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animal collective

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Stream: Passenger Peru – “Heavy Drugs”

Passenger Peru
Brooklyn duo Passenger Peru are set to release their self-titled album on January 28th on cassette and digitally via Austin, Texas based label Fleeting Youth Records. Passenger Peru is the brain child of Justin Stivers, who combines his talents with virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Justin Gonzales to bring you a raw mix of cosmic shape-shifting tunes teetering on the brink of danceability. The album was written and recorded over the course of a year in native Brooklyn basements and tranquil locations in the foothills of the Alaskan wilderness. The album finds the duo “blending the tender and vulnerable song writing of Yo La Tengo with the aural colorings and production of Brian Wilson and the tribal noise freak-outs of early Animal Collective.” Stream the psychedelic noise pop track below, pick it up for free from Fleeting Youth Record’s Bandcamp and pre-order the forthcoming album.

Stream: Animal Collective – Centipede Hz

It was revealed earlier last week that Animal Collective would premier Centipede Hz today during Geology’s radio mix. Geology’s set featured songs supposedly given to Ben Allen as a reference during the mixing process of the album. After the hour-long set, fans were treated to the eleven tracks they were promised. For those of you that missed the monumental stream of Animal Collective’s 10th LP earlier today, you can still catch the stream of the here. Centipede Hz will be out September 4th; watch band member Geologist talk about the radio show and album below.

Animal Collective Announce New Album

Following last week’s unexpected release of “Honeycomb” and “Gotham”, Baltimore four-piece Animal Collective have announced, via a video on their website, that there will indeed be a brand new album this September through Domino. The album, which is a followup to 2009’s fantastic Merriweather Post Pavilion, will be titled Centipede Hz, and the band offers more hints about the tracklisting in the video. Listen to the two new songs below, or pre-order the Honeycomb/Gotham 7”  here. Stay tuned for more info on the album.

UPDATE: The album will be released September 3rd in UK/Europe and September 4th in North America. The words and phrases in the video have also been confirmed to be the tracklisting, which you can view below.

Centipede Hz Tracklist:

01 Moonjock
02 Today’s Supernatural
03 Rosie Oh
04 Applesauce
05 Wide Eyed
06 Father Time
07 New Town Burnout
08 Monkey Riches
09 Mercury Man
10 Pulleys
11 Amanita

Listen: Animal Collective – “Honeycomb” & “Gotham”

On June 26th, Animal Collective will officially release their new single “Honeycomb” / “Gotham” through Domino Records. Just today, the psychedelic four-piece announced their intentions to release the new two-song 7-inch and with it, a free stream of both songs, which you can check out below. If things go according to plan, we should expect to see a new full-length release later this year.

Panda Bear and Sonic Boom Perform On Fallon

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Noah Lennox, more famously known as Panda Bear of Animal Collective, made an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, performingTomboy‘s opening track “You Can Count On Me”. For someone who claims he is terrified of performing on stage, Noah seemed incredibly calm as he performed the song with Sonic Boom, complete with a stunning light show from ODDSAC director and Animal Collective imagist Danny Perez. Ooh, pretty!

Check it out below, via The Audio Perv.

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Review: Panda Bear – Tomboy

Panda Bear – Tomboy

Released: April 12, 2011
Label: Paw Tracks
Purchase: iTunes | Insound | Amazon

Most finely tuned machines are beheld without conscious awareness of the intricacies and technical attention that has been involved in their construction, and their users blissfully ignorant in their expectation of service. Only once exploded is it apparent that the functions these machines serve are enabled only through the purposeful arrangement of all component parts toward an intended function. We become conscious of the fact that these units, complete and unassuming, are the result of a multiplicity of tiny mechanisms interrelating, communicating, affecting one another to produce a wider experience that is elaborate in its execution but impressively focused in delivery. The next, subsequent, realization is that this construction took skill – immense skill – and most of us would be ill-equipped and unable to create anything like it.

In this regard, Noah Lennox’s (Panda Bear)Tomboy is the musical performance racer of finely tuned machines.

In today’s alternative music scene, experimental electronica albums are a dime a dozen – often eventuating to be, ironically, hackneyed in their pursuit of nuance and originality. Lennox, of Animal Collective renown, is no bandwagon-hopper. Over the last eleven years and eight releases he and his Animal Collective comrades have been trailblazers of trip exploring the frontier of freak, with a steady stream of Lennox solo work supplementing their catalogue with characteristically hazy, washed out experimental electronica under his moniker Panda Bear.

This is electronic music, but not in the typical sense. There are no massive, tacky bass drops in Tomboy – any crescendo is supported by lavishly layered samples and loops. There is an almost classical sensibility in Lennox’s approach to electronic music, perhaps telling of his childhood background in the cello and piano. New sounds are introduced in concordance with one another and with a long amplitude attack and as a result the tracks tend to feel painstakingly created rather than a cobbled together graduation leading to a single cheap thrill. Songs are dynamic; some tracks begin and end in completely polar genres (“Last Night at the Jetty” meanders through ambience and chamber pop on its transition to rambling freak-folk).

