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Set to begin this November, the group’s 6 date UK tour – and then extensive European leg – was announced in the later months of last year. But now all these careful plans have been torn down, in summary, due to “Inflation, currency devaluation, bloated shipping and transportation costs”. The band released a statement to their Instagram explaining the situation: “Friends, we are absolutely gutted to announce today that we are making the decision to cancel our UK/EU dates for this November. We love playing music for you and truly wish we could be there.”

The post then takes a more sombre tone: “It has been a wild year for us trying to push through a mountain of touring obstacles related to COVID and the economy. Three of us got bad cases of Covid. We were forced to cancel shows and lost large amounts of the income that sustains us and our families. But preparing for this tour we were looking at an economic reality that simply does not work and is not sustainable.”

The obvious levels of sheer disappointment then come with the band’s explanation for the newfound costs of touring: “From inflation to currency devaluation, to bloated shipping and transportation costs, and much much more, we simply could not make a budget for this tour that did not lose money even if everything went as well as it could. We have always been the kind of people to persevere through the difficult times and get on stage unless our health prevented it. We are choosing not to take the risk to our mental and physical health with the economic reality of what that tour would have been. We hope you understand and that you know we would not make a choice like this lightly.”

 This summary seems to me like very bad news. Animal Collective may not be a household name these days, but they still have an undying fanbase all around the world after the huge success of their older projects like Merriweather Post Pavilion, or even Strawberry Jam. But now, they don’t have the funds to make it across the Atlantic. Consider for a moment a band in today’s day and age, with a new album that launches their career in the same way as Merriweather did for AN CO. Would we even get the chance to see them? Or will they just end up slipping through the cracks… this is bad news.

It is shaping up to be quite the musical treasure hunt about town, venues such as Fabric, The Shacklewell Arms, The Roundhouse, Village Underground and Islington Assembly Hall (among others) will be hosting the various acts from across the globe.

Already lined up are the psychedelic American powerhouses Animal Collective. Courtney Barnett will also be bringing her extensive songbook up to London as well as Jenny Hval, Big Joanie, Injury Reserve and bar italia.  Off the back of her beautiful album Pompeii, Cate Le Bon will join the fun too to round off a tastefully eclectic mix of modern artists. Have a look at the promotional trailer for November’s Festival down below:

The Editor-in-Chief of Pitchfork, Puja Patel stated; “Following the celebratory return of Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago last year, along with the sold out debut of Pitchfork London and the success of Pitchfork Paris, it feels exhilarating to launch our first-ever festival in Berlin – a city that has long served as a global focal point of culture and creativity. It’s heartwarming to see Pitchfork resonate with music fans around the world and grow our community in new cities.”

Tickets will go on sale on the 1^st of July 2022 at 10am and can be pre-ordered at the official website.

Last years the festival was received with adulation as once again a head-spinning curation of musical talent was laid out for the punters. With names like Black Midi, Lex Armor, Iceage, Moses Boyd, Emma Jean Thackray and Stereolab to name just a few.

A review of the event stated here; “While Pitchfork festival is a markedly different affair to the green-field sing-alongs of the summer, its London festival manages to retain the atmosphere of discovery and excitement in the capital’s rainy streets. The passion in each act shone through; from Thackray’s exacting conducting to Iceage’s sweaty and intense energy, you could feel it radiating off every stage.”

“Pitchfork clearly focused not on which bands would attract the most punters, but on which bands would genuinely excite and enthral its audience of dedicated musos. The festival is run by fans, for fans, and that’s what is so exciting about being there.”

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“We Go Back” is the fourth single to be taken from the band’s forthcoming album, and was accompanied by an official music video. Directed by Canadian animator Winston Hacking, the single’s video is a colourful trip into an imagination fuelled world. Hacking is known for his psychedelic work and has teamed up with various artists including Flying Lotus and Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf.

