totally unique.
4.8/5 |
