''Centipede Hz'' is the ninth studio album by American

experimental pop Experimental pop is pop music that cannot be categorized within traditional musical boundaries or which attempts to push elements of existing popular forms into new areas. It may incorporate experimental music, experimental techniques such as m ...

group

Animal Collective Animal Collective is an American experimental pop band formed in Baltimore County, Maryland. Its members consist of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Geologist (Brian Weitz), and Deakin (Josh Dibb). The band's work is cha ...

, released on September 4, 2012, on Domino Records. The album marks the return of band member Deakin, who sat out of the recording and touring of the band's previous album, ''

Merriweather Post Pavilion Merriweather Post Pavilion is an outdoor concert venue located in the planned community of Columbia, Maryland. In 2010, Merriweather was named the second best amphitheater in the United States by ''Billboard'' magazine. The venue was also ranke ...

'' (2009). On the US ''Billboard'' 200, it peaked at No. 16.

Background

Recording

In November 2010, Deakin rejoined Animal Collective, after sitting out on the recording and touring of the band's eighth studio album, ''

'' (2009). With the band receiving significantly more attention, the four members of Animal Collective moved back to their hometown of

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

in early 2011 to begin writing their ninth studio album. Avey Tare noted, "I moved into a house that was blocks away from our high school - it was definitely a little bit weird to feel this mixture of old and new. ..Just driving the same roads, going to Josh's mom's place. It's pretty much where we all started playing together for days and nights when we were in high school." Deakin elaborated, "Just having the experience of seeing each other every day was what marked this record." Almost four years after the album's release, Weitz intimated that "Coming back for ''Centipede Hz'' was difficult. It was a super emotional time. Because of the way we set the making of that album up, taking us all to Baltimore, the unsettled nature came out on the record. It was just a very different process from the more easy going one that ''Merriweather'' had been. ... we wrote it for the stage and, before recording ... some of us got set ideas about what songs should sound like and where certain parts should fit in. Then, when we went to ooze all four of those different perspectives together—there weren't battles, but it did lead to a lot of things staying in the mix."

Production

The album was recorded at

Sonic Ranch Sonic Ranch, in the border town of Tornillo, Texas, is the world's largest residential recording studio complex. There are five studios designed by Vincent Van Haaff on a pecan orchard, which borders the Rio Grande and Mexico. Located east of ...

in January and February 2012 and was mixed at Maze Studios in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

.Domino, Artists, Animal Collective
Domino Records. Retrieved August 22, 2012. Ben Allen, who co-produced the group's previous album ''Merriweather Post Pavilion,'' returned as the co-producer.Fitzmaurice, Larry
Update: Animal Collective

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

. May 17, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2012. In an interview with

, Avey Tare called ''Centipede Hz'' "more grounded in one location" and less ambient than the group's previous album. The group also wanted the album to have a "live-band feel" to it. In turn, live instruments were used such as a sit-down

drum kit A drum kit or drum set (also known as a trap set, or simply drums in popular music and jazz contexts) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one p ...

and live keyboards. ''Centipede Hz'' also featured the first Animal Collective song where Deakin sang

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

, on "Wide Eyed".

Musical style and influences

Whereas ''

'' and '' Fall Be Kind'' were more oriented around lush sound design and pop structures, ''Centipede Hz'' returns to Animal Collective's

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

roots, incorporating surreal and noisy textures, as well as complicated song structures.Lynch, Joe
Fuse Q&A: Animal Collective Talk 'Centipede Hz' & Possibility of Breaking Up
Fuse. August 30, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2012. The band drove inspiration from styles such as

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

, Chicha music,

Tropicália Tropicália (), also known as tropicalismo (), was a Brazilian art movement that arose in the late 1960s. It was characterized by the amalgamation of Brazilian genres—notably the union of the popular and the avant-garde, as well as the meldi ...

and

avant-garde music Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of innovation in its field, with the term "avant-garde" implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original elem ...