Speaking on his experience working with Animal Collective, Hacking has stated, “It was a thrill to work with Animal Collective – they trusted our sense of play and commitment to spontaneity which is mirrored in their sound, The video is composed of scanned locations, miniature sets and collage cut outs that embrace the low-fi 3d aesthetic inherent in photogrammetry.”

The press release provides the following description for the album, “These nine songs are love letters, distress signals, en plein air observations, and relaxation hymns, the collected transmissions of four people who have grown into relationships and parenthood and adult worry. But they are rendered with Animal Collective’s singular sense of exploratory wonder, same as they ever were. There are harmonies so rich you want to skydive through their shared air, textures so fascinating you want to decode their sorcery, rhythms so intricate you want to untangle their sources. Here is Animal Collective past 20, still in search of what’s next.”

The group’s upcoming album, Time Skiffs, is the group’s eleventh studio album and their first full album in over five years. The album’s lead single entitled “Prester John” was released on 20th October 2021, “Walker” was the album’s second single and was released on 13th December 2021. The track was primarily written and released as a tribute to pop icon Scott Walker, the singer who tragically lost his life in 2019 whilst the group were working on new music. The third track to be taken from the album “Strung With Everything” was released on 19th January 2022 and also was accompanied by an animated music video.

The band recently treated ticketholders at Pitchfork Music Festival 2021 to a live performance that included two unreleased tracks from Time Skiffs. The album tracks featured in the set were “Car Keys” and “Dragon Slayer”, the group also performed “In The Flowers” taken from their eighth studio album Merriweather Post Pavilion.

The quartet is set to hit the road next month for the US leg of their 2022 tour, the fifteen-date series will kickstart on 8th March 2022 with a performance in Richmond, VA and will conclude on 26th March 2022 with a set in Atlanta GA. The UK and European tour dates are set to begin on 7th September at Madrid’s Mad Cool Festival, and after the Spanish event, the group will perform five dates in Ireland and the UK. The UK leg concludes with a set in Glasgow on 9th September 2022 before returning to Europe for the remaining ten dates before the tour’s final performance in Germany on 27th November 2022.

Time Skiffs will be available to purchase on multiple formats including CD, 2XLP and via digital streaming platforms. The Domino store has also opened pre-orders for a limited edition deluxe 2XLP on starburst ruby and black vinyl.

Animal Collective UK Tour dates

02/11/2022 – Dolan’s – Limerick
03/11 – National Concert Hall – Dublin
06/11 – SWX – Bristol
07/11 – Albert Hall – Manchester
09/11 – Saint Luke’s – Glasgow

Click here to purchase tickets.

Click here to watch the Pitchfork Music Festival 2021 set.

Click here to pre-order Time Skiffs.

Photo credit: Hisham Bharoocha/Press Release

On top of the announcement of their tour dates, Animal Collective have also shared the third track from their upcoming album following on from recent singles “Prester John” and “Walker” a tribute track to famous singer Scott Walker of The Walker Brothers who died around the time of the track’s writing (March 2019). Now they have released “Strung With Everything” an experimental, psychedelia-inspired record that runs at just under seven minutes. The track also comes alongside a colourful somewhat psychedelic animated video directed by Abby Portner.

Portner discussed her work with the band on the video, she said: “Recently for Animal Collective’s live shows I have been designing and animating all of the video content out of cut paper. I have been editing together symbols and coloured static silhouettes that match the music’s feeling and rhythm. The videos are like pictographs that tell a story organically and simply. For the ‘Strung With Everything’ video we wanted to continue with this process to match the style of the band’s live shows in a music video.”

The song will feature on the band’s upcoming record and 11th studio album, Time Skiffs (pictured below), on February 4 via Domino; it will be Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Geologist and Deakin’s first album since 2016’s Painting With.

You can pre-order the album here as well as view Animal Collective’s UK and European tour dates below with tickets available here.

