Vicar Street ****
Giant inflatable tentacles and teeth populate the stage, a visual representation of the raw, disjointed otherness of Animal Collective’s music, just as the boiler suit that Deakin wears suggests their industriousness. The band’s most recent work Centipede Hz, is perhaps less accessible than 2009’s acclaimed Merriweather Post Pavilion, but live it reveals its true beauty, with its layering of samples, rich percussive elements and spirited, strange vocals.
Sounds are wrought out and hard-won,surveying influences from Fela Kuti to dubstep, and Pavement to hip-hop, which emerge over the course of a show that is immersed in a kind of psychedelic haze. Moonjock wrestles itself out of this overwhelming sea of sound to become a highlight,with its fuzzy radio sounds and driving drums. Today’s Supernatural becomes its spiritual cousin, with warmer rhythms and busy, caressing organ. Pulleys is hazy and pleasingly sloping, and Applesauce betrays a fluttering prettiness, providing a lightness through the heavy lifting.
At times it feels like Animal Collective has trapped The Beach Boys and Graceland-era Paul Simon beneath the earth,muffling their harmonies, wrapped up in a mesmerising atmosphere.
As the encore begins, and Avey Tare sings of his wish to “bring back some stories again” on the epic Amanita, the room is full of warmth and respect. As the furious percussion fills the room, Deakin of the boiler suit smiles – it has all led up to this.
