On their feverish Water Curses EP, quirky musical entity Animal Collective bring human beings closer to the hidden world of sonic wildlife. With loopy effects and chirpy, insect-like mutterings it’s easy to lose all sense of time and place when listening to this four-song EP. Recorded in the same session as their latest album (the critically acclaimed Strawberry Jam), Water Curses recalls the topsy-turvy unpredictability of 2005’s Feels. On “Street Flash”, echoing vocals and melodic keys meld with samples of a creepily-channeled Wicked Witch of the West maniacal cackle. The result is an arresting song that is both joyful and ominous.
The fluidity of the title track comes across in flittering synth noises–are those bird calls?–that blend together in a cacophony of so-weird-it’s-pleasing aural flourishes. “Cobweb” employs a lazy tribal percussion and cooing call-and-response vocals that exclaim: “I’m not going underground,” perhaps in a cheeky sonic anthropomorphic way, or could it be a subtle statement of artistic modus operandi? The babbling brook sonic motif of “Seal Eyeing” brings the EP full circle. With a calming avant-garde lullaby quality, thanks to a simple trilling piano and vocal “ooohs,” this languid track slowly helps the listener descend back from the netherworld of Animal Collective to more familiar human turf.
