''Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished'' is the first collaborative
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
by Avey Tare (David Portner) and Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), released in August 2000. It was later retroactively classified as the debut studio album by Portner and Lennox's group
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an American experimental pop band formed in Baltimore County, Maryland. Its members consist of Avey Tare (David Portner), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), Geologist (Brian Weitz), and Deakin (Josh Dibb). The band's work is cha ...
. The album was first released as a CD on the band's own Animal label (now known as Paw Tracks) with only 2000 copies produced.
It was reissued as a double CD along with '' Danse Manatee'' in 2003 on FatCat Records, and later on limited edition vinyl through FatCat. Both UK and US pressings used
direct metal mastering
Direct metal mastering (DMM) is an analog audio disc mastering technique jointly developed by two German companies, Telefunken-Decca ( Teldec) and Georg Neumann GmbH, toward the end of the 20th century after having seen the same technology us ...
.
The album was remastered and reissued again through Domino Recording Company in 2023, containing a new cover art, and a new EP of unreleased material from the era.
Background
All of the songs were written by Avey Tare (David Portner) from 1997 to 1999, except for "Penny Dreadfuls" which was written when he was 16 years old. The process was strongly inspired by his move from
Baltimore
Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
to
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
Baltimore City Paper
''Baltimore City Paper'' was a free alternative weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, founded in 1977 by Russ Smith and Alan Hirsch. The most recent owner was the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which purchased the pape ...
'', October 19, 2005. Retrieved on July 5, 2010. Portner and Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) recorded the acoustic guitar and the drums live onto a
Tascam
TASCAM is the professional audio division of TEAC Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo Japan. TASCAM established the Home Recording phenomenon by creating the "Project Studio" and is credited as the inventor of the Portastudio, the first casset ...
48 eight-track reel-to-reel in Portner's bedroom in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...
during the summer of 1999. The piano songs along with overdubs were recorded in Portner's parents' living room.
Portner wanted the guitar to be "jangled to create this fluttering feeling".MOTHER NATURE’S SONS: Animal Collective and Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti by Simon Reynolds, The Wire, 2005
An old Roland SH-2
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
, which Weitz's brother found stored in a camp, was used for the bass sounds. The drums were played with brushes to emulate the albums '' Ocean Rain'' and '' Forever Changes''. Avey Tare would dictate what he wanted the rhythm to be through
beatboxing
Beatboxing (also, and sometimes, called beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (usually a Roland TR-808, TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.feedback loops.
Future Animal Collective member Deakin (Josh Dibb) helped with the promotion and sent packages to record companies. Portner recalled, " Southern Records called us back immediately and said ‘Is there something wrong with this? This music makes our dogs run out of the room’!"
Release
The original cover art was found by Avey Tare, who considered it fitting. The art was later discovered to be an illustration by Dorothy P. Lathrop from the book ''Stars To-Night: Verses New and Old for Boys and Girls'' by Sara Teasdale. The album was intended to be released under Avey Tare's name alone, but he was so impressed by Panda Bear's drumming that he added Panda's name on the front cover. This method of choosing monikers for Animal Collective's recorded output—naming themselves after who played on each respective album—would last until 2003's ''Campfire Songs''.
Included with the original release and later vinyl pressings was an insert with the following story:
The title is a quote uttered by Mr. Magoo in '' Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol''.
Songs from this album have occasionally been performed live in the following years. "Chocolate Girl" was re-worked for performances during 2008. The final passages of "Alvin Row" were performed frequently on the 2016–2017 tour and Avey Tare performed a solo version of "La Rapet" on electric guitar during a livestream in June 2020.
Track listing
There has been some confusion about the album's track listing. On the original, limited release, the untitled track #3 was not listed along with the other songs. Since the track listing gave no corresponding track numbers to the rest of the songs, it was incorrectly assumed that tracks #3–9 were actually titled as tracks #4–10 are here, and that "Alvin Row" had no title. This error appears in nearly every review of ''Spirit'' following its initial release in 2000. The 2003 FatCat reissue cleared up this misunderstanding by numbering the songs and leaving a blank space for track #3.
There is also some confusion in regards to the true title of the complementary EP released with the 2023 Domino Recording Company reissue, ''A Night at Mr. Raindrop's Holistic Pharmacy,'' due to issues regarding pressing and labeling which caused the EP to be improperly titled ''A Night at Mr. Raindrop's Holistic Supermarket.''
vocals
Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
,
acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
,
piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
,
synthesizers
A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
" (
drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...