Album Review: Panda Bear-Tomboy

Some pretext: I was not looking forward to Tomboy the way the rest of the world was. I had only heard snippets of the beloved album of yore that was Person Pitch, and no aspect of what I heard from it compelled me to seek out the rest of it. So the build up to Tomboy (the various mp3s, the singles found in record stores) was like hearing a new artist for the first time. Coupled that with the fact that Person Pitch does not serve as a frame of reference, and my view of Tomboy obviously lacks the prose and/or mindset that others will.

That all being said, virgin Panda Bear ears or not, Tomboy is a minimalist yet gorgeous album. Where my love of this album comes from is hard to fathom though. Everything that makes up this album, from the sprawling electronics to the use of vocals almost completely as an instrument is the obvious precursor (or now with this album, antithesis) of a genre I don't really like (chillwave). The album is also built on slow, stark, and simply beauty, something I rarely enjoy or appreciate in music I listen to. When I do, it's from the painful, quiet, organic side of music, i.e.Bon Iver or the Microphones circa The Glow Pt.2, not in the synth washed land of Tomboy. Yet, Panda Bear works these pieces into the glory of Tomboy, making everything I would normally run away from into something engaging and lovely with each passing listen.

In a general sense, every song on Tomboy has the same skeletal sound to it. A simply, yet intuitive piece of electronica looped over and over again while bombastic (but not intense) vocals come in win a mix between a one man gospel and one man Beach Boys. It's how each song is approached differently that creates the separation and in turn the expansion of the album. From the slow sprawl of "You Can Count on Me", it's like being transported the inside of a bleak dreamscape. Hollow and barren, punctuated only by the bursts of sound created by Panda Bear. "Slow Motion" a shimmer marvel of deconstructed pop song, electronic dream pop at it's finest.

The album can viewed almost like a wave, building with songs like "Surfer's Hymn" and "Last Night at the Jetty", before crashing into the drone of well..."Drone". The album peaks with "Alsatian Darn", the album's obvious center piece, as well as its catchiest and brightest moment. Despite being the point were Panda Bear sounds quite a lot like Animal Collective, "Alsatian Darn" is still completely a Panda Bear song, with drum beats that sound like claps and twinkling synth lines layered over beautiful vocals and cascade like a waterfall one on top of another. The album concludes with a trifecta of quiet, bleak ambient influenced tunes, ending in with the albums longest song "Afterburner", who's ending creates a spiral of music that keeps going and going and going...until the needle pops off suddenly and Tomboy is over in the blink of an eye.

(mp3) Panda Bear-Last Night at the Jetty

Links:

Panda Bear's Facebook
Buy Tomboy here, from Paw Tracks

Animal Collective-Keep Cassette Songs

These days it can be easier to view Animal Collective as well, a collective than a full band. With solo albums by Avey Tare and Panda Bear having emerged within the past year, and another by Deacon to come out soon too, every individual in the band want their moment (and style) to shine, as opposed to appearing only in the homoginized greatness of Animal Collective. Now, as if to expand even further on that concept, comes this cassette of four separate, almost demo songs from each of Animal Collective band members. The most incredible part of the whole release (though probably not surprising to many)is that despite what seems to be minimal effort into the everything, every single song is just fucking great. The two songs by the two members that haven't heard from are quite excellent with Geologists "Jailhouse " being a nice sprawling ambient soundscape, while Deakin's "Country Report" might just be the greatest one of the bunch, a drony, Merriweather Post Pavilion style piece of music that was infinitely better than anything he did back at Fun Fun Fun Fest. Panda Bear's "The Preakness" is a simple, yet elegant and classic Panda Bear song very much in the vein of what has been heard on Tomboy and sounding a lot like "You Can Count on Me". Avey Tare's "Call Home (Buy Grapes)" is probably the only odd one out, a strange, subdued, slightly pulsating song with even more bizarre vocals layered on top of it. However, viewed as a experiment in style, the song actually works quite well.

(mp3) Geologist-Jailhouse (via ANDTHATSHOWITSDONE)
(mp3) Avey Tare-Call Home (Buy Grapes) (via ANDTHATSHOWITSDONE)
(mp3) Deakin-Country Report (via ANDTHATSHOWITSDONE)
(mp3) Panda Bear-The Preakness (via ANDTHATSHOWITSDONE)

While the cassette itself is long gone, the shoes and charity it was part of are still on sale. Check here for more details.

Panda Bear-Last Night at the Jitty

I am actually extremely excited for the upcoming Panda Bear's upcoming Tomboy, so it brought me great joy to see he finally released the first "official" mp3 from the album, a re-recorded version of "Last Night at the Jetty". As one of the few who managed to get a copy of the single version of it that was released a little while ago very little has actually changed with the song, except for a slight clean up in the production value. However, that doesn't matter much because the song is simply fucking excellent, a swirling vortex of a pop song, with touches of drone and ambiance adding to the melted electronic sound that makes up "Lat Night at the Jetty". Tomboy is increasingly becoming one of my most anticipated of 2011.

(mp3) Panda Bear-Last Night at the Jetty

Compare to the original:


Links:

Panda Bear on Myspace
Get Tomboy April 12 here, from Paw Tracks