Album Review: Geologist & D.S. - "A Shaw Deal"

A collaboration between Animal Collective's Geologist and Highlife's Doug Shaw, A Shaw Deal is heavily experimental, noisy, repetitive, and full of looping and multilayered sounds, culminating a hypnotic, mesmerizing experience. It's a project to appreciate in concept, but in execution isn't an easy one to return to for repeated listens.

Drag City - 2025

Brian Weitz is one forth of the acclaimed psychedelic pop and experimental band Animal Collective. Going by Geologist as his stage name, Weitz has been with the band throughout the majority of their tenure for nearly twenty five years and yet, he hasn't had much solo material under his own name. A limited cassette here, an NTS radio show there, but nothing super proper in terms of an actual album. That is until recently, where Geologist decided to remix, loop and layer Doug Shaw's folksy guitar work he'd been sharing on his own Instagram page. A good friend of Weitz's, Shaw, who goes by his initials D.S., is most known for his work in Highlife, Gang Gang Dance and White Magic. Weitz decided to do this on a creative whim and shared it to Shaw for his birthday with no intention of sharing it publicly with anyone else. Now, the two decided to release the music under a new collaborative album cleverly titled A Shaw Deal.

Like Weitz's work under his Geologist name or under the Animal Collective umbrella, A Shaw Deal is heavily experimental, noisy, repetitive, and full of looping and multilayered sounds, culminating a hypnotic, mesmerizing experience. It's certainly up to you whether this listening experience is going to be replayable due to its often challenging and hard to digest appeal. Unlike his more prolific bandmates Panda Bear and Avey Tare, Geologist's work has much less pop appeal but rather more atmosphere, experimentation, and soundscapes. "Route 9 Falls" has a steady, pummeling groove behind the retreating, scattering keys that fall like golf ball-sized hail. It sets the tone in an icy way, letting you know you're in for an alien like trip. The folksier guitar work of Shaw is more noticeable on "Wit of the Waterman", where the echoing, psychedelic guitar work is laid out like a chilling blast from a sci-fi alien ray gun. "Ripper Called" sounds like an alien attempting to communicate with you through its native language, while sucking your eardrums dry with its uncomforting, suction sound similar to that of a rubber balloon. "Petticoat" has scattering, peppering noises, resembling a groove in the abstract that morph into an ambient, washing wave of sound. "Knuckles to Nostrils" has a repeating, aggressive looping sound that's certainly not for the faint of heart, especially during its four minute runtime.

Similar to some of the other more challenging and experimental projects from Animal Collective members, A Shaw Deal is one of these projects that I can appreciate as a concept, but in execution it isn't a record with enough appeal to return to for repeated listens. Geologist is definitely flexing his creative muscles, especially by working over Shaw's guitar work and treating it as a blueprint to work off of. It's an album where you can clearly appreciate what's being done here, where you can see how his work here can be compared to his involvement within Animal Collective's music as a whole, how important and vital his work is to the band. But is this something I want to return to again and again, like Panda Bear's Grim Reaper, Avey Tare's 7s, or even Deakin's Sleep Cycle? No, but it's definitely a neat and intriguing project, one that the hardcore fans are going to find enjoyable, seeing where A Shaw Deal is placed within the ever growing web of many Animal Collective affiliated releases.

My Rating: 6 / 10

Favorite Songs: "Route 9 Falls", "Petticoat"