Fall Be Kind [EP]

'Merriweather Post Pavillion' was released to much (deserved) fanfare earlier this year. The hype surrounding the record was so intense that it sometimes seemed like a struggle to see the forest through the trees. It brought the Animal Collective many new listeners who maybe took a while to warm to the record, but to long-standing fans such as myself, it was the truly beautiful moment when AC finally released their masterpeice and cemented their place in American culture.

So now we are 10 months later and to a much more restrained release, the collective dispatch with their latest EP. This should be considerd as a companion peice to MMP in much the same way that 'Water Curses' was to 'Strawberry Jam' in 2007. The EP opens with what is quite possibly the most beautiful 6 minutes of music this wonderful band have thus far commited to tape. Entitled 'Graze' it starts with a bunch of swirling strings and cellos, eventually comes the commanding voice of Dave Portner(Avey Tare) as he sings of 'letting the light in', 2 minutes in he is joined by Noah Lennox(Panda Bear) who is singing the most beautiful coda (it really does need to be heard), and finally the song collapses in on itself with drums and flutes competeing for supremecy. Follow-up track 'What Would I Want? Sky' will probably be the most talked about track on the disc, as it uses a sample of the Grateful Deads 'Unbroken Chain'. The use of the sample is inspired, as it swirls around the entire 7 minutes with Lennox and Portner joining at seemingly un-scripted intervals.

The opening 13 minutes of this EP are truly the work of a group at the height of inventivness and really on top of their game. But the remaining 3 tracks are nothing less than inspired with 'Bleed' showing signs that the band have'nt forgotten that some of their best work is when they are restrained. Final track 'I Think I Can' is also a highlight with Lennox singing 'Will I get to move on soon?', seemingly implying that this wonderful collective have plans to stretch their sound even furthur into outer-space.

Is this release better than MPP?, well probably not as a whole set (and the short, sub-30 minute length) but it is certainly a marvellous creation which should be heard by anyone with an interest in the group.

FALL BE KIND is simply amazing record. I've been A.C. fan for a while and I even went on a gig. When this record came out I didn't get it at all, and I didn't pay atention to it. Then one day I decided to buy FALL BE KIND LP among other music I bought on amazon.
I usually listen LP's before I went to sleep, such as MILES DAVIS, PAT METHENY and others. I take this time to re-think the day, or think about future . But when I listen FALL BE KIND, I forget all the stuff on my mind and focus on music. This record has that kind of pover and energy to took you places where you haven't been before, and that is amazing!

It's been a pretty wild year for the Animal Collective, introducing a new sound and a new album of experimental pop music. As a finishing touch to their latest efforts, they also turned out a new EP -- "Fall Be Kind" is a cascade of weird, wild and alluring musical journeys, but the second half is a bit of on the monotonous side. Not bad exactly, but not as intense as they're capable of being.

It starts off on a light note with "Graze," a silvery little melody that trembles and shimmers over the piano and guitar. At first it sounds like birds flying over a sylvan glade, only to slowly shift into a joyous, slightly loopy dance melody strung through with flutes. Or maybe it's panpipes. You can almost see the frolicking nymphs when you hear it.

"Why Would I Want Sky?" shifts into a darker sound, almost industrial at times. There's a stretch of blurred voices overlaid with weird noises and slow-moving riffs... which dissolves into a mournful, softer dirge, and finally shifts upward again with the sound of shimmering strings, and the repeated question, "What would I want sky? What would I want sky?"

These two songs are undoubtedly the high point of the entire album -- they're atmospheric without being heavy, and have plenty of weird eerie instrumentation that floats the listener away on a cloud. And while the first is a light, airy affair, it also segues into a darker and more contemplative melody -- it has the right mix of ambient eeriness and soaring pop melodies. No complaints here.

The problem is that after that, the next three songs sort of blur together, as if they're one big song split into three -- I wouldn't have minded "Bleeding," "On a Highway" and "I Think I Can" as one vast experimental song. But they all have much the same feel, relying on a grey ambient sound with lots of blurry echoing vocals and sharp percussions. None of them are actually bad, but sandwiched together they feel... very repetitive. I kept waiting for something new, and it never came.

One thing that cannot be faulted is Animal Collective's instrumental prowess -- they create dense swathes of beautifully atmospheric music, no matter what the mood. Instead they layer on heavy depths of synth, and twine it together with piano, a shimmering violin melody, slow-grinding basslines, a dancing flute melody, heavy spurts of guitar, and all sorts of percussion (from clattering drumsticks to clapping hands and stomping feet). Oh yes, and one of the songs actually has a licensed Grateful Dead sample... the first ever, apparently.

And Avey Tare's vocals almost serve as another instrument -- half the time I can't understand what the man is saying, but his shifting echoing voice slips through the music like a carp through murky water. And when you can hear him, he sounds incredibly earnest when he sings nonsensical-sounding phrases like "What would I want sky?" or "And I don't want/To keep myself/From good..."

"Fall Be Kind" opens with a brilliant duo of experimental pop songs, but slips into repetition in its second half. If that part had been spiced up, this would have been a spectacular EP.