memory is a funny thing, and from last night's supper i realized it can be a fun thing too. one thing i distinctly remember about animal collective is the first song i ever heard from them a couple of years back. circadian had insisted i give them a listen, and so i did to the first track i could get my hands on, which turned out to be "slippi" from here comes the indian. it was like nothing i had ever heard before, a primal campfire screamfest whose indecipherable yelps expressed such an exuberant joy and stunning energy that proper words could never convey. and this song i now dedicate to tamara, who in her blog with indian love carried out a lovely project generously choosing songs for everyone who volunteered their names.

mp3: animal collective - slippi

But first I would like to say that for the better part of my day, I was crammed in close quarters with many people. Some of them were nice people who were fun to talk to, and were polite, and just wanted to see these bands perform and listen to their good music. However, at any concert, there are going to be jackasses. There are going to be tall people that stand in front of you and refuse to stop bobbing their heads, there is going to be a mosh pit to your left, and there is going to be someone smoking pot in your general vicinity. However, the Pitchfork Festival is a big event. There is bound to be a special breed of crowd there. That night we had a seemingly endless supply of jock assholes who refused any spot except as far to the front of the arena as they could get, and if it meant pushing people, it didn't matter. Some people like me and countless other people who I had fun talking with, even in close quarters, waited five hours for their spot up front for Animal Collective, only to be fucked out of it by people who just couldn't accept anything less than the front row. In fact, a guy who I was politely conversing with about Wilco ended up pushing me to the side after The Hold Steady left the stage, forcing me to spoon with him just so he could be in front of me. His neck obscured my view of a good portion of the Animal Collective set. In short, the better part of The Hold Steady Set and the hour before Animal Collective were miserable, because of these people.

These people were terrible. They were the worst part of my day. But although they were jackasses, they couldn't have ruined my day. I'm not going to give much more mention of them, at least not in great detail, because they really aren't worth it. I'm not going to remember the hipster jackasses ten years from now, but I will remember the performances of the day. Also, although these people were bad, I did make the choice to be so close up. I sacrificed my bodily comfort and the opportunity to be with my friends to be so close. Was it worth it? I don't know. I think it might have been. In any case, it was a learning experience.

And please, PLEASE, next time you are at a concert, exercise common courtesy. That is all.

I packed everything up that morning for the trip downtown. I did not bring a backpack like one of my smarter compatriots did. Instead I brought a raincoat. It might have been a good idea, because it did rain and the coat stopped me from being wet, but it also caused me to be very hot and was extra weight for me to hold in my hands for a lot of the latter part of the day. In any case, I packed light, and most of my things were in the coat. Wallet, phone, ticket, glasses case, Moleskine notebook, pen, inhaler, a single sealed water bottle, train schedule. I picked up a couple things along the way, namely the weekend train pass and a pair of sunglasses that I found at a thrift store. But for the most part, I was traveling light. I had breakfast with a friend in town in the early morning. Then, we went to the train station, met up with our other friends, and took the 10:18 train downtown. We arrived in Ogilvie Transportation Center around 11:30, and met up with some friends that were already downtown.

After walking towards Union Park, eating lunch, and doing a little light thrift store shopping, we arrived at our destination. Union Park is a very good place to have a festival. There were three stages, stages A, B, and C. Stage B was off at the opposite side of the park as A and C. I honestly never saw any bands play there because I just didn't know or care about any of the bands that were there. But stages A and C were the largest, and they were relatively close together. For this reason, the shows were scheduled so that one would start every hour on the hour at one of the two stages, and then that band would play for an hour while another band would set up at the other stage.

The first band we caught right as we got in the door on stage C was Caribou, whose specialty is long jam oriented guitar rock. This set was definitely a highlight of the day. The guitarists delivered some fun, happy, generally memorable shoegazey tunes. The most impressive parts of the set were the drum breaks. Dan Snaith is the mastermind of the live set, and he switches back and forth between guitar, drums, and synthesizers. The drummer was already impressive on his own, but when Snaith switched over to drums as well, the audience became quickly captivated in the massive rhythms. Especially memorable was a point in the set where all four band members were playing drums at the same time, one of them pulling out a lone cymbal, standing up, and bashing it will the full strength of his body. It was a rhythmic tour de force that is probably the greatest drum performance I have heard since Mike Portnoy's cacophony at the Dream Theater concert. Although Caribou seems to be known widely as an electronic act, this performance was quite organic. The songs were all psychedelic swirls of beautiful noise on bass and guitar, with the occasional hushed vocal before the drum explosions. All in all, this was quite a memorable set and it got the audience very excited.

After Caribou ended, we all trudged over to the Boost Mobile tent in the cool rain. The tent was decorated with birdcages containing fake birds that made fake bird noises, as well as mattresses and beanbag chairs surrounded by headphones with iPod Nano's. It was essentially a resting tent. Although I didn't realize it then, when I crashed on a beanbag chair somewhere on the edge of the tent and aired myself with a complimentary fan, it was to be the last time I would sit down for at least seven hours. After resting ourselves, we stood up and tried to find some friends near the Chipotle tent. I realized soon enough that I wasn't hungry and didn't want to distract myself from the festivities.

I broke off from the group and headed over to stage A, where The Fleet Foxes were playing. The crowd was pretty huge, but I nestled myself right next to the stage where I could not actually see the Fleet Foxes, but could hear them just fine and view their performance on the massive screens surrounding the park. The Fleet Foxes were actually quite good... A new folk band that prides themselves on strength in harmony rather than any particular tricks. Lead guitarist/vocalist Robin Pecknold was the focus of the show. At times, he was the only member of the band playing on a given song, and his ability shone out over the audience visibly as well as audibly. His voice almost reminds me of Jim James, and his guitar playing was quite earnest. Although I really only caught the last half of the set, it was well worth dropping in for. Before that Saturday, I had never even heard any of Caribou's or Fleet Foxes' music. These are two bands I am very thankful to have seen live, and I look forward to getting to know them further.

After Fleet Foxes ended their set to a warm applause, people started to leave the area, and I closed in. I ended up pretty damn close to the stage, maybe fifth row, in order to wait my turn for Vampire Weekend. I figured this is where I would stay indefinitely, until I felt like going to another stage, perhaps for !!!. But I was certainly not giving up this spot for Vampire Weekend. In the audience I met two lovely girls also from the suburbs who I shared some interests with. It should be known that for as many assholes as there were in that crowd, there were about as many nice people, but it's the jackasses that make themselves noticed. A black guy with a fauxhawk and his ugly girlfriend palmed a couple nice girls faces when the Vampire Weekend set started and wreaked havoc. I'm surprised security didn't pick him up. Anyway, Dizzee Rascal was playing his set while we waited an hour for Vampire Weekend. To be honest I really didn't pay attention. I like rap, but not really British grime rap. He seemed like a distraction to me.

And what do you know, Snowball was helping set up! Snowball is the guy with the bass in his hands here. He is the brother and professional groupie/sound dude of Blake Sennett of Rilo Kiley, whom I have seen twice. It was good to see him there.

When Vampire Weekend finally got on stage, the crowd response was pretty good. A lot of people like the band, even some of the jocks who were waiting for The Hold Steady. Vampire Weekend was by far the most debated set of the day among my group of friends. Some more positive notes from people like me were that they played very well and seemed to be enjoying themselves quite a bit. Despite the fact that they were far from a headliner or an album band, they did end up playing the full extent of their self titled debut, due to the fact that they don't have a hell of a lot else to play only having one album out at all. They did play a new song, and it sounded good. However, some people argued to the contrary. A couple friends thought they played sloppily, and that the homely charms of the album didn't quite translate effectively to the live set. Truth be told, what I enjoy most about the album is its understated production, and when playing live, they seem to cast these simplicities away for a more stadium friendly agenda. Which is fine, at least in my opinion. However, it takes some elements away from the album. For some reason, I always visualized the band having a violin and cello player on stage for the strings portion of M79, but the strings part was instead given to the keyboardist, who played half the notes instead of all of the notes on the solo. The song was also slowed down. Probably what makes it my favorite song on the album is its speed and high energy. At any rate, I thought that Vampire Weekend played well, and they were one of my favorite acts of the day. Simple yes, but also fun.

