{"id":370815,"date":"2019-06-20T16:33:48","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T14:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/?p=370815"},"modified":"2019-06-26T12:31:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T10:31:03","slug":"hit-the-tone-merriweather-post-pavilion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/gear\/hit-the-tone-merriweather-post-pavilion\/","title":{"rendered":"Hit the Tone! Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 years of Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion<\/em><\/h3>\n
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Are you referring to the album with this trippy moving cover?<\/h3>\n

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Exactly. In this age of the ephemeral, few artistic works manage to transcend in the least. Even fewer are the works remembered a year after they were conceived. And let’s not even mention those that are still in the collective memory a decade later. That’s right: practically none. But one of them is the one we’re dealing with here today, Merriweather Post Pavilion<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, Animal Collective<\/strong><\/a>‘s eighth album. To understand it, you have to take into account two factors: unlike other bands, these Americans write songs for going on tour, and not necessarily to record (something they do later, of course). Secondly, the creation of Merriweather Post Pavilion<\/em><\/strong> was marked by the decision of the then guitarist, Deakin,<\/strong> to quit the band. Accustomed to making virtue of necessity, the band decided to create an album from samplers, without using the guitar<\/strong> for the first time. Hand in hand with eclectic producer Ben H. Allen<\/strong>, the (then) trio<\/strong> gave shape to a majestic<\/strong> album, accessible<\/strong> and complex<\/strong> at the same time, an ambitious accomplishment. For some, Merriweather Post Pavilion<\/em> designated Animal Collective as the Beach Boys<\/strong> of our time. Big words, indeed!<\/p>\n

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Beach Boys with samplers?<\/h3>\n

Yeah, that’s what people are claiming. Animal Collective considered the possibility of reaching the sublimation of melodies through sampler technology.<\/strong> This comes to mean the same thing James Blake<\/strong> does with certain reminiscences of soul, for example: to try to unite the tradition of popular music with the possibilities of the new sounds. In this journey, there was an essential device, a sampler without which\u00a0Merriweather Post Pavilion<\/em> would be a completely different album: we’re talking about the Roland SP-404<\/strong><\/a>. This is explained by one member of the Collective, Brian Weitz <\/strong>(also known as Geologist<\/strong>): “The SP404 was just what we started using, because it was what we could afford and it was the most simple thing. And now it’s become an instrument that we know really well. It’s really user friendly. You can do things in real time on it. So we’ve gotten used to them. We almost may be approaching a point where we know them too well and it’s time to try something else.” We are talking about a sampler designed to use live<\/strong>, which is usually complemented with the Roland TR-8<\/strong><\/a>, making it possible for the perfect balance between sampling<\/strong> and beats.<\/strong> The SP-404 (the new model in our shop being the SP-404A<\/strong><\/a>) recovers all functions and features of the classic SP-404SX<\/strong>, such as 16-bit linear sampling<\/strong>, the 29 effects<\/strong>, Integrated DSP<\/strong>, FX switching<\/strong> and 12 professional performance pads<\/strong>. It also includes an SD with an updated loopmaster library<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\t\t