Press quotes on AKRON/FAMILY

Some early reactions to Set 'Em Wild and to Akron/Family's recent appearance at SXSW:

Is this what Animal Collective would sound like if Avey and Panda turned down the synth faders and slapped on a fresh coat of Americana?... this psychedelic track is Freaking/Awesome (Pitchfork, USA)

With a rubbery groove and motormouth chanting, opening track "Everyone Is Guilty" is the album's schizophrenic monster jam (Stereogum, USA)

Let’s just say this up front: Akron/Family killed. They were the best show of the night. One continuous freakout that touched the highlights of their new record, easily their best (Pop Matters, USA)

It was Akron/Family that got the venue jumping, though, with cuts from their upcoming Set ’Em Wild Set ’Em Free record, which promises to be huge (Time Out NY, USA)

How come nobody told me this would be my new favorite band? (LA Weekly, USA)

I'd never seen Akron/Family live before. Now I think I want to see them live every day for the rest of my life (Dallas Observer, USA)

Akron is fifty bands in one. There's psychedelic rock, folk, free-jazz, hip-hop, punk, dance, gospel and heaps more, and they throw their back into every minute of it, creating a wickedly raw, exposed form of music that is absolutely impossible to cage up and put into a category box (Jambase, USA)

Previous press quotes

Where antique folk balladry, primal drone and exposive improvisation meet and melt... true family music. (David Fricke, Rolling Stone, USA)

(They) have proved themselves capable of more extraordinary, kaleidoscopic musical feats than most - morphing from quiet country-gospel into heavy psych-rock workouts, dipping into strange marching-band anthems and reverberating free-jazz jams along the way... a genuine one-off (Guardian, UK)

Animal Collective, Akron/Family... illuminated and digitized folklore… (...) The band is as impressive live as on record, with its ablilty to juggle with '70s influences and contemporary free folk experimentation (...) A sonic power developed while touring around the world... (Les Inrockuptibles, France)

The most beautiful thing about the Akron/Family... is that they are virtually unclassifiable... once given the opportunity, this band, no matter how seemingly chaotic their sounds are from the outside, will seduce as well as astonish. (All Music Guide, US)

What Radiohead might sound like if influenced by traditional American antecedents... (they) combine a formidable assortment of modern and pre-modern styles into a cogent, singular whole. Fluent in the vocabularies of rock, folk, soul and jazz... (Dusted, US)

A record no one expected, which suddenly imposes itself, clings to you, never leaves you..; hallucinated elegies, slowed-down trances, songs overflowing with incredible richness (La Blogothèque, France)

Pastoral beauty, blazing skree, heavy rock, studio playfulness, big solos, boom-bap beats, tight arrangements, a mindset that would embrace anything... that's what Akron/Family's records have offered most consistently... Remember, anything goes (Pitchfork, US)

Strictly speaking, theirs is a kind of modern folk music, in that real, acoustic instruments mingle with four part harmonies. But the Akrons' musical connection and skill allows for wild, instinctual experimentalism (Zep-style wig outs and shamanic incantations)... Bringing together such disparate influences as '70s classic rock, African funk and '80s hip hop… Heady, bodily, beautiful stuff" (Mojo, UK)

Sounds like a duel between Sons And Daughters and and amped-up Tinariwen. Earthy, mystic and folky – yet properly twisted and primal (Time Out London, UK)