Collected Animals

hello everyone, this is a thread for us to gush about how good noah's drumming is

I've played drums since I was 8 years old, and discovered animal collective when i was 14. The first time i heard spirit theyre gone, and again when I heard danse manatee / hollinndagain, my perception of what drumming could be was shattered. in those early days he had a drumming technique unlike any other drummer i've heard. a boiling storm of brutal emotion and rhythmic originality. watching videos of those first couple years, it's hard to believe that it's even possible - he moves with such violent animation yet intense precision, i mean this shits virtuosic. its still hard for me to comprehend all these years later, especially in recordings like the animal crack box versions of the living toys and ahh good country, or the danse manatee recording of meet the light child, and especially the couple of videos of essplode on youtube. although i've played drums in very different settings than the style of music that animal collective makes, there's always some level at which his drumming is influencing me, just because hearing it for the first time blew my understanding of drumming and percussion wide open

I appreciate that he's moved through several distinct phases with his drumming. the early days contrast sharply with the relative simplicity of the feels / sj era, but i still see the thru-line of his understanding of rhythm. the most recent era too, with his precise and understated rhythms on time skiffs. but its those first couple years that set him very far apart from practically every other drummer i've discovered. boggles my mind to this day.

Just on my mind this evening

His ferocity is definitely a big factor. He seems to be giving it his all no matter what he plays. Not to mention his use of textural approach combined with the unconventional micing in the early records give him such a unique sound. And playing with the delay pedal on the snare during the Feels era always blew my mind.

The early stuff really is baffling. Not the biggest drum encyclopedia myself but I'm not even sure who to compare it to, other than jazz drummers. He creates the texture and groove strongly with the cymbals and deemphasizes the kick which is what draws that comparison, and obviously the brushes. It usually feels like the whole point is the cymbal texture.

But I don't think Noah has ever cited jazz as a big early influence. Wonder how he got that good, and what he was imitating and learning from at such a young age. He's always been very open about his influences during that time and I'm not sure how it adds up.

There's been an uncited statement on the Spirit wikipedia page since 2013 that it was to emulate Ocean Rain and Forever Changes, which, fair, are rock albums that have brushes on them and are likely candidates for AC influences. I don't think it explains much about the drumming style though. Also reminded me I need to listen to Forever Changes again that album is fire.

The pure economy he got out of his setup feels thru MPP was insane. Haven’t been able to see him drum since but his sense of rhythm is unimpeachable

Huge fan of PB's drumming. I remember him saying that Stuart Copeland from The Police was a big influence on him learning drums. I've never really listened to that band so I can't relate the influence. But he was saying that Stuart Copeland's drumming was the opposite of Rock drumming. And that he was super into dub/reggae style of playing. I think this is really seen on Feels era songs where he plays the rim of the tom and keeps simple rhythm but adds explosive fills. Also, his drumming on Solange's Binz is the clearest example of him making that rocksteady hi-hat groove. I also read that he's a big fan of Mark Pell's drumming from Micachu and The Shapes. Pell is super creative as well, I think y'all would like.

Good Panda Drumming Interview
https://www.avclub.com/random-rules-ani ... 1798212517

When I was playing drums back around Danse Manatee, the thing I was really psyched about was trying to play really short rhythms really fast, to the point where it just sounded like just another sound in the music, and not so much something that carried a rhythm

oh wow, that makes a ton of sense described that way. finely chopped fast rhythms. drum patterns granulated into textures. typically would be done electronically, but noah did it just playing a kit. what a god