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Albert Einstein wrote a book called The World As I See It. Collective Soul wrote a mid-1990s modern-rock radio hit called "The World I Know". Rusty Santos produced Animal Collective's Sung Tongs and Panda Bear's Person Pitch, so he basically blows them both out of the water (uh, except when it comes to theoretical physics). Einstein goes back to the beach on "World I See", the title track from Santos' debut album as the Present. As on the albums the New York musician has produced, it's a beach of immature joy and impressionistic sprawl, where Lord of the Flies might break out as soon as somebody notices the chubby kid with glasses. The track has an improvisatory feel, with tribal percussion and gurgling synths that blur into distant, Excepter-like moans and a voice repeating the title phrase. Then halfway through there's a calm in the storm, as the percussion fades away and "World I See" transforms into an ambient exercise in fuzzy spoken-word, tranquil sighs, and lambent piano. It may not be rocket science, but on the plus side, it's not Collective Soul, either.

MP3:> The Present: "World I See"
[from World I See; due 10/06/08 in Europe, 10/07/08 in the U.S., and out now in Japan on LOAF]

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