After Vampire Weekend got off the stage, more people started to leave, and I inched in once again. At this point I'm in the third or fourth row. It didn't occur to me that !!! were actually playing at stage C at this time. I decided I would rather wait at stage A until Animal Collective, even though I'm not really a big fan of The Hold Steady. It just seemed like a good place to stay. I don't know if this was the right decision, but it is what happened. !!! sounded like fun, although many people around me expressed their distaste at them. But then again of course they would, if they were choosing the Hold Steady over them. One of my good friends was there, and she said that they were really awesome. Even from far away and viewing them on the big screens, it seemed like whatever energy that was lost in translation for Vampire Weekend popped up there. There was clearly a ton of dancing going on both in the audience and on stage, and the band's presence was undeniable. I couldn't really hear them so well, but if they sound anything like they look, I'm excited to get to know their music.

After !!! left their stage, two hours of relative boredom commenced. The Hold Steady are a band with an appeal I can understand, but I found myself wondering when their set would end as soon as they started. Yes, their guitarist played quite well, and they write pretty catchy guitar rock, but their vocals and melodies are boring to me. Of course, I wouldn't have said this to anyone in the audience. I was right on the edge of the mosh pit, and it was filled with huge shirtless men who would have kicked my ass for questioning the unstoppable drunken masters of The Hold Steady. And the band did look wasted, but they didn't let their BAC bog them down. The band's riffing and lyrical rambling was what it is known to be, so although the act was not for me as a matter of taste, I can't deny that they played well and had fun doing it.

After The Hold Steady played their encore and finally left the stage, everyone's mind was on Animal Collective. This was when the crowd got downright miserable. Pretty much everyone had no room to breath as close up as I was. There were tons of rude people, but to my front and to my right there were a lot of nice people to talk with about the bands that day and their experiences on Friday. Time passed very slowly. Anticipation was high. The members of Animal Collective set up their elaborate stage while Jarvis Cocker played his set on stage C. I remember wondering why anyone would ever choose to see Jarvis Cocker instead of staking out a spot for Animal Collective. He did his shtick. He died on stage. Then he left to scattered clapping, then went back on for an encore. I'm not going to pretend to know his repertoire. I really don't. I had one Pulp album, and it was This Is Hardcore, and I liked it. But he just didn't have much live appeal to me. His band played with close to no enthusiasm whatsoever. At least he was quiet.

When he was done everyone cheered, less at him than at the concept that he was done, and that Animal Collective would now go on stage. And they did, immediately.

What I kept on telling everyone I talked to about the show after it ended was that I had never experienced anything like that in my life. And what I realize is that if I had experienced anything like that, that wasn't another Animal Collective show, they would have failed at their job. From the moment they walked on stage to the moment they walked off, the entire show was a sensory overload. Animal Collective's live set is pretty representative of Strawberry Jam's ideas. That is, crushingly loud, thick, and supersaturated with sound and light. I now have a bootleg of the show, but it doesn't seem to do the experience justice. Part of what made the show so striking was that I could barely even process what I was hearing, and when I could, it was confusing and scary. But also beautiful.

The band didn't even say anything before launching into a new song, the marching Chocolate Girl. It was with this song that the band laid down their plan for the rest of their set. Avey Tare stood in the middle, a bouncing spider monkey of all trades, at times taking to a soundboard, strumming an untrimmed guitar, drumming, and shrieking into his microphone. Panda Bear was on stage left, mostly keeping to his soundboard but occasionally drumming, his skinny legs swaying back and forth under the body of his sonic vehicle. The Geologist was on stage right, completely reserving himself to behind his soundboard, but possibly having the most energetic stage presence of the bunch. His head bobbed back and forth, a small head light tied to his forehead, making him look like some kind of overgrown, bearded Angler Fish.

Although I didn't recognize most of the songs (Animal Collective have a habit of playing mostly new songs at their shows), and although there is really no way of knowing who is doing what onstage when almost all or sometimes all of the members are doing their work on soundboards, I still had to ask myself how much of what went on onstage was improvised. Most of it seemed psychedelic and free form, but the coordination that the band exercised was impressive. Especially memorable was Avey Tare and Panda Bear's rhythmic vocal duet on House, as well as the sidestep of Fireworks Essploding. It was good to hear the wealth of new material, but I also had my fingers crossed for some of the crowd favorites such as Peacebone and Fireworks, and we got them both, as well as the beautiful cascading synthesizers found on #1 presented in Daily Routine.

Animal Collective's set was easily the night's most impressive performance, and I found myself the more emotionally affected by them than any of the other artists. I am very glad I saw them, and it seemed like they brought out the best of the audience. They were scary, confusing, and beautiful all at once, but I don't really think my words can do the set complete justice, so I'll stop trying to describe it. I don't have any pictures of Animal Collective, unfortunately, because my phone was running out of juice and I knew I needed to contact my group of friends after the show, and I did not want to jeopardize my chances of not being in contact with them afterwards, so I shut my phone off during the show.

So anyway, that was the Pitchfork festival. Quite an experience. I am very glad I went, and glad that I saw all of the bands that I did. I imagine that Lollapalooza will be a similar experience, but more extreme and long. Well, I'll worry about that as the week progresses.

Me and some other friends also saw The Hush Sound on Sunday, which was also a nice experience. It felt much more toned down than Pitchfork in the sense that it was much more subdued and small. It was at the House of Blues. Most of the crowd consisted of pudgy, preppy, prepubescent girls and oh so cool, emo, prepubescent boys. Yes, The Hush Sound attract a crowd that is somewhat below them, but that is alright. No one in the crowd really got in my way, because they were all pretty short. A relatively tall girl pushed in front of me once, but I coughed on the back of her neck for a while until I got tired of that, after which I sidestepped into a better position to see the band and talk with one of my lady friends who I spent most of the show with.

The opening bands were so horribly, painfully emo. The first band was called The Morning Light.

Okay.

Ready?

You see? They just kind of fade out. They were pretty ghastly. My friend thought the keyboardist was kind of cute, but then he talked into the microphone and revealed to the audience that his testicles clearly hadn't left his body yet, and she subsequently found him a little less cute. Their focal point was their extremely physically expressive drummer who reminded some of us of Lanky Kong. Their singer's voice was very annoying. The other opening band was called The Cab. They were also very emo, but they were a little better than The Morning Light. The band chilled, the rest of the audience bounced, and we chillbounced.

The Hush Sound themselves actually played very well. They played all of their popular songs (Honey!), plus a couple slightly more obscure ones (Wine Red!), to make a very well rounded set. They did not offer much different than their albums do, but they seemed to have a lot of fun up there, and they got the audience involved. The only complaint I had was that the guitarist really needed to turn his volume up. But beyond that, The Hush Sound are a great band and have already made their new album one of the best of 2008 simply because of its superb songwriting, with no other gimmicks. Honestly, that's how they succeed. From writing great, catchy tunes. You owe it to yourselves to hear these. They played the hits, and did a couple interesting things, particularly a cover of The Beatles' Back In The U.S.S.R., and another retro 50s type of song where the members of the band switched instruments. But really, the reason that I saw the show was to hear their songs that I love so much. I love the Hush Sound, and I am very glad my girlfriend got me interested in them and made them so personally important to me. That and the fact that I had a great time with my friends at the show is more than good enough for me.

Yes, quite a musical weekend indeed. Very good times. I expect to have lots more of these as I get older. With even more chillbouncing.

