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Music

Animal Collective Talks Mixtapes, Radio, And The Continuum Of Musical Influences [VIDEO]

Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Deakin, and Geologist talk about the concept behind their upcoming album Centipede Hz. Plus, our favorite user transmissions.

Despite the fact that we live in an age when actual FM radio is all but obsolete, if you were born before 1995, it had at least a little bit of influence on your taste in music. Whether it was the pop songs on mainstream channels that you drove around to or that one late night college station DJ who opened your eyes to something a bit more experimental, radio was a curated platform for all types of music that you could trust to take you on a journey.

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Each member of Animal Collective has his own distinct set of memories pertaining to radio, whether it’s hearing Casey Kasem‘s Top 40 or Sun City Girls’ recordings of short wave radio from various countries on their tour route. And that’s what they passed on to you through Animal Collective Radio, the band’s revival of the radio format in partnership with The Creators Project, which saw the likes of Black Dice, Pantha du Prince, and Atlas Sound sharing their taste with eclectic music mixes. Geologist told us a little bit about the project in our recent video with him.

In the video above, the members of Animal Collective also describe being part of a continuum of musicians that pass their own influences on to subsequent generations of musicians. Just like REM led Pavement to the Velvet Underground, Pavement led Animal Collective to bands like Sun City Girls. Geologist references Sun City Girls’ short wave radio mixes, and Avey Tare goes on to discuss the impact Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls had on Animal Collective: “Alan from Sun City Girls is part of Sublime Frequencies label that we had do a mix for this set and they over the years have been pretty influential to us in terms of turning us on to music from Southeast Asia and India.” Check out the mix he’s talking about in “Transmission 1” of Animal Collective Radio.

Basically, it’s a big share-fest of music across generations that helped to shape the sound of Animal Collective, and by listening to Animal Collective Radio and learning about music you’ve never heard before, you’re tapping into that continuum. And if you contribute to it, then you’re a part of it.

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In that way, all those who contributed mixes to Animal Collective Radio YouMix are carrying this tradition forward, incorporating the timeless radio style drops heard all over Animal Collective’s new album Centipede Hz. Here are a couple of our favorites. Check out all of them here.

It Came From Centipede HZ : Centipede Radio by Jamm1337 on Mixcloud

HumBum on Animal Collective Radio (youmix) by Humbum on Mixcloud

ONE Centipede Radio by Arrien Zinghini on Mixcloud

@CreatorsProject