Danse Manatee is the first collaborative studio album between Avey Tare, Panda Bear, and Geologist, released in July 2001 on the label Catsup Plate.

Band member Geologist, who joined Avey Tare and Panda Bear for the first time on this release, has said that this is perhaps his favorite Animal Collective album, despite its general lack of popularity among fans and critics.

This created a challenge during the mastering process, as they could not raise the volume of the whole mix without causing the sounds to digitally distort.

Geologist had this to say about the recording of the album on the Collected Animals forum: We used guitars drums synths and made a bunch of sounds on minidiscs and did percussion stuff on whatever was lying around.

[4]For the Spirit/Danse reissue on FatCat Records, Danse Manatee was remastered by Sung Tongs producer Rusty Santos.