Avey Tare has brought Animal Collective bandmate Noah Lennox (A.K.A. Panda Bear) along for a new single, “Vampire Tongues.”
Atop a skittering, rippling beat, the Tare-Bear combo offset busy synths, strange dissonance, and drum machines with moments of melodic clarity. It’s definitely reminiscent of their Animal Collective work together, while also remaining as experimental as ever — the song’s halting bridge is eerie, tense, and atmosphere-altering, and they reprise that same feeling each time they shift keys into the creeping chorus. Stream “Vampire Tongues” below.
“Right now the basic process of making music is more important to me than any outcome,” Dave Portner (Avey Tare) said in a press release. “It’s a process of learning. Collaboration is as much about learning from someone as it is creating something with someone. There’s a nice surprise element. I wonder, what is this person going to do with this idea? Where is this song going to go when someone else is guiding the ship? I’m doing the research. Here’s me attempting to learn something from my old friend Noah.”
Avey Tare’s most recent solo album, 7’s, dropped back in January 2023. Revisit our edition of Crate Digging with Avey Tare, where the musician digs into 10 essential pop albums that every music fan should own.
Meanwhile, Animal Collective’s last effort was 2023’s Isn’t It Now?. They also are reissuing their seminal 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavilion on vinyl for its 15th anniversary.