Album Review: Avey Tare – Cows On Hourglass Pond


Cows On Hourglass Pond



Now there’s an album title to grab your attention.

As is the way of all the projects associated with Animal Collective, it’s ambiguous to the point of irrelevant, but that’s part of the fun of following this ever evolving outfit. This is ostensibly David Portner’s third solo album, with a project under the name of Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks (Enter The Slasher House) – another cracking title – also put out under his name.

It’s as beguiling as before. Opener What’s The Goodside? gently permeates into life with disconnected, dream state vocals offset by a dub bass line which eventually takes over the song, building up gradually to a soothing languid malaise rather than a grandstand finish. Eyes On Eyes features the trademark Portner fast-paced vocals that carry a sense of disunity, and that also don’t scan. Meanwhile, K.C. Yours has a wonderfully simple melody, again with soft staccato vocals.

It’s a deeply philosophical album (probably) lyrically. The over-arching theme is of questioning the bigger elements of the universe but striding into it headfirst regardless. The aforementioned What Is Goodside? is the obvious example and on album highlight Nostalgia In Lemonade, Portner’s grandiose vocal delivery (‘my only lemonade’) reflects the comfort he finds in something familiar and recognisable amidst the unknown. A similar trick is pulled on Our Little Chapter, simply repeating the title as chorus but adjusting his vocals to a lower, warmer key.

The album somehow manages to sound minimal whilst being absolutely drenched in layers upon layers of production. At points both ethereal and earthy, each spin of the disc rewards the listener with something new. That said the bass (be it guitar, drum or keys) is the key musical element of the album. On Nostalgia In Lemonade the pulsing is the backbone of the song, whereas on recent ‘single’ Saturdays (Again) the mournfulness of the bass dictates the mood and texture of the piece. The familiar trope of sampling is used to greatest effect on the instrumental interlude Chilly Blue. Your reviewer may be wrong, but the sampling is used to great effect to generate whale noises, formulating a dense, underwater atmosphere.

Having listened to this and his co-collaborator Panda Bear’s Buoys in close succession, it’s slightly more apparent as to what the two members bring to Animal Collective. Avey Tare is a bit more down to earth and structures his songs traditionally, adding the human element via acoustic guitar, whereas Panda Bear contributes the sparse distant psychedelia. That’s by no means an exact science though; the lines are very blurred, which explains why they work so well together and equally as well apart.

(Richard Bowes)


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