Customer Reviews

Here Comes the Indian

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Dear Fan of Here Comes The Indian,

I am writing this because I have recently fully realised the beauty, majesty, and utter brilliance of Here Comes The Indian!!

I've been going through a bit of an Animal Collective phase over the last week or two and last night i was listening to Here Comes The Indian, and it all made sense! I have always put it on occasionally cause it's such a twisted sonic experience, but i never really felt like it had penetrated into something deeper...

Now, almost two years after obtaining it i have finally realised how completely peculiar, primal, and pure it is...

I remembered that you were a big fan, and for a long time wondered why you gave it so much more attention than sung tongs or any of their other stuff..

so now i understand... its just amazing that an album that sounds so deeply rooted in nature, fauna, and tribalism can also sound so unique and modern... it is a strange and vast beast that has hibernated for a long time in my mind, but has now awoken to bare its teeth and stamp its feet..

and i love it.

Stowaway

About halfway through the first song of "Here Comes the Indian," it becomes pretty obvious just where the name comes from -- it takes on the form of a psychedelic tribal chant.

Animal Collective was only just using that name when they put out this eerie collection of experimental music, which sounds a lot like some sort of ancient ritual captured on tape. Sights, sounds and smells are all evoked by sound alone, and while it's not very accessible, it is entrancing if you're open-minded (or stoned).

It opens with "Native Belle," which begins with an almost inaudible tapping. A wavering violin joins in, along with the sound of voices murmuring so softly that they merge into a white-noise hum. Then the song begins. Stops. Begins again, as a clashing, swirling mass of eerie voices, wild rhythms and mad drumming.

After that, the band explores other kinds of experimental music -- rapid-fire drumming that ends with soft chants and handclapping, stately buzzing soundscapes bursting with odd noises, and the sound of howling, ghostly voices over a heavy wash of synth. The perfect Halloween song.

"Two Sails on a Sound" is deeply unnerving with its dark piano and nature noises, which make you feel like you're adrift on a dangerous river. It ends with a clashing tribal-rock number overlaid with distorted voices, and finally with the buzzing, shifting balladry of "Too Soon," which blossoms out into a bizarre hallucinatory sound.

Well, "Here Comes the Indian" is not a bounce-your-bottom-while-you-drive kind of album. The Animal Collective had already done other experimental albums (under different names) by the time they put this out -- except this one has a cohesive theme.

Sit back and visualize fires, dark forests, fast-flowing rivers, cave paintings, and that wintry dawn sky. Fuzz guitar and tribal drums form the basis of this music, along with thick, gauzy synth that seems to muffle the music. And they pepper it with all sorts of sounds -- quacks, dripping water, crickets, and eerie vocals that never quite form words.

With a primitive catchiness and wild energy, "Here Comes the Indian" is a pretty vibrant experimental album. Just don't expect to be able to dance to it.

Just giving my stars. Just a message to all those who beleive there is are people who listen to music just "because no one else can," and that that would some how make them cool. The people who like this "unlistenable" music are not at all concerned with you. Go listen to your Billy Joel, we won't criticize you for it.

This year marks the beginning of my association with four Brooklyn musicians known currently as the Animal Collective and Campfire Songs. Here Comes the Indian, Animal Collective's co-2003 release to Campfire Songs, is quite a bit different than its more reliable cousin. Although the two albums have been released in the same year, by the same basic collective of musicians, Here Comes the Indian focuses more on the idea of creating pernicious musical structures rather than simplifying them.

The Animal Collective consists of four artists: Avey Tare, Panda Bare, Deakin, and Geologist. They have been getting a lot of attention lately, and this is partially due to the fact that their music ranges from subtle acoustic delight (see Campfire Songs) to the uneasy, yet artistic, arrangements of this release. Whichever aspect the focus is on, you're guaranteed a very involved experience.

