Extended? Please. Animal Collective and Vashti Bunyan

Animal Collective/Vashti Bunyan - Prospect Hummer EP - Fat Cat

Despite the relative amount of pop on Animal Collective's ingenius album Sung Tongs, the duo can be quite off-setting. The group's foundation is in repetition and percussion but greatness lies in their ability to let their melodicism shine through that maddening jungle of rhythms and textures.

On the Prospect Hummer EP, Panda Bear and Avey Tare enlist the unique vocal stylings of English freak-folk matron Vashti Bunyan, who with the re-release of 1970's Just Another Diamond Day is slowing wiping the sleep from her eyes, asserting herself in the burgeoning movement lead by Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom after a hibernation of over 30 years. For many, including myself, this is the first exposure to Bunyan, and what better way than to let Bear and Tare ease us into it.

On the opening track, "It's You" they throw Vashti right into the thick of things, her Feist-like (sorry, had to mention the Feist) coo opens the track bare and naked. But quickly AC's ethereal jangling breaks in, conjuring up faint recollections of "Visiting Friends", "Mouth Wooed Her" and angels playing harps on sun soaked clouds. Yeah, that airy. While "I Remember Learning How to Dive" presents clicky and fun pop fare, short and efficient, "Baleen Sample" takes after some of the more grating instrumental areas of Sung Tongs, tolerable in some moods, completely unlistenable in others.

But it is in the title track "Prospect Hummer" that most resembles the familiar pop AC proudly displays on Sung Tongs and Panda's own Young Prayer. The song marches on a driving kick drum leading a choir of gutteral chants and lilting falsettos, with Bunyan's almost asexual voice on top. It sounds like a whole army of crazy characters. Like Emperor Qin's Terracotta Army of Xi'an, each soldier is distinct, but they all form into one collective voice. This chorus culminates in harmonic, campfire sing along of meaningless sounds, only meaningless because "Who cares? We're having fun!" (note: not actual lyric).

In grand scheme of things, though these four songs are much too small a sample size to judge, a future, more extensive, collaboration would be something to look forward to. Despite the fact that any person who has the slightest impatience or nervous tick waiting to be unleashed should be wary of being locked in a room with this on repeat, it is undeniable that the meeting of these two innovative artists is meant to be. Bunyan's voice belongs to Animal Collective's vast and weird universe as much as it belongs to her own earthly body.

Animal Collective: http://www.fat-cat.co.uk
http://www.paw-tracks.com

Vashti Bunyan: http://www.anotherday.co.uk