With that early June heat wave monstrosity finally dissipated, we can all think straight and should carefully proceed to take a look at the latest musical offerings gracing the sunny season’s fine airwaves. This summer is certainly not much more interesting or exciting than previous summers, but it is not completely disappointing either: while your regular assortment of tonal foul-ups are available at your local music store, there are a few sparkling exceptions that once in a while might actually make it onto your MP3 player’s play list. Every aficionado should be aware of these few highlights, because believe it or not, if you stop playing the Beach Boys for all your friends, life will go on. Play these during your community Obama barbeque, or on your way to the Mass, and you’ll likely get some nods from that coworker who never cared about your opinion, or from that significant other who has hated your taste in music since the second date, or from that potential greater-than-friend who has been waiting to be pushed over the edge by way of aural ecstasy.

For those of you out there who like to get your groove on in as many ways as possible, check out Girl Talk’s third major release, the long-awaited Feed the Animals. DJ Gregg Gillis, the man who is Girl Talk, has outdone himself this time, trumping his last spectacular mash-up mix Night Ripper with a new selection of party lubricating hits. A handful of the countless artists Gillis has sampled include Nine Inch Nails, Kelly Clarkson, Birdman, Lil Wayne, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Queen. If you can imagine the most magically schizophrenic dance beat sequence melded into the backdrop of spitfire melodies and rearranged vocals, then you can start practicing your dance moves. If you can’t, download the album for free on Illegal Art and start taking notes. Your future as a party host depends on it.

If you want to ride with your top down (or your windows cranked into the lowest position they can physically go), you should start looking into the latest mainstream hip hop that has graced (see dictionary.com for A) defiled, and B) evolution) our wonderful nation. From the Dirty South, aforementioned Lil Wayne has released his newest full length, the eccentric Tha Carter 3. Many refer to Weezy as the most popular American hip hop artist, and with C3 rivaling Kanye West’s Graduation from last year, as well as the album going platinum within a week (even though it was leaked on the Internet a week before hitting the shelves!), it is hard to deny that our culture is obsessed with including Wayne on the bill. The question you have to ask yourself is “why?” I’m sure many were surprised that Lil Wayne’s newest is his strangest. The album features songs where Lil Wayne’s rasping (though enticingly nonsensical) voice spits about being a Martian from Outer Space, being attracted to and having sex with a female police officer, and being a hip hop doctor who is trained in saving emcees from poor flow. If he and a million other people think he is the greatest rapper alive, maybe it’s something you should check out. You can come to your own conclusions.

If you’re interested in other hip hop directions, Bun B’s new II Trill is a long compilation of club tracks that perfect the mainstream misogynistic gangsta attitude. Even as a poor white kid I can feel the money being shoved in my hand and the girls taking their clothes off as I turn up the bass boost on my Creative Zen and accelerate my Kia Sephia to forty miles an hour. While most contemporary southern rap is interchangeable, one track that might change your mind is the innovative “Swang On Em,” which features Chicago’s Lupe Fiasco melding his Chi-town ferocity with southern spice.

If you enjoy the more traditional rap that harkens back to the old school days through the focus of intelligent word play and intricate beats, check out Prolyphic’s new full-length release from Strange Famous, The Ugly Truth. “Survive Another Winter” (featuring slam poet and comedian Bernard Dolan, as well as hip hop legend Sage Francis, and California’s Alias) will probably fire up your morality with some philosophic jaw-clenching.

Interested in laying around on some romantic beach so you can catch some rays, groove to some music, and contribute absolutely nothing to society? Who doesn’t? If chilling is your idea of a good time, then Youth Novels, the debut album from Swedish group Lykke Li will impress. The album starts off through a strangely obscure poetic chant backed by a mysterious beat; the second song, “Dance Dance Dance,” is probably the most accessible and directly entertaining, as the female singer provides a nascent assortment of memorably unforgiving child-like glee. From there on, the songs melt into one another, from one groove to the next, becoming just what you need to progress through that romance novel, or to write that love sonnet for your one-night-stand.

Similarly, you might check out Animal Collective’s smooth and aquatic Water Curses EP if you missed it from the end of spring. Probably my favorite Animal Collective release, Water Curses combines the new psycho-electro pop insanity of their latest LP, Strawberry Jam, with a throw-back to the more organic arrangements of their earlier work—something die-hard fans thought was lost. Key member, singer, and composer Avey Tare bubbles up a myriad of passionate only-half-insane verses with irregular pitch change and frantic rhythm. Even at its most active and strange moments, the EP dominates the pleasure centers of the ears. Bring it to the volleyball court and watch the other team fall apart in confusion.

For indie rock kids, the new Wolf Parade, the new Cloud Cult, and the new Spiritualized are albums that will be put on repeat. Unless you like the Grateful Dead, avoid the new Bonnie “Prince” Billy. The new Shy Child is great for fans of Justice and LCD Soundsytem. Fleet Foxes and Shearwater hit the folk and folk-rock off without any hitches, and the new Erykah Badu will please R & B fans. Nine Inch Nails now have their newest album on the Internet for free, so if you’re a fan of new stuff and old stuff, it would be a mistake to not entertain that album.

Hopefully Dan Deacon and Of Montreal’s new disks will be out before the weather turns cold again. And hopefully I will have more to say about some harder stuff. The biggest problem is hearing the new Disturbed on the radio and realizing that the band has not changed at all in several years. Plus I am distracted by all those new Guns ‘n’ Roses leaks. But maybe the hot weather will make me angry enough to go back to some serious metal, for a change. Look for those insights, some more record reviews, a Fourth of July special, and some comments on the present-day importance of some older albums throughout the next few weeks—and Christ, please branch out and listen to something new for a change. I’ll see you on the streets of Newport, or on the Wood—that’s Wood Street in Bristol, if you didn’t know. Peace.

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June Tabor
Apples ••••
Topic

An artist who can never be accused of prettifying the darker aspects of folk music is June Tabor. Like Eddi Reader, Tabor has profitably mined the rich seams of traditional and contemporary song over the years, and has recorded her fair share of Burns material; indeed, her new album Apples includes one Burns song, 'Speak Easy', in Tabor's words "an eloquent plea for tolerance and understanding". But, despite such similarities, the differences in Reader's and Tabor's styles are marked: while Reader embroiders her sound with generic folk accoutrements - acoustic guitars, fiddles, pipes - and some smooth poppy filigrees, Tabor has developed a minimalist ‘chamber-folk' approach - piano, viola, accordion, double bass - which sounds quite unlike that of any other contemporary folk artist and seems to draw from a deeper well. While Apples sees some (very) minor shifts in line-up - with violin/viola virtuoso Mark Emerson replacing Huw Warren on tremulous piano and Andy Cutting's fabulous accordion playing getting greater prominence - it continues the Tabor tradition of combining an excellent selection of material with exquisite musicianship that provides the perfect setting for her remarkable vocals.

Channelling both ‘Midnight On The Water' and Richard Thompson's ‘Waltzing For Dreamers' - and supplemented by a gorgeous Cutting tune titled ‘Miss Lindsay Barker' - Andy Shanks and Jim Russell's ‘The Dancing' makes for a stunning opener, a deeply evocative portrait of a Saturday night dance and the respite it offers after a hard week's work at the factory or mill. The Vaughan Williams-collected ‘The Old Garden Gate' mixes gentle pastoral with startling images of emotional torment, while Lester Simpson's ‘Standing In Line' builds a poignant World War I narrative from the image of a "half-empty washing line". Both ‘I Love My Love' and the celestial ‘The Rigs Of Rye' play out tricky tensions between familial duty and romantic opportunity.

Two excellent French-language tracks - ‘Au Logis De Mon Pére' and ‘Ce Fu En Mai' - are good value, as is ‘Soldier's Three', on which Tabor, accompanied by Cutting's biting accordion, sounds positively murderous. But people are inclined to forget how much fun Tabor can be, and for proof witness her gleeful delivery on ‘The Auld Beggarman'. Still, there's no denying that love-gone-wrong remains her favourite theme, as a devastating interpretation of Patrick Galvin's ‘My Love Came To Dublin' attests. Christopher Somerville's haunting ‘Send Us A Quiet Night' - a sailor's plea for gentle weather - brings the album to a graceful close.

