Fat Cat Rec.
Animal Collective : Feels (US,2005)**°°
In a more constant rhythmic mode than the earlier release we have here at first a bunch of songs, four in total, with rhythmic swimming pool-like fun enjoyment, with harmonised vocals which are slightly T-Rex like vocally with additional harmony arrangements. These vocals can be choir like, like children on a different level of enjoying themselves when the teacher in the class has his/her own degree of flipping. They also sometimes scream like crows like a percussive element. Here the music is like a collective train riding through a colour book landscape with all attention paid to the train energy, and keeping it song orientated in expression, with some speediness, just for fun, as a pretty enjoyable focused fantasy of music. Then the music calms down, with its own descriptiveness, and with more stagnant moods, which have throughout the following tracks some evolution in their own musical-creative process. Last track, “Turn Into Something”, is more rhythmical again and compromises both inspirations, resulting in a blurry ambient expression. The album is enjoyable, but some of the accidental built up elements are to some agree not equally convincing. The fun of the early tracks and spherical creativity elsewhere are somewhat contradictory, and gives it a less focused descriptiveness as the album could have had, if it was inspired less accidentally and more constructive intuition.
The songs had contributions from violinist and producer/arranger-master Eyvind Kang (Mr. Bungle / Sun City Girls / Arto Lindsay / Laurie Anderson / John Zorn / Secret Chiefs 3), and Kristín Anna Valtysdóttir (Múm / Storsveit Nix Noltes), who plays piano throughout.
