On first listen,
Prospect Hummer, the welcome four-song collaboration of obscure folk doyenne
Vashti Bunyan with postmodern experimentalists
Animal Collective, appears to be a formless wash of vocals and autoharp, a work that ebbs and flows with some power but ultimately signifies nothing. It gradually becomes clear, however, that something more is occurring here; the group is channeling the same sense of primal folk -- not traditional, yet very ancient -- that
Bunyan and her friends did on the quiet 1970 masterpiece
Just Another Diamond Day and
Animal Collective did on a different scale with 2004's
Sung Tongs. This is very much a modern recording, focusing on the spirit of the performance rather than song-based material (the only exception is the closer). While the material doesn't have the same infectious power as
Bunyan's "Rose Hip November," it deliciously blends the similarities held by both
Bunyan in the late '60s and
Animal Collective nearly 40 years later.