Animal Collective change EP artwork and album title, apologise for using a "racist stereotype"

Ahead of Animal Collective releasing their discography on Bandcamp today (3 July) as part of the comapny waiving its revenue shares for 24 hours, the band released a statement which saw them announce a new EP and discuss "a few things we felt important to address and correct."

Bridge to Quiet is the group's new EP. The band explains of the project in the statement, "During April and May, we took a look at some of our improvisations from 2019 and early 2020. We remixed them, collaged them, and built them into songs, finding our way to Bridge to Quiet."

As well as announcing their Bridge to Quiet EP, Animal Collective also confirmed some changes to previous projects. The first change is the artwork for their 2006 EP People. The original cover featured a black woman with two white children. The band writes, "There is no way to excuse using a "mammy" on our artwork, and so we have decided to remove it. We understand now that using a racist stereotype at all causes more damage than an explanation can repair, and we apologise." As well as changing the artwork and apologising, Animal Collective will donate a portion of proceeds from the EP to the Equal Justice Initiative.

They also confirmed that they will donate a portion of proceeds from their Meeting of the Waters EP to Cultural Survival as the EP features samples of "the Tatuyo tribe in Brazil".

Animal Collective have also updated the title of their 2003 LP Here Comes the Indian, which is now titled Ark. The group wrote, "With utmost respect to Indigenous people we feel that having the word Indian in our record title sends the wrong message by objectifying the American Indian people which is not what we were intending with the music."

On top of those changes across their discography, Animal Collective confirmed they will be splitting a $10,000 donation between Cultural Survival, the Equal Justice Initiative, Seeding Sovereignty, Southerners on New Ground (SONG), and the Okra Project "in the spirit of gratitude and support of the Black Lives Matter movement."

The band close their statement by writing, "The actions we are taking today are not the end of our commitment to address these issues. It's our desire to stay engaged in the issues that surround us and we will continue to find ways we can engage and support."

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A post shared by Animal Collective (@anmlcollective) on Jul 2, 2020 at 8:23pm PDT