Monthly Archive

Adem’s late withdrawal, following a disagreement over set times (apparently he was offered twenty minutes) left us with the tightest of bands up against the loosest of collectives. In this shittiest of venues.

I quite enjoy difficult mathematical and logical puzzles. This has the following results: 1) I have few friends; 2) I really like Battles. They are percussively precise; every drum beat or overhead cymbal smash (really – how high is that cymbal? When I first saw it I thought he’d have to stand up to hit it) is measured with theodolites and placed in by engineers. Time signatures are most likley based on the golden ratio, or Harshad numbers or something. Even Ty Braxton’s beatboxes are probably built by carpenters.

I find that on record too many of their tracks sound the same; it would require the use of diagrams to explain the difference between Tras, IPT, and Hi/Lo. Live, they are keen to explore the logical possibilities of each track, repeating riffs using their full range of electronic and guitar effects, like Coltrane soloing until all variations have been exhausted (“I don’t know how to stop”, Coltrane told Miles Davis, who replied, “Why don’t you try taking the horn out of your mouth”). “Arty show-offs” opined a friend. Well, quite. So what?

There are four in the Collective today, which would disappoint anyone hoping for something stripped down. Instead, we get a lot of “Feels” tonight, or rather they play a lot of “Feels” tonight and the sound system adds or subtracts as it sees fit, and we get what is left. I found them way too indie rock at the start, so far so Flaming Lips, but when the electronics took centre stage (well, they were centre stage any way, but you know what I mean), I felt bathed in a shimmering light, as if the roof of the Astoria had been lifted off to let the sun flood in. And the floor had been cleaned under my feet. And replaced with a lake (hmmm…I’d have to be on a boat). And there were some flowers, I think. I’d never really appreciated this side of their work before, but I had appreciated the tribal drumming, which we get in excelsis in The Purple Bottle and Grass. Finishing with a two drummer face off, we are awoken from our reverie, and are bounced into the piss sodden street outside.

So to conclude on Animal Collective: I like electronics. I like tribal drumming. Essentially, I like Black Dice.