Animal Collective’s Deakin Announces Solo Album Sleep Cycle, Shares “Just Am” Video
Animal Collective‘s Josh Dibb, aka Deakin, recently announced that he’d finished his long-awaited debut solo LP, originally begun in 2009 as a Kickstarter project. Today, he’s revealed that the album, Sleep Cycle, will be digitally released on Friday, April 8, on all major streaming and digital retailers. He’s also shared a new music video for the album track “Just Am.” Kickstarter backers have already been shipped the album and accompanying awards, including Sleep Cycle on cassette (“currently the only planned physical release of this album,” according to a press release), posters, art books, bonus tracks, exclusive videos, and more. Find the “Just Am” video, album artwork, and tracklist below. Update (10:38 a.m.): The whole album is now streaming at Bandcamp. Listen to it above. Update (12:05 p.m.): Deakin is no longer streaming his album on Bandcamp. It’s still available for purchase and will be out on all platforms Friday.
On April 1, Dibb posted a public note to the LP’s Kickstarter, in which he said that the promised packages had been mailed to all available addresses. “Thanks for sticking with me,” he wrote. Dibb originally raised nearly $26,000 on Kickstarter. The funds were to go towards a trip to perform at the Festival in the Desert in Mali, Africa, the creation of a book and CD, and a charitable donation to TEMEDT, a Mali organization working to help enslaved people.
In 2012, after the album and promised Kickstarter rewards had yet to materialize, Dibb gave an interview with Pitchfork in which he said all of the money had gone to charity. He said he was still working on the album, which was delayed by “fatal perfectionism.”
A press release notes:
Due to personal and professional issues the project has been delayed for years. Most speculated that Deakin used the money that was raised to cover his own travel expenses. This was not the case. The entire trip and all of the subsequent costs to design manufacture and deliver the rewards were self funded except for a small portion that was set aside to help with a portion of shipping and manufacturing costs.
A founding member, Deakin left AnCo some time before the band’s 2009 album Merriweather Post Pavillion. He rejoined in 2010 and was on the band’s Centipede Hz in 2012. He does not appear on their new album Painting With.
A press release describes the process of the album’s recording:
While all of the songs were originally conceived in 2010, only the ambient tracks are recordings from that time. In 2015 Josh went into Rare Book Room studio with Nicolas Vernhes and recorded “Footy” and “Good House.” For that session Josh recruited long-time friend Tim Dewit (aka Dutch E. Germ, original member of Gang Gang Dance) to play drums on “Footy.” After hearing some demos, Pete Kember (aka Sonic Boom), asked to mix “Good House” and the resulting recording is what made the album. Josh finished the rest of the recording and mixing himself at home over the course of late 2015.
Read our new interview with Animal Collective.
Sleep Cycle:
01 Golden Chords
02 Just Am
03 Shadow Mine
04 Footy
05 Seed Song
06 Good House
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