Approaching her 60th year, Tabor just gets more powerful; there's not a moment on Apples when you feel that she's skating over the meaning of a lyric or is less than fully committed to communicating the emotion of a song. The mixture of cool detachment and burning passion that defines her style is extraordinarily compelling. It's a genuine shame that her wonderful music has been somewhat overlooked in the rush to excavate the work of obscure 1970s folk singers with just a couple of albums between them. Apples is not a smooth or easy record, but it's a starkly beautiful, endlessly rewarding one that grows richer with each listen.

Alex Ramon

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Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan
Pullhair Rubeye •••
Paw Tracks

Love may be the inspiration behind more music than can ever be measured, but records made by married couples have something of a chequered history. For every Birkin and Gainsbourg there's a Lennon and Ono, proving somehow that the intensity of feeling that binds two people together isn't the same as that which makes for 45 minutes of listenable music. So, given that Avey Tare and Kría Brekkan (otherwise known as Dave Portner of Animal Collective and Kristín Anna Valtýsdottír formerly of Múm) dreamed up Pullhair Rubeye shortly after their nuptials, is the outcome a ‘Je T'Aime (Moi Non Plus)' or something rather less lovable? The answer is probably a bit of both.

Much of the publicity surrounding the album has centred on the couple's bizarre last minute decision to reverse the original songs and speed a few of them up, apparently inspired by David Lynch's 'Inland Empire'. Those who don't approve of such whimsy look away now because Pullhair Rubeye is very much the product of two musicians speaking a private, lovers' language. This is a sonically dense and inward-looking record that eschews anything so conventional as hooks and the foot-stomping psychedelia that marks out Animal Collective's back catalogue in favour of a sense of twisted domesticity. Throughout these eight tracks recorded in their practice space in Brooklyn, Tare's skittering guitar converses with Brekkan's more hesitant piano as sometimes whispered, occasionally squeaky vocals bubble over the top.

The result, when it's right, is compelling. Tare's plaintive voice and Brekkan's simple arpeggios make ‘Opís Helpus' and ‘Was Ónaíp' hypnotic and affecting. Elsewhere, ‘Who Wellses In My Hoff', in which guitar and piano and husband and wife indulge in a kind of musical pillow talk, succeeds in being simple and intricate at the same time. It's a shame the same couldn't be said of ‘Palenka' and ‘Sasong', which can only be described as a questionable attempt at crossing New Weird America with Alvin & The Chipmunks.

The reversal of the original songs notwithstanding, Pullhair Rubeye teeters on the wacky side of odd. Yet it also showcases the talents of two musicians who, when they apply enough self-discipline, make arresting work, particularly if you re-reverse the tracks (a tactic Tare himself has openly approved of; indeed, four of the re-reversed songs are currently streaming from the duo's MySpace). With this record, Tare and Brekkan make a valiant stab at becoming the psych revival's equivalent of Sonny and Cher. It's good, not great, but nonetheless holds the promise of better things to come.

Chris McCrudden

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Ruth Theodore
Worm Food ••••
River Rat

Ruth Theodore is confused, and a bit angry. People are "packaging and labelling and branding" everything in sight, mobile phones are constantly ringing in her ears, the world is on the fast track to "a new form of Hell" and meanwhile she's developing a rather nasty allergy. Petite and elfish, Theodore comes across like a righteous woodland spirit writing love songs to trees and railing against the modern mayhem. Her debut album Worm Food is in part a polemic against our miserable capitalist lifestyles, and part a celebration of old school romanticism. Often it's difficult to tell where one part ends and the other begins.

A rising star of London's acoustic singer-songwriter scene, Theodore is abundantly talented and, seen live, utterly astounding. She picks away at her six-string at an unbelievable speed, never missing a note, and manages some pretty amazing feats with her voice at the same time. Her lyrics are funny and charming; her music stylistically varied and often surprising. I've got a little EP of hers somewhere, but I never thought it captured the brilliance of her live performance and lost it somewhere in my disappointment. Worm Food does much better justice to Theodore's talent. The recording quality is miles ahead of those homemade demos; you can pick every note out of the gentle but persistent flow. The album's all-acoustic nature is a fine reflection of her obvious dissatisfaction with the modern world. The styles she experiments with are diverse: some are fun, like ‘Overexpanding's Spanish-style guitars and the accordion-punctuated, sailor song-like parts of ‘Grounded' and ‘CO2'. Rash is surprising by the sheer fury and dirtiness Theodore is able to whip up without the help of effects pedals and lashings of distortion. Other tracks are quiet and gentle affairs, perfectly sweet and beautiful songs about love.

Theodore's voice is distinctive, a very English sounding voice, that sits somewhere between song and speech. It is soft and quite low, but also makes a casual display of hitting all the high notes of ‘Grounded'. Indeed the entire album seems almost effortless. She makes it sound as if making music of this quality is the easiest thing in the world. Perhaps for her it is. The lyrics, though peculiarly phrased, match those familiar thoughts that we have every day, thoughts about love and life and how shit things can be. Her themes, as I said before, cross over in unexpected places. ‘Rash' and ‘Overexpanding' are clearly songs of protest, but ‘Grounded', which initially sounds like a love song, seems to be asking why people can't just get along with each other. The title track and ‘Home' might be about either, take your pick.

If this album has a flaw it would not be with the music but the content. One might consider the overarching theme of 'look at what a mess our world is in' to be a bit preachy - we don't need our faces rubbed in it all of the time. But maybe that's exactly the problem that Theodore is singing about - the ease with which we turn a blind and irritable eye away from the problems we are faced with. Personally, I'm just pleased to finally have a recording that does this wonderful songwriter justice. Worm Food is an essential collection for anyone with a social conscience, all the while enchanting and amusing and causing the listener to fall head over heels for its fey creator.

Hugh Armitage

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Priya Thomas
You & Me Against The World Baby ••••
Irl

You & Me Against The World Baby may be the first domestic release from Canadian noisenik Priya Thomas, but it's actually her fourth album in 10 years back home. Things get off to a rocky start, in both senses of the word, with opener ‘Anything I Want I Can Get Me Some', a track so generic that you'll likely be convinced that you've heard it before. As loud and raucous as it is formulaic, it may well prove to be something of a live favourite, but here it is fairly forgettable. Fortunately you can do just that if you so desire as the rest of the album reveals a great deal more imagination and talent. That much is clear from just the opening refrains of the deranged and brilliant ‘Motherfucking West', which, radio-unfriendly title aside, makes for the perfect choice for her first UK single.

Though she rarely strays far from the realms of rock, Thomas demonstrates a far greater range than that particular pigeonhole might at first imply. Her songs are full of enough hooks, melodies and crashing guitar riffs to keep other acts going for several albums. Moving through the trashy sleaze of ‘She Said (Why Were We Born)' to the pretty pop rock ballad of the title track, Thomas makes damned sure we know what she can do. Perhaps that's what that first track is all about, almost as if she were saying "sure, I can do this rock-by-numbers stuff if that's what you want, but wouldn't you rather have this?"

Wears The Trousers, for one, most certainly would, and with a follow-up album touted for release in the autumn, we won't have to wait long to see where she's headed.

Scott Millar

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Linda Thompson
Versatile Heart ••••
Universal Classics

Despite the persistence of the vocal problems which have made both studio recording and live performance a recurrent challenge over the years (and that throughout the ‘90s seemed to have curtailed her career altogether), Linda Thompson has kept herself remarkably busy since the release of her long-awaited and well-received comeback album, Fashionably Late. Guest spots on records by son Teddy Thompson and Rufus Wainwright and appearances at live shows, including the Leonard Cohen 'Came So Far For Beauty' tribute concerts and her own evenings of homage to the Music Hall tradition, have allowed Thompson to build on the momentum created by Fashionably Late and to forge a solo identity distinct from her work with ex-husband Richard on the classic albums they made together in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. The excellent Versatile Heart continues her heartening creative renaissance.