, with members using songs by artists and bands from the aforementioned styles to indicate the musical direction and sound design of the album during its production.Larson, Jeremy and Kivel, Adam
17 songs that influenced Animal Collective’s Centipede Hz

Consequence of Sound ''Consequence'' (previously ''Consequence of Sound'') is an independently owned New York-based online magazine featuring news, editorials, and reviews of music, movies, and television. History ''Consequence of Sound'' was founded in Septem ...

. August 21, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2012. Radio commercials and

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID, channel ID or bumper (broadcasting), bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand na ...

s were additional influences on the album's sound; processed recordings of station idents as well as sound effects of radio interference and

white noise In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used with this or similar meanings in many scientific and technical disciplines, i ...

can be heard throughout the album. The band got the idea for using radio interference while rewriting then in-progress songs on ''Centipede Hz'' for a live performance at the 2011

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Coachella (officially called the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and sometimes known as Coachella Festival) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colora ...

. The group wanted a continuous sound when playing the ''Centipede Hz'' songs live, and they revolved this using radio interference as transitions; this further inspired them with the album's eventual studio production, aiming to recreate their live sound.Wood, Nathan
Animal Collective Q&A
. VMusic.com.au. Retrieved August 22, 2012. Avey Tare noted:

My brother was a DJ when I was growing up, and there was a radio station called B104 in Baltimore. He had recently got a CD of all the radio identifications that come between ongs and we were going back through everything, listening to how weird and spacey and experimental it sounded.

He also compared the sound of these idents out of their original context to ''

musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic ...

'', which allowed the band to interpret these samples as musical textures.

Release

''Centipede Hz'' was announced on May 13, 2012, with an official video on their website which contained titles of the songs on the album.Animal Collective Announce New Album 'Centipede Hz'
Domino Records. May 14, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2012. The majority of the track list was debuted live during their 2011 tour. The album was also announced to be released in three formats: a standard CD, a standard 2xLP, and a deluxe 2xLP version. All three formats are available to pre-order and include a bonus DVD containing the music files and a video of the band's 2011 Prospect Park show in Brooklyn.CENTIPEDE HZ
Domino Records. Retrieved August 19, 2012. On July 29, as part of the lead-up to the album, Animal Collective began broadcasting weekly "Centipede Radio" shows from a section of their website. During the first show, the first single from the album, "Today's Supernatural" was premiered. The single was also uploaded to Domino Records' YouTube channel on the same day.. July 29, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2012. A music video for "Today's Supernatural" was released on August 16, 2012.Fitzmaurice, Larry
Watch the Video for Animal Collective's "Today's Supernatural"

. August 16, 2012. Retrieved August 20, 2012. On August 19, 2012, the album was streamed in its entirety on Animal Collective's official website, with each song accompanied by a custom video directed by Abby Portner.Minsker, Evan
Listen to Animal Collective's Centipede Hz In Full

. August 19, 2012. Retrieved August 20, 2012.Hogan, Marc
Why Animal Collective Broadcast 'Centipede Hz' Early

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

. August 20, 2012. Retrieved August 20, 2012.

Reception

Critical

''Centipede Hz'' received mostly positive reviews, although initial critical reaction to the album was more mixed compared to the group's widely acclaimed previous album, ''

.'' On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the album has a score of 75 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Barry Nicolson of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' called the album "a flawed and imperfect jumble of garish colours and disconnected sensations," but nevertheless gave the album a positive review, concluding: "It's chaotic and confounding. It will frustrate as much as it delights. And no, not everything they throw at the wall manages to stick. But my, what a lovely mess they've made."

BBC Music BBC Music is the arm of the BBC responsible for the music played across its services. The current director of music is Lorna Clarke. Officially it is a part of the BBC's Radio operational division; however, its remit also includes music used i ...

