ODDSAC: A Visual Album by Animal Collective and Danny Perez.

Animal Collective are no strangers to oddness and neither is director/visual artist Danny Perez, in fact they have made many strange music videos together in the past. While their past work can be seen as a sort of precursor to this film none of it can prepare you for the experience of ODDSAC. I had no idea what to expect going in to this as there is only a 26 second trailer but I knew it would be some what dark and weird.
The movie is a real testament to a kind of tension and release similar to a lot of Animal Collectives earlier recordings but with a visual element that really adds a whole new layer to intensify the feelings. One scene that comes to mind that really drives this home is made up of what sounds and looks like a mass of frequencies being boiled and cooled at an alarming rate and at its apex, the moment where you think your head might explode from the chaotic overload an overly cheery and joyous song emerges. This happens a lot in the movie but it never seems repetitive or overbearing because the explosions into calmness are always a really wonderful pay off. The music in the film is really fantastic, anyone familiar with Animal Collectives earlier music will surely love a lot of the songs in here and those of you not familiar with it will really enjoy it as well if taken in with an open mind. The music was made solely to accompany the visuals and both were recorded within the same 4 year time frame, the members from Animal Collective are actually in a lot of the movie as well. There is no real story or plot to the movie and its made up mostly of a collection of scenes that seemingly have nothing to do with each other but still flow together very fluidly even if they may leave you scratching your head at times. There are also definite nods to old horror films here with a vampire that looks very similar to Nosferatu, an eerie camp fire scene that crescendos in depraved marshmallow eating gore
As a long time fan of Animal Collectives work I really enjoyed this production, it was very well put together, was thoroughly interesting and its just really cool to see how they envision their own music. As they said in the Q and A though "This movie isn't for everyone" and this is definitely true, you could hear the mixed reviews coming from all around you as the crowd exited the theater. It's really great to see bands expanding their use of different mediums and I can only hope that more contemporary bands start doing things like this. There is no release date yet for the DVD but look for it sometime in the coming months with some special features that have yet to be disclosed, also if you'd like to see this check the website for upcoming screenings.

ODDSAC