The concept of this project is beyond intriguing. Can Ox’s The Cold Vein is classic, and EL-P’s production is at his finest. Animal Collective and Cannibal Ox are about as different as it gets. Can Ox rises out of the synthetic chaos of NYC. The feel is cold, harsh, and heady. Animal Collective on the other hand is warm, and shrugs off the complications of technology. They’ve also gained quite a bit more notoriety. Animal Ox doesn’t challenge the brilliance of the originals but curiously mixes the two. Trying to compare the originals to this defeats the purpose, and almost prevented me from giving it a chance. The project is surprisingly solid. The overall feel is less harsh, and lets the best parts of each shine. Cassette’s Won’t Listen is more affliated with the hip hop community, so An Ox steers more closely to hip hop. The F-Word is my favorite so far. It’s prolly going to piss off some die hard can ox and an co fans, but oh well.

Cassettes Won’t Listen – Animal Ox (zip)

Animal Ox – The F Word

Animal Ox – Vein