's Mike Diver gave the album a positive review, writing "submit fully to ''Centipede Hz'' and it will infect you, quite deliciously, for the foreseeable."Diver, Mike
Animal Collective Centipede Hz Review

. August 29, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2012. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''s Jon Dolan gave the album a score stars out of five, writing "What gives ''Centipede Hz'' its relatable gravity is that, this time out, Animal Collective sound more like creatures who put their skinny jeans on one hoof at a time ..For a band that usually seems to be eternally shambling toward transcendence, a shot of ambivalence is a brave new kind of pick-me-up." Much of the criticism of the album was directed at the album's dense sound. ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

''s Stuart Berman, while giving the album a positive review, criticized the songs for being too cluttered compared to those on previous albums, writing: "''Centipede Hz,'' by comparison, feels like someone throwing a burrito on your windshield: The songs hit with a jolt, instantly splaying all their ingredients before you." Commenting on the return of Deakin, Tom Ewing of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' wrote: "It explains some of the record's bluntness – every track is full of incident, and most incidents are mixed to a similar level, so at first the songs hit you as unresolved slabs of babble." Ewing continued: "This makes ''Centipede Hz'' a tough listening experience to begin with, but not a particularly weird one. Once you adjust to the new method and peer through the layers of detail and clustered production, these are often quite conventional – if meandering – indie-rock songs." ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

''s Marc Hirsh, while praising the songs "Pulleys" and "Wide Eyed", wrote "other songs are so densely packed with sonic information that they become nearly impenetrable". Hirsh concluded: "Animal Collective runs riot on the head front so thoroughly that it overlooks its own eagerness to please. Instead, ''Centipede Hz'' insists that listeners think their way to liking it."

Commercial

The album debuted at No. 16 on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart on its first week of release, with around 17,000 copies sold in the United States. It also debuted at No. 6 on the ''Billboards

Rock Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

chart, and No. 5 on the

Alternative Albums The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

chart. As of January 2016, the album has sold 47,000 copies in the US.

Track listing

Sample credits * "Mercury Man" contains a sample from "Invasion", performed by

King Tubby Osbourne Ruddock (28 January 1941 – 6 February 1989), better known as King Tubby, was a Jamaican sound engineer who influenced the development of dub music in the 1960s and 1970s. Tubby's studio work, in which as a mixing engineer he achiev ...

. The original sample is a composition by

Morton Subotnick Morton Subotnick (born April 14, 1933) is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his 1967 composition '' Silver Apples of the Moon'', the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch. He was one of the fo ...

for the intro of

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trust ...

's program ''The 21st Century.''

Personnel

Animal Collective

* Avey Tare – vocals, synthesizers, piano, guitar, sampler, sequencer, percussion *

Panda Bear The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear or simply panda, is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its white coat with black patches around the eyes, ears, legs and shoulders. Its body is ...

– vocals, drums, sampler, percussion * Deakin – vocals, baritone guitar, sampler, percussion *

Geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

– sampler, synthesizers, piano, percussion

Additional musicians

* Dave Scher – lap steel guitar (''2'', ''7'' and ''10''), melodica (''3'') * Riverside Middle School Choir – vocals (''6'' and ''7'')

Recording personnel

– producer *Ben H. Allen III – producer, recording, engineering, mixing * Manuel Calderon – recording assistant *Rob Skipworth – recording assistant *Brad Truax – recording assistant *Joe D'Agostino – recording assistant *Sumner Jones – recording assistant *

Alex Tumay Alexander Tumay (born July 19, 1986) is an American audio engineer and DJ from Atlanta, Georgia. He has recorded and mixed songs for major artists across the American hip hop industry, including Young Thug, Travis Scott, Future, Kanye West, Drake ...

– recording assistant *Joe Lambert – mastering

Artwork

* Dave Portner – photography, artwork * Abby Portner – artwork *Rob Carmichael – artwork * Atiba Jefferson – photography

Charts

External links

Animal Collective official website

Animal Collective Domino Records press page

References

{{Authority control 2012 albums Animal Collective albums Domino Recording Company albums Art pop albums Experimental music albums by American artists Albums recorded at Sonic Ranch