Animal Collective - Here Comes the Indian

Ouch!

Wow!
This was suggested when I was looking for mellow campfire music.
I really got burned on this one!

Jeff October 30, 2008

dreck

I agree with randomcircle. Excellent soundtrack for a night terror: paralysed in a slick of molasses overrun with cockroaches and centipedes. Then you spot the train headlight... July 16, 2008

The undying rhythms of the parabola battalion

I thought it was a good album.
I dont know how tribal music actually sounded- but i am convinced that the awkward white boys who listen to the animal collective would jam something like this, if they were displaced a good 3,500 years into the past.
(of course St. Anthonys Fire was there)

A unique achievement, atleast ive never dug anything like it. Patterns of dischord so organic, you can almost smell nitrogenous fungi breathing in the leaf litter.
And its episodic, too. Its a bit like being at an amusement park, on a riverboat ride that takes you through this living play. The river that takes you through the play never changes, but every listen through induces a new fiction- the play is constantly metabolizing, throwing off flames of pink and green abandon. So it doesnt get boring.

But dont take my word for it im impartial;
my mind has been destroyed by hallucinagens, and aleatoric music is the only kind i relate to anymore. May 28, 2008

Hate to say this,but.....

I LOVE "Sung Tongs" and "Feels".......but I hate to say it.....this goes "nowhere" and doesn't touch those other two releases in that it has no "songs" per-say,just avant-squiggles that noodle along with no aim.

I was very disappointed in this after hearing those other two,and if there are more releases of this type in their catalog,I'd like to know which ones they are so I may avoid them.

This is avant garde experimentalism with no "hooks",aggravating sounds,and I wouldn't even think there would be any reason to ever listen to it more than once for the "experience" of just saying that you've heard it. A "Metal Machine Music" for the 2000's. Some may love this,.....but it really just grates. August 18, 2007

Dance, dance

About halfway through the first song of "Here Comes the Indian," it becomes pretty obvious just where the name comes from -- it takes on the form of a psychedelic tribal chant.

Animal Collective was only just using that name when they put out this eerie collection of experimental music, which sounds a lot like some sort of ancient ritual captured on tape. Sights, sounds and smells are all evoked by sound alone, and while it's not very accessible, it is entrancing if you're open-minded (or stoned).

It opens with "Native Belle," which begins with an almost inaudible tapping. A wavering violin joins in, along with the sound of voices murmuring so softly that they merge into a white-noise hum. Then the song begins. Stops. Begins again, as a clashing, swirling mass of eerie voices, wild rhythms and mad drumming.

After that, the band explores other kinds of experimental music -- rapid-fire drumming that ends with soft chants and handclapping, stately buzzing soundscapes bursting with odd noises, and the sound of howling, ghostly voices over a heavy wash of synth. The perfect Halloween song.

"Two Sails on a Sound" is deeply unnerving with its dark piano and nature noises, which make you feel like you're adrift on a dangerous river. It ends with a clashing tribal-rock number overlaid with distorted voices, and finally with the buzzing, shifting balladry of "Too Soon," which blossoms out into a bizarre hallucinatory sound.

Well, "Here Comes the Indian" is not a bounce-your-bottom-while-you-drive kind of album. The Animal Collective had already done other experimental albums (under different names) by the time they put this out -- except this one has a cohesive theme.

Sit back and visualize fires, dark forests, fast-flowing rivers, cave paintings, and that wintry dawn sky. Fuzz guitar and tribal drums form the basis of this music, along with thick, gauzy synth that seems to muffle the music. And they pepper it with all sorts of sounds -- quacks, dripping water, crickets, and eerie vocals that never quite form words.

With a primitive catchiness and wild energy, "Here Comes the Indian" is a pretty vibrant experimental album. Just don't expect to be able to dance to it. October 23, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...