In mood, tone and the warmth of its acoustic trappings, the new album feels very much like a companion piece to the last, and continues the strongly collaborative ethos established by its predecessor. Martha Wainwright, accordionist John Kirkpatrick, and Martin and Eliza Carthy all make appearances, alongside Thompson's daughter Kamila, and, most prominently, son Teddy, who contributes vocals and guitar work and gets co-writing credits across the album. Combining original material with songs by Tom Waits and Rufus Wainwright, and book-ended by two gentle instrumentals entitled 'Stay Bright' (a statement of intent if ever there was one), the album feels all of a piece: the songs are united by the palpable love and respect of the players and by Thompson's own deliciously sepulchral tones.

The delightful title track begins with Kate Rusby-esque brass and moves into a spry acoustic strum that's immediately inviting. "Will you write me a letter of recommendation?" Thompson inquires of an unworthy lover. "Say what you think, but please don't stint on the praise." The line encapsulates the disarming mixture of emotional candour and dry wit that characterises her songwriter and that of Teddy's. Their lyrics teem with direct but delicately delivered emotional insights. "Nothing's worth the holding if you can't let go," she muses on ‘The Way I Love You', a stately ballad that pivots on the narrator's recognition of her own neediness - "Father, brother, son's too much for any man to do" - and benefits from Martha Wainwright's lovely harmonies. Other originals such as ‘Blue & Gold, Give Me A Sad Song' (penned with long-time collaborator Betsy Cook) and ‘Go Home' are carefully crafted, boasting strong melodies and yielding more and more on each listen, while ‘Do Your Best For Rock 'N Roll' - which commences with the wry command "Take me to a bar and leave me there to die" - adds a pleasing dose of country twang to the proceedings. The tense ‘Nice Cars', written by Kamila (who also contributes fine harmonies), finds the narrator trapped in a broken down vehicle that may or may not stand for a stalled relationship. "Ladies shouldn't drive nice cars," Thompson intones. "They're only gonna break our hearts."

Two particularly memorable tracks demonstrate Thompson's special skills of interpretation. Plaintive strings usher in the elegant, Rufus-penned ‘Beauty', a bespoke composition that offers a timely disquisition on the title concept, with Thompson wondering "Beauty, what is your face? / what has it given the human race? / all that it has given me is a longing for / pople and things I could never afford." Halfway through the song, Antony Hegarty (who must surely have broken some record or other for the sheer number of guest appearances in the past year) shows up to add his ubiquitous quavering contribution, one that, unfortunately, is already in danger of beginning to sound somewhat phoned-in. It doesn't help that his cameo occurs on what is arguably the song's weakest lyrical moment, as Wainwright's writing breaks the mood of reflection with some jarring references to Oscar Wilde and Michael Jackson. Nonetheless, the song remains one of the most immediately striking tracks on the album. Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's ‘Day After Tomorrow' also gets an arresting reading; the song is a heart-wrenching letter home from an American soldier fighting in an unspecified foreign war and beautifully juxtaposes the protagonist's loss of faith in the conflict with nostalgic memories of hometown routine, and his anticipation of homecoming. Thompson's spare interpretation gives the song the quality of an ancient prayer.

Despite the formidable art-rock credentials of much of the company she's keeping here, Thompson is certainly unafraid of showing her folk roots, as evidenced by the "fiddle-da-day" flourishes on her biting rendition of the traditional ‘Katie Cruel' and especially by the original number ‘Whisky, Bob Copper & Me', a beautiful homage to English folk traditions that namechecks not only the Brit-folk patriarch of the title but also revival luminaries Shirley Collins and Davey Graham. Here (unlike on ‘Beauty') the name-dropping sounds easy and natural, and as the unmistakable voice of Eliza Carthy swoops in on one of the verses, a host of English traditions seem to come full circle. It's a sublimely warm and moving moment, one of many on a very fine record. Ultimately, though, it's the sound of Thompson's own voice, with its lovely, sincere, grave quality and subtle expressive power, that makes Versatile Heart such a compelling and enjoyable album.

Alex Ramon

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Tracey Thorn
Out Of The Woods •••½
Virgin

Change is as good as a rest, right? Hold that thought.

Those of us not afraid to admit to being of a certain generation have been subject to a glut of nostalgia-pricking TV over the last couple of years; think day-glo clad lads messing about on boats in glossy videos, Casio keyboards and message t-shirts. Where the goggle-box goes, the rest of the world usually follows, so welcome back into the musical fold our Tracey, 50% of Everything But The Girl and the voice that lit up a thousand college bedsits with her solo debut A Distant Shore in 1982. Sterling work with Mr Watt, guest spots with Massive Attack and Deep Dish and three children later, and we have...well, we have a follow-up that could have been written in 1983.

Granted, the production values are better and the stories imbued with the additional spice of experience, but bless her, Ms Thorn has taken her own baton seamlessly and provided us with a 44-minute wallow in yesterday. On first listen I scribbled down the following: "Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Eurythmics, Alison Moyet (when she was Alf), sunrise chords from Ibiza circa '84" - a heady mix and a roll call anyone would be justly proud of. Make no mistake, the sound is derivative for those of us who were 'there', but we wouldn't have it any other way because the music is excellent, the lyrics playful and poignant, and a voice that sounds like coming home to familiar faces after an extended business trip.

Name-dropping Siouxsie Sioux and Edwin Starr, laced with quintessentially English melancholy and pulsating dance beats, Out Of The Woods gets better as it progresses through the attics of Thorn's mind. The single ‘It's All True' is fleeting, all tinny synth (Trevor) horns and a clever, Kraftwerk-lite dance video that drives the simple message home. ‘Hands Up To The Ceiling' is a beautiful shout out to the music of her youth. The opening piano run on ‘Easy', reminiscent of Ultravox, blurs swiftly into a couplet Thorn delivers with such restrained anguish you want to make her cocoa: "I love the way you breathe / I hate the day you leave / it's easy to forget / we haven't even started yet".

The highlights are kept almost 'til last in ‘Grand Canyon' and ‘By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down & Wept'. The former will have you attempting to throw shapes on the living room floor to the stomping beat and mantra "...everybody loves you here"; the latter, all the more delicious for its song title (surely a contender for best of 2007), is 2:27 of break-up song that's both knowing and innocent at the same time. Finally, on closer ‘Raise The Roof', when Thorn sings "all of those years I wasted / sitting on my own," I'm not sure who she thinks she's fooling; she's been busy alright, and the results are an early contender for the soundtrack to the summer.

Paul Woodgate

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Holly Throsby
Under The Town •••½
Woo Me!

Sydney-based singer-songwriter Holly Throsby's second album Under The Town is very much a companion piece to her debut, last year's spare and beguiling On Night. Produced, like its predecessor, by Tony Dupe, the record once again places Throsby's hushed, breathy, intimate vocals in a sympathetic acoustic setting, with guitar, dashes of piano, fiddles and a few jazzy touches fleshing out the sound. Even so, Under The Town is a somewhat more consistent and confident album and one that should see Throsby's star continue to rise on the alt-folk circuit.

Throsby's songs remain suggestive, delicate and fragmentary; sketches rather than portraits, they allow the listener to fill in the gaps. As with On Night, the tracks are conjured from a palette of recurrent images, allusions and word-sounds. There are lots of cups, lots of animals (dogs and birds are back, joined by rabbits, horses and deer this time), lots of references to youth and winter, as well as quite a bit of driving. But where On Night's songs tended to blur into one another, these tracks develop distinctive personalities more rapidly and linger longer in the mind. The title track continues where The Be Good Tanyas left off with a song about dead dogs, opening with the image of an "old hound sleep[ing] in the ground".

‘Making A Fire' transports the listener to a wintery location where "the wind and the woods are warring" but companionship offers respite: "I'm here and you're here / We're here!". Indeed, relationships remain the principal thematic focus and Throsby's songs find reasons for both hope and despair in the interactions between lovers, family and friends. The piano-led ‘On Longing' is an emotionally complex apology to a lover, while ‘Come Visit' entertains speculations about the possible outcomes of an invitation before recognising that "maybe you won't come visit at all". Elsewhere, ‘Swing On' accepts both the universality of romantic disappointment and the ability to overcome it, while ‘The Shoulders & Bends' equates a relationship with the danger, uncertainty and excitement of driving at night. These songs feel slight at times but retain a hypnotic quality and grow in stature with each play.

