Animal Collective’s Deakin Announces Solo Debut, Releases ‘Just Am’ Video

Animal Collective is so often thought of as a band that it’s hard to malign the average fan for not realizing that, true to its name, Animal Collective is, in fact, a collective. Members Panda Bear and Avey Tare are the only constants, with Geologist and Deakin contributing on an album-to-album basis.

Noah Lennox, aka Panda Bear, is the most prolific of the collective, having released five solo albums (the last three of which are absolute gems) and a few EPs. Dave Portner, aka Avey Tare, has released a split LP with his then-wife Kría Brekkan, a solo LP and, most recently, an album with his other band, Slasher Flicks.

It’s easy to look at AnCo’s two main members and think they are the greater than the sum of the whole, but Deakin’s long-awaited solo album is poised to put that myth to rest. After a controversial Kickstarter campaign, and years of silence, Sleep Cycle will arrive Friday, April 8, on all streaming platforms.

Back in 2009, Josh Dibb, aka Deakin, launched a Kickstarter to raise funds for an album. 205 backers pledged nearly $26,000, but years passed and no music came. When Animal Collective released Centipede Hz in 2012, backers started complaining about the lack of any materialization of product. That year, Dibb told Pitchfork, “Whether or not people can be sympathetic to this or not, it’s just been a much slower process to do things on my own than with the band.”

On April 1, Dibb posted on his Kickstarter page that all the backers would be receiving the promised goodies for their donations. This morning, Deakin briefly streamed the album via Bandcamp, but has since restricted it to paying listeners, with unlimited streaming starting at $6. Watch the surreal video for single “Just Am” below: