Animal Collective - Meeting of the Waters EP

Animal Collective
Meeting of the Waters EP
2017
Spotify

The thing you can always expect from Animal Collective is the unexpected. With a membership that seems to be changing everyday and side projects form the likes of Panda Bear and Geologist; however, Geologist and Avey Tare are the only two who contribute to the new record. This album recorded live next to the Amazon river, yes you read that right, and almost totally improvised it harkens back to the early free wheeling days of the group. At this point the band have a quite distinct sound, and their most recent efforts have felt a bit trapped by that. However Meeting of the Waters tries to throw all that aside and create something pure and evocative. The sounds of the river are never far away with the water flowing, bugs buzzing and birds chirping throughout the record. For most though it will be a new experience a new sound from a seemingly totally foreign place. It is right in Animal Collectives wheelhouse by being out of everyone else's. "Blue Noses" opens the record with this gentle guitar and swirling ambient noise. It sounds absolutely beautiful and raw, but not catchy in the slightest. the song is also 13 minutes long and just sort of drifts along becoming part of the environment surrounding it. The song almost feels like the amazon itself, minus the being blue part of course,  in that it's vast but not erratic. In the jungle you don't usually see the waterfalls or rapids of most rivers, all that comes way downstream in the Amazon so the bulk is just winding through heavy and unyielding. The songs never really end or being and instead just sort of spill into each other.

The album is really successful in capturing the moment and representing what being there recording this must have felt like, but that doesn't necessarily make you want to listen to it again. The record was made in conjunction with a VICE documentary about environmental impacts on the area. Meeting of the Waters feels so rich and so lush but also very transient. This doesn't feel like a new direction for Animal Collective, or even something they are 100% passionate about. Instead this record feels like a snapshot of a moment in time, more of a history than a record if that makes any sense at all. The world is usually so complex and stressful but this album is presence and release. "Selection Of A Place (Rio Negro Version)" is so gentle throughout but then ends on this cacophony of nature sounds suddenly put through a very electronic almost blender sound. It is the falling away of this place that Animal Collective seem to have come to love. It's a beautiful album, but I just can't find myself really liking it all that much, a common problem people have with Animal Collective. Great in many ways and confusing in others Meeting of the Waters continues the Animal Collective tradition of keeping you on your toes and it doesn't look like they are showing any signs of stopping.

6.8 out of 10