A Shaw Deal by Geologist and D.S.

Fans of Animal Collective know what I’m talking about when I describe the band’s music as breathing, with hauntingly organic tonal swells forming the core rhythms of much of the band’s music. Animal Collective member Geologist and longtime collaborator D.S. take this concept to experimental depths on A Shaw Deal, a record whose sparse yet impactful sonic source material embarks on an undead cyclical march into unexpected emotional territory. Starting with disorienting, persistent, anxious electroacoustic textures, each track’s deeply distorted and largely unrecognizable sounds lighten with every rhythmic cycle. Warm drones appear as grating noise dissipates, recontextualizing each track’s formerly anxious, heavy breathing into open sighs of relief. As these cycles become more apparent and reliable, our attention naturally turns towards them as an object of meditation, mirroring mindfulness breathwork techniques that help us regulate our racing thoughts. Serving as both a tool and argument for meditative stability, A Shaw Deal shows us the states of mind that await us when we meet exterior chaos with mental fortitude one breath at a time.