Paw Tracks

Like the myriad CSN side combos of the ‘70s, the scattered efforts of Animal Collective’s Avey Tare (Dave Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) and Deakin (Josh Dibb) don’t fall too far from Animal Collective’s fuzzy tree. Unlike Portner’s previous extra-Collective effort, 2007’s Pullhair Rubeye – which was recorded with now wife Kria Brikkan of Müm – the new Avey Tare record does not feature its songs mixed backward. In fact, Portner’s new Down There, recorded with Dibb, is about as straightforward as a modern day Animal might get. Filled with the same skittering melodies that make Collective tunes like “The Purple Bottle” so appealing, Down There only subtracts the booming ‘90s beats that sometimes overpower the Collective’s melodies. Accompanied by dislocated walls of pump organ ( “Laughing Hieroglyphic” ), woozed-up xylophones ( “3 Umbrellas” ) and lacustrine pianos ( “Cemeteries” ), Portner is fond of hiding songs in dense noise grottos, but half the fun is finding them below the sonic surface.