Animal Collective Biography
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 Having adopted (for reasons they have been unwilling to explain) the curious names of Avey Tare and Panda Bear, high school friends David Portner (USA; vocals/guitar) and Noah Lennox (b. USA; vocals/drums) evoke the strange and the magical via a music that has traceable precedents in the rituals of shamanism, the textures/structures of minimal techno, and the gentle folk rock of Simon And Garfunkel, and which echoes both the bucolic ideal of their childhoods and chaotic nature of their adopted home of Brooklyn, New York City. ‘We all grew up in a semi-rural environment around a lot of trees’, Lennox has explained of the formative experiences which have impressed upon their enchanting music, ‘We also grew up with a hyper-awareness of what it is to be in imaginary spiritual states. I think in life you need to have a connection that goes beyond the realm of the physical.’
The Animal Collective deliberately remain in a state of flux, in terms of both personnel - they record in various permutations of Avery Tare, Panda Bear, the Geologist (b. Brian Weitz, USA; live electronics/incidental vocals) and Deakin (b. Josh Dibb, USA) - and sound, creating pop ballads, noise squalls, tribal rhythmic work-outs, simple folk songs and orchestrated group freak outs such that comparison has been made with the Beach Boys, Syd Barrett, labelmates Black Dice, the Brazilian tropicala of Gilberto Gil or Milton Nascimento, and even the dysfunctional electronica of the Mego label. On first hearing, their albums can sound uncomfortably bizarre but with repeated play unravel into artefacts of beauty. Notable releases include their 2000 debut Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’re Vanished, 2003’s Here Comes The Indian, and the 2007 Domino Records debut Strawberry Jam. The Animal Collective notably run their own Paw Tracks imprint via parent label Carpark, while both Avery Tare and Panda Bear have released solo albums.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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Having adopted (for reasons they have been unwilling to explain) the curious names of Avey Tare and Panda Bear, high school friends David Portner (USA; vocals/guitar) and Noah Lennox (b. USA; vocals/drums) evoke the strange and the magical via a music that has traceable precedents in the rituals of shamanism, the textures/structures of minimal techno, and the gentle folk rock of Simon And Garfunkel, and which echoes both the bucolic ideal of their childhoods and chaotic nature of their adopted home of Brooklyn, New York City. ‘We all grew up in a semi-rural environment around a lot of trees’, Lennox has explained of the formative experiences which have impressed upon their enchanting music, ‘We also grew up with a hyper-awareness of what it is to be in imaginary spiritual states. I think in life you need to have a connection that goes beyond the realm of the physical.’