Tomboy is drenched in distortion. Fuzz soaks sharp, bold loops with a softness that subdues them. The use of reverb contains the album’s sound, envelops otherwise domineering musical aspects (the percussion in “You Can Count on Me”) and wraps them in a softness that consolidates into a single musical experience what is essentially a collection of competing loops. The album is also almost exclusively poly-phonic – rarely do we experience abate from swirling, pulsing noise, which lends to the uncommon moments when the fuzz is stripped back a striking sense of clarity.

Individual songs seem to have no message independent of the album, and derive their meaning from their function/position within the record. On an intra-track level the songs blend into one another, to the extent that during a prolonged listening session the ocean of fuzzy reverb makes to disguise the separate songs into a single cohesive experience.

There is a strangely accessible side to the record. Lennox barely alters his voice’s strained lilt throughout the album, the constancy of his vocals adding continuity between tracks – comforting in its familiarity as a friend would be in a foreign country. For listeners completely comfortable in the album’s intimidatingly unconventional sound, though, this fixed voice is occasionally mired by predictability and may stagnate by the end of Tomboy.

The album’s main shortcomings are interconnected with this same familiarity and constancy. While immediately a very rewarding and immersive album, there is little fundamental deviation between tracks (also between this record and Panda Bear’s back catalogue as a whole) and as a result it simply doesn’t stand up to repeated listens. It is an enjoyable, intricately detailed experience, but ultimately not a deep one.

Tomboy will not be Lennox’s magnum opus, nor is it genre-defying, but it is a stunningly complete album experience and proof that he is damn good at what he does best. And why shouldn’t he be? He’s clearly had enough practice.

8.5

Standout Tracks: “Afterburner” – the current popular favorite, and with good reason: a throbbing bass line and buckets of fuzz make for a track effortlessly laid-back and enjoyable.

New Panda Bear Single In March

Following the release of the “reworked” version of the song “Last Night At theJetty”,  Animal Collective member Panda Bear will be releasing a brand new single, “Surfer’s Hymn”, March 14th on Kompakt Records. Also on the single will be a remix of his song “Tomboy” by the producer Actress. Check out Kompakt’s description of the two songs below and make sure to order the single on their site in March (there will be no pre-order available).

Panda Bear’s new album, Tomboy, will be coming out April 12 via Paw Tracks.

“On March 14th, KOMPAKT is thoroughly honoured to release the final installment from ANIMAL COLLECTIVE’s Noah Lennox aka PANDA BEAR limited 7” series. This follows previous 7″es on his own PAW TRACKS label, as well as FATCAT and DOMINO as the build-up continues to his forthcoming full length TOMBOY on PAW TRACKS due out in April.

SURFER’S HYMN eases like the ocean crashing against the beach. In fact, Noah’s voice ebbs and flows in harmonious grace with a sample of that very sound while the blissful thump of a bass drum keeps the song together.

ACTRESS of Honest Jon’s fame makes a rare remix appearance with a take on the original – his signature tribal thump makes ease in what is the most straight laced dance floor stunner we’ve heard from him ever. Somewhere found between DJ KOZE and VILLALOBOS we are thoroughly floored with this remake.

As with the previous releases, Scott Mou (1/2 of Jane w/ Lennox and from Other Music) does an impeccable job creating the artwork for this release.

As with the previous 7″ releases this is a limited edition pressing and is destined to sell out so act be sure to act fast!!  Also, no physical promos will be available on this release.”

Animal Collective Announce US Dates

Animal Collective will be playing a short tour in California this April, leading up to Coachella. The band will also be playing a European tour in May after the AFP Festival.

The band will be playing a new set at these shows. Check out the tour dates below.

Tour Dates:

04-11 Arcata, CA – Kate Buchanan Room
04-12 Redway, CA – Mateel Community Center
04-13 San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
04-14 Big Sur, CA – Henry Miller Memorial Library
04-16 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
05-14 Minehead, England – All Tomorrow’s Parties
05-16 Eastbourne, England – Winter Gardens
05-17 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso
05-18 Brussels, Belgium – Les Nuit
05-19 Cologne, Germany – Electron
05-20 Berlin, Germany – Melt Wee
05-21 Warsaw, Poland – Stodola
05-22 Krakow, Poland – TBA
05-23 Vienna, Austria – Arena Vienna
05-24 Zagreb, Croatia – Pogon Jedinstvo
05-28 Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound Festival

Panda Bear Announces Album Release Date

Animal Collective founding member Panda Bear has announced that the release date for Tomboy, his highly anticipated followup to 2007’s Person Pitch, will be April 19th. The album will contain all the previous singles that had been released on vinyl in 2010 and unreleased material.

One Lucky Video

The music video for Animal Collective member Avey Tare‘s new song “Lucky 1” can be seen on his website.