Throsby can be precious, and, at worst, there's a somewhat random quality to her imagery, as well as a notable self-consciousness. At her best, though, she can write songs that resemble little journeys with unforeseen twists and turns in the road. Her music has a deceptive gentleness, lulling you into a reverie before pulling you up sharply with a surprising image: when she describes "a new love" as being "as warm as a gun / or a knife that I fell on" (on the excellent ‘What Becomes Of Us') you realise just how powerful she can be. Such moments make Under The Town an album worthy of attention, particularly for fans of her debut.

Alex Ramon 

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KT Tunstall
Drastic Fantastic •••
Relentless

'Star' is the word that springs to mind when first clocking the cover to KT Tunstall's new album Drastic Fantastic. Framed like a classical interpretation of a constellation, with her face in profile, Tunstall brandishes a mirrored guitar with the same purpose a warrior might hold a sword. For an artist with four million sales under her belt (not to mention a Grammy nomination and a Brits nod in triplicate) such posturing can be forgiven. But does the follow-up to the leviathan Eye To The Telescope justify this confidence? Anyone seeking songs that live up to the anthemic bliss of her Patti Smith tribute ‘Suddenly I See' won't find them in the album's rockier tracks, although lead single ‘Hold On' comes closest to this buoyant joy. The most memorable moments on Drastic Fantastic are provided by the ballads and the straight-up pop songs.

In the enviable position of enjoying both critical and commercial success, Tunstall is best known for a pop-rock hybrid that recalls Sheryl Crow, and this is never more apparent than on ‘Little Favour', which kicks off the album with strident guitars and a snarling vocal pertaining to a feral love. The pace is slackened only slightly for ‘If Only', a break-up song from the point of view of an empowered victim on which the excellent backing band, particularly the backing vocals, and an inspired and obtuse melody disguise the slightly lacklustre lyrics: "If only you could see me now / if only you could hear me now / if only it was only me now".

Given her involvement with the Fence collective alongside artists such as King Creosote, James Yorkston and Lone Pigeon, and the decidedly folkish lyric of ‘Black Horse & The Cherry Tree', the breakthrough single from her debut, it's a surprise that ‘White Bird' is the only folk-tinged number on this album. Despite being fairly pleasantly delivered, it smacks a little of contractual fulfilment to satisfy those punters who might stick with her simply because of her folk connections and credentials. A particularly affecting inclusion is ‘Funnyman', a touching, amusing and poignant song written about her friend Gordon Anderson (Lone Pigeon, The Aliens) and his fight with mental illness/demonic possession. This truly heartfelt song is one of the signs that Tunstall has more to her than other mega-selling artists of recent years, balancing perfectly her black humour and concern.

Elsewhere, the songs stick very closely to the credible pop standard, with ‘Saving Face's "I'm all out of luck / I'm all out of faith... / losing my memory, saving my face" in particular bringing to mind Natalie Imbruglia's Torn. Then there's ‘I Don't Want You Now', which could easily be a poor Pretenders number, while ‘Someday Soon' sounds for all the world like a dusted-off Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians track. The meandering ‘Beauty Of Sound' recalls the chart-friendly end of Tori Amos or recent PJ Harvey, but once again sounds like a calculated attempt to satisfy yet another subgroup of her potential audience. The standout tracks are those where Tunstall find her own voice, as she does on ‘Hold On'. ‘Hopeless' is a jaunty pop number pitched somewhere between Aimee Mann and Chrissie Hynde, which is no bad place to be (although not quite as good as that sounds), while the closer ‘Paper Aeroplane', is perhaps the best track of the album: a radio-friendly, idiosyncratic and touching ballad.

Tunstall continues to stand astride the Radio 1 and 2 playlists - the pillars of UK music output - like a Scottish colossus, and in the US these tracks should provide the perfect accompaniment to teen break-ups in California and tough medical decisions in Seattle. Gargantuan sales for Drastic Fantastic seem guaranteed. However, for all its accomplishment and polished pop-rock, the album sits too comfortably among the mainstream, occasionally slipping into trite pop conventions and anodyne lyrical construction. Someone with Tunstall's background, knowledge and charm can surely do better. Perhaps next time she will not play it so safe.

Peter Hayward

Eric Copeland is a member of Black Dice, works with Animal Collective's own Avey Tare in Terrestrial Tones, and is an overall noise pioneer of epic proportions. Signed to the ever-so-incestuous Paw Tracks label, Copeland met most of his band-mates in Providence, Rhode Island while studying at the Rhode Island School Of Design. He and his cronies frequently play at art museums and have released Gore, a book that effortlessly translates their complex sound into images. Unfortunately, it is out of print.

Copeland's solo album Hermaphrodite is quite similar to Black Dice's sound, presenting droned-out, abstract soundscapes and a penchant for blurring the lines between electronic and psychedelic. With all of the emerging noise bands and artists these days, Copeland and crew are too legit to be overlooked.

[audio http://sq.txdnl.com/mwt/t/o/e/t/toetaps/playlists/187020/1511124.mp3]

Eric Copeland - Green Burrito [MP3] [Insound]

[audio http://sq.txdnl.com/mwt/t/o/e/t/toetaps/playlists/187020/1511129.mp3]

Black Dice - Bottom Feeder [MP3] [Insound]

Mais revenons plutôt sur les morceaux joués l'an dernier, qui sont précisément le sujet de ce texte... En effet, ces nouvelles compositions, qui s'orientent globalement dans une tonalité beaucoup plus électronique (ce qui n'est pas étonnant, puisque sans Deakin, les concerts du groupe l'an dernier ne comprenaient presque que des instruments électroniques, à l'exception d'une batterie et, de temps en temps, d'une guitare) et planante que précédemment. D'une manière générale, je pense pouvoir dire que ces morceaux se rapprochent beaucoup plus de la période Feels que de la période Strawberry Jam, puisqu'on y retrouve donc ce côté planant, mais aussi un travail intéressant sur les harmonies vocales, Panda Bear chantant désormais beaucoup plus. Tous ces morceaux sont vraiment excellents, et l'on peut déjà dire qu'Animal Collective a de quoi signer à nouveau un grand album avec des compositions de cette qualité.

Quelques notes plus détaillées sur les chansons elles-mêmes:

Dancer: centré autour d'une mélodie de synthé hypnotique, c'est certainement l'un des titres les plus "classiques" parmi ces nouvelles compos. Il n'en reste cependant pas moins excellent, la splendide ligne de chant y étant pour quelque chose. Très calme globalement (même si une percussion discrète vient instaurer une certaine tension) et superbe au passage, en particulier lorsqu'un synthé plus psychédélique vient s'ajouter à partir du moment où Avey chante " He said sometimes I guess I have to miss my wife.".

Grace: construite en deux parties (elle est d'ailleurs généralement séparée en deux pistes sur les enregistrements de concerts), cette chanson est très étonnante. Elle débute de façon très ambiante, autour d'une sonorité irréelle et d'un chant contemplatif, puis un riff de flûte de pan fait son apparition de façon totalement imprévue, et le morceau prend une autre couleur, beaucoup plus rythmée, avec un chant qui s'envole soudainement. Très surprenant donc, et encore une fois très réussi.

Brother Sport: parmi ces morceaux, un de mes préférés. C'est surement le plus rythmé de tous, il commence directement avec un rythme electro assez rapide, sur lequel viennent peu à peu se superposer des couches de sons cristalins. Peu à peu la mélodie se met en place, et finalement une double partie chant assurée à la fois par Avey Tare et Panda Bear, assez semblable dans le style à celle de Chores par exemple, dans le genre tribal. Cette première partie s'achève dans un déluge de cris hystériques de la part d'Avey Tare, pour laisser la place à une seconde section, plus posée bien que toujours plus tendue que la plupart de ces autres morceaux, dans la mesure où une mélodie de synthé plus marquée y fait son apparition. Le chant est toujours double, les deux chanteurs assurant d'ailleurs un tour de passe-passe assez remarquable (pendant que l'un chante une partie aigue, le second chante une partie plus grave, puis les deux intervertissent à chaque phrase).

