It’s been over a decade since the four members of Animal Collective transformed from New York art-noise weirdos into global buzz-making dancepop contenders. Now, the quartet seems to have moved into the next phase of their career—or perhaps just taken a sabbatical in their own off-yellow submarine. Swapping around members for undersea adventures, Tangerine Reef contains the never-recorded Animal trio of Avey Tare, Geologist, and the sometimes-absent Deakin, minus the always-present Panda Bear. An audiovisual album, the music-only iteration of Tangerine Reef puts Animal Collective among the ranks of Yo La Tengo, Radiohead, Sting and others who have soundtracked underwater documentaries, and the results are as dreamy as one could hope. Though there are vocals and even some catchy refrains (“Hip Sponge”), there are virtually no beats, the vibe returning the band to the strange quietude of its earliest apartment recordings. It’s the Collective’s synths that are on full display, emitting luminescent displays of dense clusters and floating tones to highlight what are (presumably) breathtaking looks at the alien zones miles beneath the ocean’s surface. Often sounding like a trio improv session, with the results edited into more tangible forms, Tangerine Reef also makes good on the band’s oft-touted love for the Grateful Dead. With Avey Tare coming off his recent turn singing Robert Hunter lyrics with Mickey Hart on RAMU , Tangerine Reef is the future on the far side of the Grateful Dead’s MIDI-rich, 1990s drums-and-space segments, the last development in the Dead’s own career of improvisation, taken a few steps further.