The post Animal Collective’s “Tangerine Reef” is Weirdly Dull Without the Visuals appeared first on Hot Pop Today.
]]>The album opens with the strange and slightly meditative intro “Hair Cutter,” which is atmospheric and peaks our intrigue. The vocals are beautiful and melancholy, setting the tone of the album. Unfortunately, the intrigue peaks here, as the remaining tracks meander into more of the same, failing to keep the listener hooked.
“Coral Understanding” is the track where I realized I was pushing through the album rather than enjoying it. The synthy, atmospheric sounds would be tolerable if they were at least relaxing, yet instead they are disjointed and mostly unpleasant. The middle of the album sounds like someone put a Kraftwerk CD and a meditation track in a blender and then slowly poured out Tangerine Reef.
The album is the first without Panda Bear, who is working on his own, more calming solo works and perhaps this is what is missing from the record. I usually enjoy the weirdness of Animal Collective’s music but this time it seemed to be all the weird without the color, eccentricity and vibrancy.
That being said, it must be remembered that the album is the band’s second audiovisual record and this is how it is supposed to be consumed. The band teamed with Coral Morphologic to combine art and science by growing and photographing coral to accompany the music. Without the coral reefs that accompany the sound, it is clear that something is painfully missing.
In the context of the coral reef, however, the album has its redeemable features. The jarring, technological and dystopian sounds suit the destruction of the sea and the environment by humans. If we pair this review with how coral is being affected by human activity, the saddened, uncomfortable sound of the album starts to make sense. The final track “Best of Times (Worst of All)” fizzles out pitifully, the equivalent of the “whimper” that T.S. Eliot predicted for the end of the world in his poem The Hollow Men.
Overall, I don’t think I’ll be listening to Tangerine Reef again any time soon, but I can respect what the band is trying to do. Combined with the visuals, the album is significantly more powerful, yet the effect is almost entirely lost when you listen to the album on its own.
The post Animal Collective’s “Tangerine Reef” is Weirdly Dull Without the Visuals appeared first on Hot Pop Today.
]]>The post Animal Collective Announce New Collaborative Album “Tangerine Reef” appeared first on Hot Pop Today.
]]>The experimental pop group have collaborated with the art-science duo Coral Morphologic on a new “audiovisual” album to be released August 17th. The release will coincide with the arrival of the band’s feature-length film.
They announced the release on Twitter, accompanied by a visually enticing underwater video and atmospheric, intriguing sounds.
In honor of 2018 being the year of the reef, we present Tangerine Reef, a collaborative audiovisual album with @CoralMorph. Learn more at https://t.co/uDR3sG54J3, and watch the full-length film on August 17th at the band's website My Animal Home. pic.twitter.com/MST15ALJv3
— Animal Collective (@anmlcollective) July 16, 2018
Coral Morphologic create CGI-free “visual tone poems consisting of time-lapse and slow pans across surreal aquascapes of naturally fluorescent coral” and have been working with Animal Collective for nearly a decade. Combined with the weird and wonderful sounds of Animal Collective’s Avey Tare, Deakin and Geologist, we’re not sure what to expect.
You can check out the track list for Tangerine Reef below:
The post Animal Collective Announce New Collaborative Album “Tangerine Reef” appeared first on Hot Pop Today.
]]>The post Animal Collective’s “Tangerine Reef” is Weirdly Dull Without the Visuals appeared first on Hot Pop Today.
]]>The album opens with the strange and slightly meditative intro “Hair Cutter,” which is atmospheric and peaks our intrigue. The vocals are beautiful and melancholy, setting the tone of the album. Unfortunately, the intrigue peaks here, as the remaining tracks meander into more of the same, failing to keep the listener hooked.
“Coral Understanding” is the track where I realized I was pushing through the album rather than enjoying it. The synthy, atmospheric sounds would be tolerable if they were at least relaxing, yet instead they are disjointed and mostly unpleasant. The middle of the album sounds like someone put a Kraftwerk CD and a meditation track in a blender and then slowly poured out Tangerine Reef.
The album is the first without Panda Bear, who is working on his own, more calming solo works and perhaps this is what is missing from the record. I usually enjoy the weirdness of Animal Collective’s music but this time it seemed to be all the weird without the color, eccentricity and vibrancy.
That being said, it must be remembered that the album is the band’s second audiovisual record and this is how it is supposed to be consumed. The band teamed with Coral Morphologic to combine art and science by growing and photographing coral to accompany the music. Without the coral reefs that accompany the sound, it is clear that something is painfully missing.
In the context of the coral reef, however, the album has its redeemable features. The jarring, technological and dystopian sounds suit the destruction of the sea and the environment by humans. If we pair this review with how coral is being affected by human activity, the saddened, uncomfortable sound of the album starts to make sense. The final track “Best of Times (Worst of All)” fizzles out pitifully, the equivalent of the “whimper” that T.S. Eliot predicted for the end of the world in his poem The Hollow Men.
Overall, I don’t think I’ll be listening to Tangerine Reef again any time soon, but I can respect what the band is trying to do. Combined with the visuals, the album is significantly more powerful, yet the effect is almost entirely lost when you listen to the album on its own.
The post Animal Collective’s “Tangerine Reef” is Weirdly Dull Without the Visuals appeared first on Hot Pop Today.
]]>The post Animal Collective Announce New Collaborative Album “Tangerine Reef” appeared first on Hot Pop Today.
]]>The experimental pop group have collaborated with the art-science duo Coral Morphologic on a new “audiovisual” album to be released August 17th. The release will coincide with the arrival of the band’s feature-length film.
They announced the release on Twitter, accompanied by a visually enticing underwater video and atmospheric, intriguing sounds.
In honor of 2018 being the year of the reef, we present Tangerine Reef, a collaborative audiovisual album with @CoralMorph. Learn more at https://t.co/uDR3sG54J3, and watch the full-length film on August 17th at the band's website My Animal Home. pic.twitter.com/MST15ALJv3
— Animal Collective (@anmlcollective) July 16, 2018
Coral Morphologic create CGI-free “visual tone poems consisting of time-lapse and slow pans across surreal aquascapes of naturally fluorescent coral” and have been working with Animal Collective for nearly a decade. Combined with the weird and wonderful sounds of Animal Collective’s Avey Tare, Deakin and Geologist, we’re not sure what to expect.
You can check out the track list for Tangerine Reef below:
The post Animal Collective Announce New Collaborative Album “Tangerine Reef” appeared first on Hot Pop Today.
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