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Animal Collective
SUNG TONGS
(Fat Cat)
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The second album that Panda Bear and Avey Tare have made together teeters between tribal and civilized, sounding like a camp sing-along in the middle of a jungle on the moon. The Collective take simple arrangements of acoustic guitar, primitive hand percussion, and a hodge-podge of vocals — from whoops, chants, and shrieks to lilting, wispy melodies that dissolve in midair — and add computerized sound effects, wordless sung pentatonic scales, and sudden starts and stops. The guitars often eschew any pervasive rhythm, and the vocals are mostly nonsensical, yet it works because Animal Collective never stray far from the pop sensibility they’ve defined. "Who Could Win a Rabbit" backs a rapidly delivered vocal duet with swells of lush polyphony and syncopated hand claps. "The Softest Voice" could come from the middle of a rain forest. The succinct "College" is the only "tong" that tunes its harmonies, whisking listeners from the woods to 1950s surf-wax America, yet the background noise sounds like surfboards being pulled out of thick muck. Sung Tongs melds past, present, future, and foreign sounds into a pleasantly challenging adventure in experimental indie rock. (The Animal Collective appear April 17 upstairs at the Middle East, 472 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square; call 617-864-EAST.)
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