Rather than listening out for the first cuckoo you can herald the arrival of spring with the new Animal Collective EP, Water Curses.

Containing 4 brand new tracks, Water Curses is the first Animal Collective release since last year's tour de force Strawberry Jam.

Water Curses sees the band's capacity for re-imaging their constituent parts into ever more interesting and saturated shapes go up by a giddy notch. All four tracks have a more stripped down feel than their recent work, opener Water Curses takes an unexpected rhythm and throws it up, down and sideways to produce the sound of a smile. A technique that Animal Collective are now in a position to call their own.

"Street Flash" is nearly seven minutes of spaced out hollers, electronics and lullabies that luxuriate in a chord sequence running through a delay that sounds like it's made of honey. Threatening to explode but laying back on itself instead the track is like a particularly lucid dream.

"Cobwebs" is equally languid. Weaving itself around a vocal that sounds like it's imagining some new kind of space church for Al Green to conduct weddings until it slowly fades away into a sticky ether. The EP's final track takes the celestial feel into even more blissed-out states. "Seal Eyeing" is the moment you realize watching vapor trails melt into the sky is not only the most constructive thing you can do, but the only real option that's left.1. Water Curses
2. Street Flash
3. Cobwebs
4. Seal Eyeing

All tracks find Animal Collective exploring strange new waters

All tracks recorded with Scott Colburn at Wavelab Studio (Tucson, AZ), except Seal Eyeing by Nicolas Vernhes

All mixed with Nicolas Vernhes at Rare Book Room (Brooklyn, NY)