Animal Collective
Here Comes The Indian

This debut work by Animal Collective requires some preliminary clarifications. It is not an easily consumable product; rather, it is an album of extreme experimentalism, devoid of the slightest compromise or the desire to please the listener. It has nothing to do with the dreamy folk of Sung Tongs nor with the psychedelic quirky-pop of the latest Feels. It has nothing to do with the very concept of a song. There is not a single song on this record, only a series of abstract sounds/compositions that evoke states of mind. This does not mean that the work is chaotic; attentive listening reveals a well-defined inner journey in which moments of harmonic peace alternate with moments of unease bordering on panic.

Nature is the unifying relational term of the album. A nature far removed from the domesticated one we find in everyday life, a nature that regains its original power and thus awakens immediate, basic, primordial feelings in the person experiencing it: fear, joy, peace, ecstasy, terror, the allure of the unknown. Perhaps with a cinematic comparison, we might say it is nature as a primordial force, a source of pure energy found in Werner Herzog's films. "Here Comes The Indian" should be conceived as a journey within this world. Or as a soundtrack for a never-realized ethno-musical documentary.

If we want to find musical points of reference, we might look for echoes of the more daring and experimental elements of Krautrock, certain aspects of Can and Faust, for example. The same eagerness to take risks, to dare, to cross new frontiers is apparent. Delving specifically, note the opening track "Native Belle," a piece that comes closest to the song format but immediately dissolves it into a delirium of false starts, distorted voices, and cacophonies (never annoying, though). One of the album's high points is reached with "Two Sails On A Sound," a disturbing crescendo of piano chimes accompanied by a theory of sounds and noises that conjures an atmosphere of suspended and prolonged tension. "Here Comes The Indian" produces evocative, imaginative music, truly transporting you to places far removed from the room where you happen to be listening, far from the CD player that has swallowed it. One of the work's merits lies in its ability to reveal an infinite care for details, in the search for sounds, in the attention to pauses and the assembly of compositions, details that emerge only when prejudices are set aside, patience is exercised, and one is open to adventure. An album not for everyone, therefore. But for the curious, yes!