Panda Bear

Key tracks:

Comfy In Nautica
Ponytail
Good Girl / Carrots (Edit)

Label: Rough Trade Publishing

Description:

Get lost in a menagerie of ideas and perfect pop melody, kissed by the Californian sun.

Noah Lennox better known as Panda Bear is the solo project from the drummer of the fantastic Animal Collective. His music is in a similar vein, to that of the band, trippy yet overwhelmingly melodic, all inspired by his nomadic travels and experiences of the United States.

His previous output “Young Prayer,” was a eulogy to his deceased father, it is not hard to instantly recognize the underlying theme of love and rebirth in the follow up “Person Pitch.” (2007). The album met critical acclaim across the board and was shortlisted on many notable best of the year lists. There are obvious comparisons to Brian Wilson in vocal delivery with harmonies intricately layered and bathed in Californian sunshine. Most of the album consists of heavily layered and highly repetitive loops on which Lennox sings oddly familiar and touching melodies. Yet despite it’s grounding in guitar pop, Person Pitch isn’t likely to be mistaken for the work of a band. It sounds like what it is, one guy alone in his bedroom trolling through music history to make his own fantastical trippy pastiche of all the best bits. The album creates an image of a world only inhabited in dreams, a menagerie of ideas and perfect pop melody, leaving you with an overwhelming sense of awe, rejoicing and tenderness.

Good/Girl Carrots is our first snippet from the album. The track opens with a deeply percussive, highly energised and hypnotic tabla loop, shut your eyes and you’re lost running through the African jungle. Its not long before the familiar sound of Lennox’ voice catches up by your side with harmonies coming in from every angle until they engulf the underlying sense of madness that lies within.