Daily Routine: autre morceau très posé, qui tourne autour d'une mélodie très proche de celle du très expérimental #1. Après une courte introduction, Panda Bear vient placer sa voix en alternance avec cette mélodie, surplombant un accompagnement ambient splendide. Absolument magnifique, Daily Routine est également l'un des meilleurs morceaux de ces sets...

Nomorerunnin': ce morceau calme et lancinant rappelle par sa forme le splendide Safer (face B du single Peacebone). Très intimiste, il est basé sur une mélodie de piano simple mais belle, et du chant très lyrique cette fois-ci d'Avey Tare. Il est accompagné à partir du premier refrain (uniquement composé de la phrase No More Runnin') par Panda Bear, qui fait des harmonies vocales ou reprend ses phrases comme un écho. Calme et splendide.

Bearhug: comme Brother Sport, l'une des chansons plus rythmées de ces compositions. Un peu dans le même style que Peacebone, il est construit sur une mélodie hypnotique de synthé, et un chant calme dans les couplets et beaucoup plus enlevé pendant les refrains ("I want to walk around with you!"). Au bout d'un moment cependant, le morceau prend une tournure inatendue, le chant se faisant tribal (comme dans Brother Sport), ce qui donne lieu ensuite à une interruption, puis finalement à un nouveau couplet chanté de façon plus aigue et intense.

House: certainement le morceau le plus épique et progressif de toutes ces nouvelles compositions. Il commence très calmement, des éléments s'additionnant petit à petit. La voix se met en place progressivement également, puis au bout d'un temps, des percussions de plus intenses apparaissent. Le chant finit par varier et laisser place à une section à nouveau plus calme, laissant entendre clairement le duo magnifique Avey Tare / Panda Bear, décidément plus présent dans ces compositions qu'auparavant.

The Dreamer: le chant se fait à nouveau la part belle sur ce morceau, puisqu'il est presque uniquement accompagné d'un rythme de batterie constant et rapide, ainsi que d'une partie ambiante très discrète. On peut donc dire que tout repose sur la voix d'Avey Tare, le morceau évoluant au gré de ses différentes intonations, plus retenues ou relachées selon les passages. Ce morceau se rapproche vraiment, un peu comme We Tigers même si les deux morceaux n'ont rien à voir entre eux, d'une cérémonie tribale, en particulier à cause de la rythmique hypnotique qui constitue l'arrière-plan sonore.

Song For Ariel: assez différent des autres morceaux, Song For Ariel est constitué d'une mélodie presque folk répétitive, d'un rythme syncopé et haletant très marqué, et encore une fois d'un travail impressionant sur la voix. Le tout est très déstructuré puisque entrecoupé de silences durant toute la première partie du morceau. Lorsque ces silences s'achèvent, le morceau prend en revanche une allure de transe, tout semblant soudain s'y répéter en écho, et le tout devenant de plus en plus irréel au fur et à mesure que de nouveaux sons toujours plus incroyables viennent se superposer, dans une sorte de crescendo frénétique. Le morceau finit par retomber sur ses pattes en retrouvant la partie déstructurée du départ, avant de finalement repartir dans une transe expérimentale. L'ensemble est complètement fascinant.

Taste: ce morceau semble être le prolongement logique de Song For Ariel. Il débute sur des sonorités similaires à celles de ce dernier morceau qui se métamorphosent vite en une mélodie rappelant celle de Dancer With Flowers In Her Hair, sans réelle introduction puisque la voix apparait anormalement tôt. Tout au long de la chanson, très minimaliste une fois de plus, un son indescriptible montant en fréquence vient ponctuer les paroles des deux chanteurs, ce qui donne à Taste une connotation vraiment expérimentale - largement confirmée dans la version enregistrée récemment pour les Concerts à Emporter!

Je pense avoir fait le tour de ces nouvelles compositions... Il faut noter également que le groupe jouait également l'an passé des versions réactualisées d'anciens morceaux, comme un We Tigers au tempo très accéléré, un Leaf House dont la mélodie a été radicalement modifiée, un Peacebone à la rythmique plus déstructurée, un Fireworks mixé avec Essplode ou encore un Who Could Win A Rabbit complètement remanié.
Ces nouveaux morceaux laissent donc vraiment supposer le meilleur concernant l'album à venir, et on peut déjà parier qu'Animal Collective se fera à nouveau une place de choix parmi les disques de 2008... A suivre de près!

De nombreux lives de 2007 sont en écoute sur Archive.org

Lorsque David Portner, plus connu sous le pseudonyme Avey Tare, chanteur d'Animal Collective, et sa femme Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, désormais nommée Kría Brekkan, membre du groupe islandais Múm, ont commencé à jouer des concerts en duo, en 2005/2006, leurs chansons folk en ont intéressé plus d'un. Lors de leurs morceaux en session pour Planet Claire en particulier, les vidéos révèlent leur complicité, même si les morceaux présentés sont en fait des compositions d'Animal Collective. Les concerts révélant les nouvelles compositions du duo crééent une certaine attente autour du duo prometteur.

Oui mais voilà, ces gens là ne font jamais rien comme les autres. Et alors que tout le monde s'attend à un album de pop/folk, le duo annonce en interview que les morceaux de l'album ont tous été enregistrés, puis inversés - trois morceaux de l'album ont aussi été accélérés. D'autres groupes ont bien sur déjà publié des morceaux inversés par le passé, mais un album complet passé à l'envers, c'est beaucoup plus rare. Dès lors, Pullhair Rubeye - c'est son nom - devient très controversé et lors de sa sortie la confusion règne: les gens ne savent pas s'ils doivent le juger tel qu'il est présenté ou au vu des morceaux réels. Les critiques du disque sont très mitigées, certains le jugent très bon mais la plupart des critiques sont très sévères: 1.0/10 sur Pitchfork Media par exemple!

Pour ma part, je trouve que ce disque ne sonne en rien prétentieux, austère, et, à l'écoute, on en vient même à oublier le "concept" de l'œuvre. Les morceaux sonnent au final très fluides et présentent des charmes évidents. Le folk des compositions originales se retrouve métamorphosé en ambient planant dans ce monde inversé. Les instruments deviennent méconnaissables (il y a apparemment un piano, mais il est honnêtement difficile de le distinguer...), et les voix déjà très étranges d'Avey et Kría semblent, à l'envers, venir d'une autre dimension. Et en dépit de cela, ces compositions ne sonnent vraiment pas "froides", elles véhiculent même des émotions. La mélancolie est très présente tout au long du disque, et les voix sonnant parfois de façon désuète (en particulier sur les morceaux accélérés, comme Seasong) laissent au final un côté très nostalgique. Sans compter que certains morceaux se révèlent tout simplement magnifiques:  Sis Around The Sandmill, par exemple, avec sa mélodie hypnotique, est absolument géniale, Was Onaip est un chef-d'œuvre de la musique ambiente; sur Opis Helpus, le chant d'Avey se fait presque lyrique. Les vagues créées par inversion des sons deviennent complètement lancinantes, en particulier sur Lay Lay Off, Faselam et Sis Around The Sandmill (sans doute le meilleur morceau du disque).Tout a l'air très calme, les morceaux accélérés ne contredisent même pas cette impression, puisque malgré leur tempo logiquement plus élevé que sur les autres morceaux, le climat y reste très  paisible.

Le fait que l'album ne dure que 33 minutes permet d'éviter toute lassitude (entendre systèmatiquement une note commencer par sa descente puis finir par son attaque aurait de quoi ennuyer sur un album d'une heure...): ce Pullhair Rubeye se révèle au final être un disque touchant et beaucoup moins inaudible qu'on ne pourrait le penser. C'est probablement le genre de disque que l'on adore ou déteste, personnellement mon avis est largement positif... A écouter, au moins pour se faire une idée!

Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan - Pullhair Rubeye (Paw Tracks, 2007)

1. Sis Around The Sandmill
2. Opis Helpus
3. Foetus No-Man
4. Who Wellsses In My Hoff
5. Lay Lay Off, Faselam
6. Palenka
7. Seasong
8. Was Onaip

 Ecouter Sis Around The Sandmill sur Pitchfork Media

O casamento de Avey Tare (dos Animal Collective) e Kría Brekkan (ex-Múm) deu um fruto em 2007 - um estranho fruto chamado “Pullhair Rubeye”.

Esta dupla americano-islandesa já tinha “Pullhair Rubeye” pronto, quando depois de ver “Inland Empire”, o último filme de David Lynch, lhes deu uma súbita inspiração artística e decidiram brincar com o álbum, invertendo todas músicas (a tocar de trás para a frente) e mudando mesmo a velocidade em algumas delas. E como se isso não bastasse, a ideia agradou-lhes de tal forma, que decidiram que essa seria a versão que iria ser editada em disco. O que Avey Tare e a sua mulher queriam, era provocar uma reacção nas pessoas, que as obrigasse a agir, que não se limitassem a ouvir o disco, mas que ficassem com vontade (ou não, daí haver escolha) de mudar algo na forma de o ouvir. Para mais explicações, está aqui um texto que o Avey Tare pôs num fórum dos Animal Collective.

Portanto, do álbum, tal como ele é vendido nas lojas não há muito a dizer – são 37 minutos de música ao contrário. Ou seja, quem quiser ouvir, o que realmente tem valor neste álbum, terá de pegar no disco e num editor de áudio e meter mãos à obra – para quem não for muito virado para estas coisas, a melhor solução será procurar a papinha toda feita pronta a ser ouvida, que se encontra para download nos sítios do costume.

E indo agora para o que interessa – o que esperar deste álbum? “Pullhair Rubeye” é algo heterogéneo, mas resumindo, pode-se ouvir freak folk dada a menos experimentalismos do que Avey Tare nos tem habituado com a sua banda; também estão presentes algumas guitarras bonitas, como por exemplo em Palenka. Em Opís Helpus ouvem-se os Animal Collective com um piano inicial muito ao estilo das CocoRosie – uma grande música, esta. Lay Lay Off, Faselam é o momento mais pop (uma palavra sempre algo subjectiva) do álbum. Sasong é uma excelente canção – um dos pontos altos de “Pullhair Rubeye”.

Músicas em reverse à parte, foi uma boa estreia de Avey Tare e Kría Brekkan a trabalhar em conjunto. São oito músicas bem interessantes, onde foram explorados novos caminhos por parte destes dois músicos.

FPL 9000

We hope you’ll forgive us our folly, but the trouble with Animal Collective is that they’re a tough bunch to pigeonhole. Yes there’s an obvious Beach Boys influence -- but when did the Wilson brothers ever try to sound like wildcats going gaga in the mating season? You could also make comparisons with any of the band’s peers from the Brooklyn noise scene, but how canbe considered “noise”? As for freakfolk, get out – this is music for leopards, not pixies!

Whatever they are, Animal Collective sure do put on a pretty good spread, skilfully hopping around jarring indie rock, sweet folk pop, tribal chants and electronic noise. Their studiedly freeform approach suggests, as their name implies, a band of musical ferals, untainted by the concepts of traditional Western songwriting. In these Tarzan-like guises, they are the sole purveyors of the mythical jungle from which they emerged; where the physics of pop music are skewed by a naïve stream of consciousness. And while this may seem alien to some, the music remains very much of this planet. More quaint nursery rhymes to the Serengeti plain, and less lullabies from outer space.

Song lyrics are babbled and cooed incomprehensibly; words jumping out to form vague Crayola impressions in the back of the mind while tom and conga drums rain down cats and dogs. And all the while there’s still a diamond of a song to be found nestling in the rough, but you’ll have to find it first and that’s half the fun.

2003’s ‘Campfire Songs’ was recorded entirely on minidisc on the band’s back porch, marrying gentle acoustic guitar drones to poignant vocal mantras about dead pets and car accidents. In the same year they put out another album, ‘Here Comes The Indian’, a visceral slice of processed noise, piercing feedback and primal yelps. The tribal folk of 2004’s ‘Sung Tongs’ followed with two band members in temporary absentia, but that didn’t stop it breaking through to lovers of leftfield pop as well as hardened noiseheads. Animal Collective’s last album, 2005’s ‘Feels’, saw the band collating their many styles to produce a modern psychedelic classic with a glossier sheen than before.

With such an eclectic back catalogue, the promise of a new record brings new curiosity. Would ‘Strawberry Jam’ be another stylistic leap, or would they continue in the way of ‘Feels’ by merging their influences?

Today, the group sound very much at peace with their oeuvre. No longer the fledgling experimenters, they’re now veterans of their game, seeming keen to blend their myriad styles into a succinct whole. While this was also the mission statement on ‘Feels’ they still sounded slightly uncomfortable when earnestly searching for a unified sound. Today they have grown into their clothes, effortlessly compounding their many inspirations into a thickly spread compote.

It’s fitting to learn that many of the band members are now rearing young families. The band is shown, in the video for standout track ‘Fireworks’ (released on 4th July, no less), grinning away defiantly on a superimposed night sky. Here we see four one-time indie chancers ready to embrace the future while still proud of their experimental past. This bold stance is reflected by singer Avey Tare whose vocals, though forever unintelligible, are placed further to the front of the mix rather than peeking out from behind the curtains as before. The track itself is six minutes of joyous psychedelic squalls and deceptively complicated call-and-response vocal acrobatics courtesy of co-vocalist Panda Bear.

Sometime band member and electronic soundsmith, Geologist, makes a welcome return with many songs appearing to be the outcome of extended improvisations over repetitive loops of noise. Opening track and first single, ‘Peacebone’ starts with an eruption of granular static that morphs skilfully into a big bouncy beast of a tune. As your ears try to adjust to the erratic drum patterns and abstract lyricism (something about a happy dinosaur, we reckon), an almighty middle-eighth of unexpected screaming bursts in and knocks you off your feet. It’s made clear from the outset that even if ‘Strawberry Jam’ is an attempt at a rounder sound, it’s still not going to soundtrack too many dinner parties.

‘Unsolved Mysteries’, takes a one-song fag break from the crazed hardcore hoo-hah, for an acoustic led hurdy-gurdy song about parenthood. But of course, this being Animal Collective, it soon descends into a hubbub of underwater burbles and a lyric that references Jack the Ripper. Later we’re treated to a chugging epic on ‘For Reverend Green’, backed by a formidable vocal performance peppered with the now familiar screams and howls.

Sadly, and despite its overall aplomb, hardened fans may still find the melting pot of styles to be perhaps a little watered down compared to previous releases. It’s not that this is any less challenging to the listener than any of Animal Collective’s other excursions, but there’s still a fear of the band becoming maybe a little too comfortable with the sound they are pursuing. Could it be that they have finally hit their zenith? That if they continue in this way they might lose the spark that made them so unique in the first place? By recapping on previous styles, much as they did on ‘Feels’, they are in danger of bringing less and less to the table on future recordings. Still, this is all down to speculation and who can predict what twists and turns are to be expected next time round? Judging from the diversity of the various EPs, collaborations and solo projects released in the last two years, it’s clear that Animal Collective won’t be ready to settle into a fixed groove any time soon.

Apparently the highly anticipated album Pullhair Rubeye by Animal Collective members Avey Tare and Kria Brekkan, has leaked online... in reverse. Many assumed that the first single, "Sis around the sandmill," was going to be the only song that would be reversed on the album. Now that the entire album has surfaced in reverse form, everyone is up in arms speculating if it's just Avey Tare and Kria Brekkan playing tricks on the leak happy online scene or if it's actually been leaked in its final form. I guess we will all find out soon enough, but either way I think it is sounding interesting...