The first track, "Native Belle" is actually the only song on the album that even hints at a somewhat normal structure of songwriting. It coasts along at a comparatively slow pace until "Hey Light" grabs hold of it and pulls it by its hair into a ritualistic Indian dance. The entire experience of Here Comes the Indian is one that is all over the map of daydreams and claustrophobia. At times things can be modest and self-effacing, just to fool you by taking on a completely different direction that sometimes borders the insanity of Wonderful Rainbow.

Of the two albums released this year, there seems to be a split decision from critics and writers alike as to which of these projects is their favorite. I enjoy certain parts of this album, but if I'm going to give my opinion of which I like better, I'd have to say Campfire Songs is the more pleasurable experience of the two.

I have been continually enthralled by this group, from the first time I saw one of their ritualistic and explosive performances at the Tonic. This is one of the few groups coming out of the brooklyn noise scene that, I feel, and I hope, will have some serious staying power. there is something going on this album and all their albums that is vital beyond any change in fashion. inspiring sh-t.

Once again, Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Deaken and The Geologist (who actually sat this one out) have created a beaufitul mix of tribal saga and noise-pop glory. This might be a little hard to swallow for fans of Avey Tare and Panda Bear's 'Sprit They've Gone, Spirit They've Vanished', but the album shoud be seen as an evolution and maturation of the sound that made that record such a beautiful pop masterpiece. I don't know if any of this makes any sense, but believe me, this is a great album.

This album is amazing and i plan to pay a lot of money to get in on vinyl and put it up on my wall. It has such a woodsy-tribal feeling that is really unexplainable. It's not very accessible but once you get on its playing level you'll understand what I'm talking about

I learned in grade school that the first evidence of art in human race was cave painting in France. Art has always been influenced by music, for example Piet Modrian loved boogie woogie jazz. You could speculate what music those cave artists had playing in your head when they painted or you could listen to Animal Collective. The primal pounding, kinetic out-of-world pinging and the echo fuzz based guitar interplay dance with a squeaking voice to create a celebration of weirdness. Those cave painters probably came across some magic root or mushroom that altered their perception of the world. This in turn change their music's pitch and time signatures randomly. Chanting and squirking like little extinct creatures adds to the Animal Collective charm. Don't miss this record.

Psychedelic music was at one time music which resulted from everyday people getting frustrated by govermental/ social pressures.
Their calls of peace were passive agressive . Their weapons to freedom were fender strats with flangers and echo pedals frightening the conservetive people of their time.
Today we are in a fairly opressive international state of affairs . Everyone has an education or at least axcess to one. Everyone has axcess to a guitar and a big muff pedal. apparently with democracy everyone has the right to opinion.
But not everyone uses these rights. Alot of music in particular is stale way past its use by date and fed to
Thank god bands like the animal collective are motivated enought to basically record and self release their albums they say every thing and more about their thoughts of today. Building and building and building and building tension then slowly releasing the tension alowing just enough breathe for the next rise and fall.
As the title suggests there is a overtly primal tone to this album raging precussion coupled with chants and rants awash with an etheral bliss of noise.
This was the 1st animal collective album I stumbled across. And I can't recomend them enough to anyone.


Everyone should allow themselves to open their ears, mind and soul to new sounds and reconstructions of old ideas for new times

This album is so intense.

Most the people I know that like the Animal Collective have not heard it; those that have do not seem overly fond of it.

It is aurally abrasive. Breakneck percussion that degenerates into the sound of hail on a tin roof; cascades of noise radiating from indiscernible words; chords rushing in from a ruptured mainline, beginning to trickle as they make their way down and out; hissing, spitting synthesizer gets exhausted and decides to contemplate the universe; horns even make a guest appearance. Such color, such chaos. It is incredible.

I maintain that no recorded work that I have heard to date better simulates the visceral, many-hued and infinitely looped mind-grind of a mushroom trip than this.

This is (or, should be) the reason they hold the title 'kings of the new psychedelia'; if Merryweather Post Pavilion is the worlds idea of psychadelic, its high time we dosed the water supply.