eternalintern

[eternalintern]

a brief word on the time skiffs tour

I recently had the chance to see Animal Collective perform on their Time Skiffs tour. The show was a profound experience for me. As a late-blooming Animal Collective fan I missed much of the zeitgeist surrounding their ascent to indie super-stardom, in a way I count myself as grateful for this because it allowed me to encounter the band divorced from any preconceptions or critical posture. What first started as an enthusiastic encounter with the loops and dubs of Panda Bear’s solo work eventually evolved into a love affair with the band that he had come from. Hollinndagain and Feels quickly became main staples of my library.

These two albums encapsulate something about the AnCo ethos that I have found consistently seductive, though both occupy different ends of a spectrum. Hollinndagain, with its noisy and yelping improvisational tendency and Feels, with its rigorously composed pop swells are both testament to the ability the members of the band have to work off of the strong-suits that are built into their hardcode. The interplay between players on both of these projects, though distinct sonically, are similar and singular. When Animal Collective makes a song, they seek to have a conversation with themselves, they explore the potential of motifs and jams by setting up a firm foundation and expanding outward into new ideas. The band is often harmonious, but their true talent lies in juxtaposition and call-and-response communication.

I became a fan and advocate of AnCo at a perfect time, not only due to the aforementioned reasons but also due to the fact that I just barely anticipated the rollout for their most recent album, Time Skiffs. My first listen pulled me in and I spent much of it utterly transfixed. Songs like the lead single Prester John fascinated me to no avail. While the band had previously taken outings into more dub-adjacent territory, seeing them embrace their pop sensibility along with very forward dub inspiration was an exciting synthesis. Each song features a virtuosic display of AnCo’s penchant for snowballing song structures into magnificent crescendos; the careful interplay of instruments, the steady addition of new voices, the screaming interruptions and derailments all shine so much more when situated within the echoey, minimalist aether of a dub arrangement. The more I listened to the project, the more it revealed itself as one of the leanest, meanest, smartest AnCo projects to date.

Being able to see the album toured was an experience that I was very grateful for. The setlist was a mixture of hayday Animal Collective and new tracks with very creative interludes stringing multiple disparate tracks together. Part of what made the experience so special (and one that added a new dimension to my listening) was getting to witness the spirit of creative play unfold before my eyes. Seeing the members sing 3-part harmony over a synthesizer’s unceasing buzz, listening to gibberish screamed at the top of Tare’s lungs, watching the alchemy of new noises take place before me was the one element that had always been missing from my at-home MP3-listening. The show was a beautiful, moving display and easily one of the best concerts I have ever attended.

I encourage anyone, fan or otherwise, to attend one of these shows if it happens to come to a city near you.