During Covid, Animal Collective’s Geologist often found peace by watching clips of his long-standing pal, Highlife’s Doug Shaw, playing guitar on Instagram. To thank Doug for the relief the clips offered him during those tough times, Geologist decided to turn them into a collage which he planned to play on NTS. After a few transitions and tweaks the collage started to sound more like a record so he decided to gift it to Doug for his birthday. The timing ended up being perfect because Doug was unable to finish recording his own project at the time, so in a sense A Shaw Deal fell in for it.
You could also say A Shaw Deal technically is a Doug Shaw record because all the sounds are his, just reprocessed through Geologist’s modular patches. That processing has worked magic though, causing Doug’s chords to gracefully mutate into abstract sounds that reach into places he would have never foreseen. Sounds like shapes that echo and bounce, and jittering strobes that flicker in flux. In A Shaw Deal, Geologist harnesses the soul and meditative essence that went into Doug’s original recordings and uses it to fuel his textural explorations, weaving a colourful and jagged sonic field that jolts the nervous system into high alert only to placate it back into moments of snug dormancy.
A prime example is the shift from the glowing expansive loops of ‘Loose Gravel’ reminiscent of YouTube bedtime healing frequencies, to the hullabaloo of next track ‘Petticoat’ that sounds like a dog running back and forth over piano keys. Make no mistake though, every track on the record is a shift in perception and emotion – sometimes subtle, other times overtly pronounced – but always curious and playful. The last track is the exception which features Doug’s unedited guitarwork which Geologist placed there in order to bring attention to music which he feels the world needs to hear more of.
Through this project, Geologist has created a collaborative dimension in which two friends’ consciousnesses, as channelled through their artistry, collide and converse and ultimately transmute into a unified artistic expression. A Shaw Deal is an aural patchwork stitched together with the technical ability and confidence of an established sonic manipulator, but above all that – it’s a beautiful ode to friendship and music’s healing power.
