Animal Collective — People Ep

This new ep from the always pushing the envelope Animal collective may on first few plays not sound that different from the last full length Feels and instrumental wise this maybe be true to a certain extent,  but sound wise it’s not. They seem to streached and pulled out and almost looped their sound, like odd erratic paintings by children, been unravelled down long corridors.

There’s defiantly an influence of modern classical air/ambeint here, take the title track which mergers Steve Reich like repeated and locked piano riffs, with ‘whip em along stage-coach’ rhythm and wavering wide open prairie almost country guitar work. Things get stranger as we get a group childern shouting the word people, ala Pink Floyds Another Brick in the wall, along with all manner of vocal noise from The Collective themselfs. It’s the little details and angles of sound that are important here, though the track seems locked in one places it’s growing and moving all the time in the small details of sound. Next is Tikwid with it’s just 'grown out of the toy box' music box piano, layers and twist of guitar and vocals, it feels bizarrely cute and strange, again not a lot seems to happen, but it’s the  shifting sonic details that are so rewarding. Last of the new tracks  is  my favourite colours, which merges the toy box alive vibe with country prairie guitar and all manner of melded and effect bent vocals, only lasting just over a minute it seems like it’s not sure if you should be happy or sad in it's refrain. It’s all toped off with a live version of People which feels slower and more ramshackle than the studio version, but never the less rewarding in its only rough and ready charm.

Again the Animal collective surprise, maybe not in the way one would expect, but that’s what makes them one of the most interesting and rewarding projects around today.