Animal Collective
Who Could Win A Rabbit

A Norman Records recommendation (3rd December 2006)

Cover art for Who Could Win A Rabbit by Animal Collective Description: rare 2 track promo CD on Fat Cat
Format: CD single
Condition: Used
Genre(s): Experimental Indie
Label: FatCat
Price:
£1.99
Availability: Sold out / currently unavailable. Sorry!

5Rating: 5
...according to our on 03 December 2006.

Another absolutely great 7" is by the gaffer's fave band of the moment Animal Collective. "Who Could Win A Rabbit" is the sound of a mad hatters folk club tripping out on the best quality peyote & mushrooms available whilst eating a huge sticky toffee cheesecake. Utterly bizarre & intoxicating not to mention virtually indescribable. The best track off the recent LP for me personally. The equally brilliant flip side is like a drugged up barber shop quartet chanting over a blissed out tribal backing that sounds like absolutely nothing else. Fascinating, original & catchy to boot. This is why the 3 of us get incensed at the amount of hopelessly average & bland, repetitive, going-nowhere music around these days. Why the fuck anyone in their right mind would opt for The Ordinary Boys over this I don't know but It's all down to individual taste I suppose. Treat yourself guys 'n' gals, to this extraordinary single. Record of the week, no messin'. On Fat Cat

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What their label says...

Animal Collective
Who Could Win A Rabbit

Animal Collective return with a new single taken from their highly acclaimed recent album, ‘Sung Tongs’. Released on 7” vinyl, ‘Who Could Win A Rabbit’ is backed with a brand new track exclusive to this release, ‘Baby Day’.

One of many stand-out tracks from ‘Sung Tongs’, ‘Who Could Win A Rabbit’ is a two and a half minute shot of twisted pop genius that drives along on chiming guitars, Brazilian rhythms, tribal chanting, tape loops, and sweet vocal harmonies. On the reverse, ‘Baby Day’ is a live favourite from the band’s recent tours, and in this version the song is stretched out across a punching drum pulse that recalls the minimalist post-techno of the Kompakt label. Around this, sparse guitar is interwoven with Avey and Panda’s harmonies announcing (in repetitive yet strangely cold, factual tones) a coming birth.

The single is also backed up with the band’s first ever video. Directed by their friend, Danny Perez, and featuring the band dressed in animal costumes, it is based around a quirky, colourful and somewhat skewed / morbid take on the tale of the tortoise and the hare.

Check out a high quality version here and a lower quality version is available here

In this incarnation, Animal Collective is again the duo of Avey tare and Panda Bear. Currently garnering widespread critical acclaim, ‘Sung Tongs’ is their most perfect, accessible work to date, a luscious flowering and flowing together of deeply catchy, hook-filled songs and intricately textured arrangements. Built around the core elements of the duo’s gorgeous vocal harmonies and twin acoustic guitar strumming, the album has been lovingly worked through the studio to provide a rich and fully expansive mix of stunning sonic depth, detail and placement, and emerging as a dazzling, bold and adventurous pop album. Diverse in its scope and yet fully coherent, the album moves from chiming acoustic guitar songs to gentler, more dispersed picked ballads, to sprawling, guitar-swell psychedelics, bubbling, acid-warped vocal fx, and tribal, almost shamanic trance-outs based around around looping vocals and hypnotic kick-pulses.