Sung Tongs Live by Animal Collective (Domino)

Animal Collective
Sung Tongs Live at the Theatre at Ace Hotel
Domino Records

If you were there 20 years ago, it’s an experience that you may never forget. The release of Sung Tongs in 2004 was an epistemological reverence for art. An essential release for its time, it was challenging, it was eclectic, it was interesting, and, most of all, it felt alive.

My experience of Animal Collective goes as far as the revered recordings and their storied past. Album after album of music mystique that often bled into side projects that expanded the universe, you imagined a live experience that further challenged the limitations of the mind. For those like me who have never had the opportunity to experience the band live, Sung Tongs Live at the Theatre at Ace Hotel is pretty darn close.

Much like its original, you cannot be selective with what you listen to, the experience is best processed from front to back. And surprisingly enough, it stays true to its roots. You hear the organic occasion of a crowd cheer, but for the most part, the audio does a wonderful job at celebrating the dynamics of the group’s vocal chanting. Syllables crescendo and drop off like the chaotic mechanics of nature that further enter into a microcosm of meditative natural processed imitations like on “The Softest Voice” or “Mouth Wooed Her.” It is in these instances that you realize just how important it is to get soundcheck and its dynamics just right.

You get to experience the additions of songs like “Covered In Frogs” which showed up on the double LP bundle and, after the final echo of “Whaddit I Done,” they add in a new perspective to “Prospect Hummer” and “ I Learned How to Dive” from the Prospect Hummer EP. “Sea of Light” was repurposed for this tour while “Toovin’” gets the light of day with this live release. There are just enough nuggets for those dedicated to Animal Collective while a historical dive for those looking to gain a new perspective of a quintessential 21st Century release.