Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hollinndagainaandagainandagain, 7 Nov 2006
Strictly speaking, "Hollinndagain" is not a new Animal Collective album. It's their only live performance, recorded several years ago and previously only available for a limited printing. Only on vinyl. It was sort of the Holy Grail for Animal Collective fans.
Well, fortunately that's done, since this live album has finally come out on CD. And only mild tinniness shows that it is a life performance, as Animal Collective buzzes, bangs, and wobbles through a string of eerie songs -- this is nicely solid, atmospheric music.
It starts off slow, with a soft fizzing noise, as if the band is setting up in front of an open mike. The buzzing gets louder and is laced with synth, and slowly segues into a hesitant little pop melody that slowly falls silent... and explodes back into the raucous, plaintive "Pride and Fight." It sounds like a tribal chant on acid.
They run through explosive percussion of "Forest Gospel," which sounds like someone let the Muppet Animal loose onstage, as someone mumbles intermittently. Then the band runs through a dreamlike psychedelic soundscape, trips back to a wavery chant song, and finally into an eerie darker song. It sounds like someone is sobbing... until it twists into a tangle of twisted squeaks and groans.
"Hollinndagain" is very much a child of Animal Collective's first proper album, which was dreamlike, creepy and sort of tribal. You hear that frequently here. But this live performance showed how they were starting to explore new sounds and new ways of presenting their bizarre experimental music.
Except for a faint echo on the vocals, you wouldn't even know this was a live performance. Their music blares out with explosive energy, and the softer songs are only a reprieve -- smashing drums, buzzing guitars, and a colourful smorgasbord of sound effects, from static to squeaky wheels to alarm clocks.
And the songs flow nicely into one another, without much audience noise -- I can only assume that the music stunned them into silence. The only flaw is the finale, "Pumpkin Gets A Snakebite" -- after the slow decline of the previous song, it's jarring to hear this raucous little song song smack you in the face.
The formerly rare "Hollinndagain" is a glimpse of the evolving Animal Collective back when it was young, and definitely an entertaining little album.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
They ain't trying for radio here, 13 Jun 2007
This is a very special reissue for fans of the AC. The original pressing was a run of 300 LPs, all with covers individually hand painted by the band. Having been out of print since the day it was released, fans have had to pay out the ass for Hollinndagain on eBay for the last four years. This is now no longer the case, which will make those fans quite happy... and they'll prolly be the only ones. The spirit behind those tracks was that most of the people who attended these early shows were friends of the band who often saw them play. So, instead of having their pals shell out for the same old tunes time and time again, the AC decided to constantly form new jams. In the interest of creativity, the opening "I See You Pan" sounds like someone trying to plug in a mic and a guitar for seven minutes with increasing failure. At least the next track has some drums in it, though it still sounds like a series of horrendous mistakes and equipment malfunctions. There's the problem I ran into. As a series of totally unplanned jams using very little in the way of actual instruments or melodies, Hollinndagain lacks anything resembling coherence or even sanity. It's just a series of repeating noises with random levels of either ambiance or annoyance and a few unintelligible vocal drones. Fans will no doubt continue to paw themselves over this release, but I doubt anyone else will take much notice. I'm sure that'll suit them just fine. They ain't trying for radio here.
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