Animal Collective UK and European Tour Dates:

07/09/22 Madrid, ES – Mad Cool Fest – Madrid, Spain
11/02 Dolan’s – Limerick Ireland
11/03 National Concert Hall – Dublin, Ireland
11/06 SWX – Bristol, UK
11/07 Albert Hall – Manchester, UK
11/09 Saint Luke’s – Glasgow, UK
11/12 Le Grand Mix – Tourcoing, France
11/15 Übel & Gefährlich – Hamburg, Germany
11/16 Kesselhaus – Berlin, Germany
11/17 Prague, CZ – MeetFactory – Prague, Czech Republic
11/19 Arena – Vienna, Austria
11/20 Freiheiz – Munich, Germany
11/21 Fri-Son – Fribourg, Switzerland
11/23 Atelier – Luxembourg
11/24 Paris, FR – Trabendo – Paris, France
11/27 Cologne, DE – Luxor – Colgone, Germnay

Band member Noah Lennox says the single is a tribute to Scott Walker, who died around the time of the track’s writing (March 2019). Walker was a famous singer of the 1960s as part of the Walker Brothers and went on to create increasingly experimental solo records, moving from a distinctly baroque pop approach in the late sixties to avant-garde works from the ’90s until his death in 2019. If you want to see just the extent of this stylistic evolution, you can look at the two tracks below. Lennox said that “Scott’s music has meant a lot to me and he’ll always be a big inspiration. But there’s also a kind of exhaustion and resignation to the singer of ‘Walker’ that belies a darker layer”.


The single is the second release from the band’s upcoming new album, Time Skiffs, which will be out next February 4^th via Domino. The first release came last October with the song “Prester John“. The video to this song was directed by Jason Lester and had a similarly experimental vibe, seeing the band perform amid a light show that continually obscures and changes the band’s surroundings.

A press release describes the new album as being “like listening in on a conversation among four old friends, just as it felt during their inchoate early days or their Strawberry Jam heyday. These nine songs are love letters, distress signals, en plein air observations, and relaxation hymns, the collected transmissions of four people who have grown into relationships and parenthood and adult worry. But they are rendered with Animal Collective’s singular sense of exploratory wonder, same as they ever were. There are harmonies so rich you want to skydive through their shared air, textures so fascinating you want to decode their sorcery, rhythms so intricate you want to untangle their sources.”

Time Skiffs will be released in a number of formats, ranging from CD, 2xLP and digital release. You can also pre-order a limited edition deluxe 2xLP on starburst ruby and black vinyl here. The album’s release will be supported by a spring tour of North America, as well as a date in Spain, that begins next March. The band will be supported by experimental composer L’Rain (Taja Cheek). For those interested in getting tickets and seeing details of tour dates, you can look here. The tracklist for the new album can be seen below.

Time Skiffs tracklisting

1. Dragon Slayer
2. Car Keys
3. Prester John
4. Strung with Everything
5. Walker
6. Cherokee
7. Passer-by
8. We Go Back
9. Royal and Desire

The jam was recorded at Drop of Sun Studios in Ashville, North Carolina on 12th May 2015. Panda Bear, Avey Tare and Geologist feature on the improvised recording, but Deakin wasn’t present. Drop of Sun is where the band wrote and rehearsed their upcoming album, but with no material being released yet this jam is our first insight as to what we might expect.

The music is accompanied by a suitably trippy underwater video taken at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico. As the band suggested on an Instagram post, “Turn off the lights and watch on as big a screen as possible.” The video was filmed by Collin Foord, a marine biologist and one half of Coral Morphologic. According to a description on vimeo the film was shot over two nights in July 2014, with additional camera and lighting by Deakin and Geologist, and editing being done by Jared Mckay of Coral Morphologic.

You can listen to the jam and watch the other-worldly video below:

Animal Collective’s new album doesn’t have a title yet, and will be their first since 2012’s ‘Centipede Hz’. Since then Panda Bear has released a new solo album called ‘Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper’, and yesterday released a 26-minute mix of unused material on Soundcloud that he recorded during work on ‘Grim Reaper’.