Animal Collective is an experimental popgroup from Baltimore, US. Their music is often described as freak folk but it is hard to define the Animal Collective sound, as they often experiment with diverse styles and ideas from album to album. The group’s newest album ‘Painting With’ – the follow-up to 2012’s ‘Centipede Hz’ – has just been releasedvia Domino. The album was recorded by Panda Bear, Avey Tare, and Geologist at EastWest Studios in Los Angeles. It features contributions from John Cale, as well as Colin Stetson. The collective’swork bounces and pops with an urgent and ecstatic energy, propelled by gurgling modular synths and polyrhythmic beats. Animal Collective is Technicolor 21st Century Pop Music.

photo credit: Hisham Bharoocha/Abby Portner