Animal Collective
Danse Manatee

4
...according to our Clinton on 11 June 2009.

The Animal Collective are the new wierdo yanks they all want you to like. The general chit chat about this band has seen them linked with the likes of Caroliner and Sun City Girls. It sounds like neither but does have the strung out experimentation of both married with the type of stretched, skewed melodies you might hope Flaming Lips would do if they shaved off their beards and got back to making interesting left field music. Lots of glitches and noise but what sets this aside from the type of Black Dice sheer experimentation (yawn) is the use of  guitar, vocals and actual tunes. Its wildly experimental AND hummable. Something you don't get too much. Also it sounds pretty much (lazy references above excepted) like no-one. At last, forward thinking music in 2003. 2 LP's is maybe pushing it but if you've got time on your hands and want something the opposite of the bland please-like-me around in these torrid times then look no further. Spirit They're Gone/Danse Manatee is on Fat Cat

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What their label says...

Sophomore Animal Collective album, never before released on LP,
released here in special edition heavyweight DMM vinyl.

· ‘Danse Manatee’ was the first Animal Collective album to
feature now permanent member Geologist.
· This album is being re-released alongside three other Animal
Collective albums on FatCat: ‘Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit
They’ve Vanished’, ‘Sung Tongs’ and ‘Feels’.
· Their latest album ‘Merriweather Post Pavilion’ was
released this year on Domino Records and did exceptionally
well at press and radio.
· A ‘live’ sound permeates the surface audio aesthetic here, but
the more intriguing development is the music itself: Geologist
contributes live electronics and incidental vocals; Panda Bear
is singing more; the whole thing is more organic, fleshed out
and looser, whilst retaining the playful, melodic
otherworldliness that characterised their preceding album.
· “Call it post rock, psychedelia, prog pop, or whatever other
music category comes to mind, in the end, Animal Collective
creates melodies with their vocals or with their instruments
that are either accessible or challenging - sometimes both at
once - and moulds it all into tracks and albums with a spacey,
out of this world sound” – Popmatters.

Danse Manatee * Penguin Penguin *
Another White Singer (Little White Glove) * Essplode *
Meet The Light Child * Runnin The Round Ball * Bad Crumbs *
The Living Toys * Throwin The Round Ball * Ahhh Good Country *
Lablakely Dress * In The Singing Box