Mar 23, 2016
The ever-nebulous world of Animal Collective has been having an excellent year. Avey Tare, Panda Bear, & Geologist are out on the road touring behind their most recent effort, Painting With and planning a camping-oriented music festival which was announced earlier this week.
However, occasional forth member, Josh "Deakin" Dibb, who has been on a few of the groups' records (Feels, Strawberry Jam, and most recently their 2012 album Centipede HZ) sat out for this tour and album to focus on his much-memed ("Leak it, Deak!) solo album.
Originally a reward for backers of a Kickstarter project Deakin launched in 2010, the album process has been meticulous. However, via the fan forum Collected Animals, this year has seen some noise around the release, which is rumored to be cassette tape only, coming sooner than expected.
Yesterday, Deakin himself took to the forum to address questions surrounding the release.
To all of you who are having an issue with the cassette ... I get it. But a cd really seemed silly to me at this point. I know that CDs are essentially just a file transfer tool at this point. And all of you are going to get a link to high quality files anyway ... Cassettes are a huge part of music culture in Mali. That was part of my inspiration as well.
Regarding fans who didn't back the Kickstarter project to do the original recordings that took place in Mali:
To anyone that didn't donate ... I mentioned in an update that the music will be made available on iTunes and streaming and a bunch of other digital music stores. It's gonna happen very shortly after we send it to everyone who donated. So you won't have to wait long.
Further in the forum, Deakin & a CA member discussed some artwork included in the Kickstarter message. Says Deakin: "It's an image from the book. And is related to the cover art. But not it entirely."
Hear Deakin perform "Wide Eyed" (which he wrote) & "Pulleys" from their 2012 release Centipede HZ below: