Season Dreaming, the debut from Blind Man's Colour, owes everything to Animal Collective. The record would sound completely different, or perhaps not even exist, without the influence of that band. But rather than accuse Wyss and Chettri of unoriginality or diagram the album's specific reference points-- how the gurgling intro to "The Warm Currents Pull" is reminiscent of "Grass" from Feels or that the synth build of "Heavy Cloud Hustle" recalls the one from MPP's "Brother Sport"-- it seems more constructive to judge the songs on their own merit. And the tracks that make up Season Dreaming, which are cobbled together with acoustic instrumentation and bedroom electronics and possess the hazy ambience of a long day at the beach, are mostly quite nice.
Blind Man's Colour rely heavily on texture and ambience, applying shimmering layers of background synths and dubby aquatics, but wisely keep most of their material tethered to a formal structure. Season Dreaming is the sort of record that could, in the wrong hands, easily drift off into formless bedlam, but the group's employment of simple melodies and tunefulness when needed keeps that from happening. A track like "Heavy Cloud Hustle" works because of that balance, its rolling percussion and stabs of heavy bass eventually making way for a lovey-dovey, almost classically doo-wop chorus. Other, simpler songs such as "The Dinosaur Ride", with a lo-fi acoustic backing reminiscent of current beach-pop tunesmiths Toro Y Moi and Washed Out, succeed in much the same manner.
That's not always the case, though, as Season Dreaming occasionally runs into trouble. The band gets ambitious on "The Planets Explode", sort of a noise cloud that floats over flickering keys and ghostly vocals, and loses their footing as the track becomes a bit murky and grey. But that's the exception here and not the rule. Elsewhere Blind Man's Colour show an enthusiasm, like other recent pop collagists Telepathe and Teengirl Fantasy, to incorporate sounds from outside the general sphere of experimental indie, utilizing heavy hip-hop bass on standout "Jimmy Dove" and building a distorted synth-pop lullaby with "Sleeping Habits". It's these moments of adventurousness that make Season Dreaming more than just a Feels knock-off, even if, yes, it does sound a lot like that album. But to discard it for that reason alone is also to deny the wide impact of a band like Animal Collective and preemptively rule out the many other acts coming down the pipeline also drawing upon them. And believe me, these guys won't be the last.
