Animal Collective

Animal Collective are an experimental electronic/rock band from New York...

Animal Collective's Web Site

...Aside from working with sound in the traditional sense, as recording artists and live performers, Animal Collective take a unique approach to their place in music history and rock with their successful blending of musical and non-musical "sound" genres.

Their sound has ranged from the most unaccesable electronic noise to meditative atmospherics to straight-up rock to tribal chants. Their greatest achievement is not only their ability to hold such range, but to be able to maintain such diversity of form while keeping the Animal Collective signature sound.

Their newest LP, FEELS, comes, atleast in my own opinion, brings the band to a beautiful conclusion of all of their 7 LPs and so too its most appealing songs to the masses. Listen to samples at the Fat Cat Records site

"Their sound is everywhere and nowhere. Informed by the psychedelic freak-outs of 90s west coast isolationists like Caroliner and Sun City Girls, the emotional hooks and bursts of punk, the textures and structures of minimal techno (a la the Kompakt label), the earthiness of sixties utopians Amon Duul and Can, and the organic looseness of the best of the free and improvised music world, the Animal Collective simply cannot be pinned down.

The Animal Collective are creating the new spiritual music for the 21st century: music that is aware of tradition without being tied down to it; music unconcerned with borders and definitions. Here Comes the Indian promises transcendence, intensity, articulation, and the sublime. A passionate and mind-altering new narrative has been unleashed." -Car Park Records

Here is news about the album from some so called experts:

Exclusive: Animal Collective Discuss New Album

Rob Kleckner reports:

For most bands, it's simple: record an album, release the album, tour in support of the album. But if you've been to an Animal Collective show, you might not recognize many, if any, of the songs. That's because these guys work quickly. After Sung Tongs was released last year, the band had already begun work on a new album and were playing new tunes on the road. On their most recent run through North America, most of the material you heard was from their upcoming album. So if you've been up all night listening to the bootlegs, anticipating what the studio versions might sound like, you don't have to wait much longer.

Pitchfork recently spoke to Deaken and he gave us the goods on the new album, which is tentatively scheduled for release on October 11. This album, the sixth under the Animal Collective name, is titled Feels. Now fresh out of the mastering oven, the album was recorded in Seattle with Scott Colburn at Gravelvoice studios.

So what does it sound like? "We tend to shy away from trying to decide how people are gonna hear it," Deaken says. "Somebody said they thought people that really liked Spirit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished would like this one. Usually when people ask us that question, we say that anybody who has seen us live in the last year has a good idea of what it'll sound like."

As it stands, the album has nine tracks and clocks in at about 50 minutes. Deaken tells us, "We started writing songs for this album back in January of 2004. A lot of songs have been added or changed, but essentially we've been working on those songs any time we've gone on tour through 2004 and into 2005."

Whereas 2004's Sung Tongs was an Avey/Panda joint, and the Prospect Hummer EP featured everyone except Geologist, the lineup for this album is comprised of the original furry four: Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist, and Deaken. The collective has plans to tour Europe just after the album comes out, as well as a couple of U.S. shows around that time. A full U.S. tour is currently slated for early 2006.

In the meantime, they'll spend the summer separated for the most part, before grouping in the fall when they will begin preparing to play new material for the upcoming tour. Panda Bear is putting together an album of some material he's been working on over the past six or seven months. Avey Tare is focusing on his Black Dice-related side project, Terrestrial Tones.