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| Panda Bear - Tomboy | Panda Bear - Tomboy
Record Label: Paw Tracks
Release Date: April 12, 2011
Ah, Panda Bear, the artist who launched 10,000 pompous hipsters. But, in all seriousness, how do you really begin to review Tomboy, an album that follows Person Pitch, a piece that completely redefined electronic music and brazenly shifted how samples and expansive soundscapes are created and recorded? Looking back now, it's hard to judge what was more influential in regards to Person Pitch: the music or the movement - which manifested into dozens of sub-genres and like-minded artists. It's unfortunate then (maybe), that an album as great as Tomboy has to, no matter how you shake it, be compared to something else. Thankfully, though, this is not a Person Pitch redux. Multiple layered samples and rhythmic patterns are instead replaced with swaths of echoy reverb and vibrating synth chords. Panda Bear, a.k.a. Noah Lennox, explained that this album would be less bright and wandering and more 'structured' thanPerson Pitch. He also mentioned that he recording sessions took place in a dark basement with only a single light, but even after one run-through of the album, it's hard to imagine these songs, even at their darkest, coming from such a place - especially considering his Brian Wilson, larger-than-life falsetto is again front and center.
"You Can Count On Me," with its vocal-only opening is a perfect way to set off the album. While the one-two punch of "Last Night on the Jetty" and "Surfer's Hymn," one of my favorite tracks, are two of the best vocal performances ever by Lennox. And again he stretches his harmonies and vowels for miles, creating a hypnotic vastness of space and distance. Stuck in between these are "Tomboy" and "Slow Motion," two of the earliest singles released from the album. These both serve as free-wheeling, vibrating loops that blend nicely together. As mentioned before, the songs here are more insular and lonely than say "Bros" or "Comfy in Nautica," and they are far-removed from the everlasting sprawl ofPerson Pitch. (See: "Good Girls/Carrots.") The songs are also tighter, more 'conventionally structured' and accessible. Some of the songs ("Drone, "Scheherezade") however, even for how booming and soaring they are, also have a kind of restricted, almost claustrophobic veil around them. The lusher, glossier production is indebted to Lennox's decision to have Sonic Boom master the Tomboy sessions. Unlike Person Pitch, which tended to have a thinner, lo-fi sound, many of the tracks on Tomboy are elevated by much-needed heft and punch. Another highlight is "Afterburner," that has a tropical/tribal rhythm that bleeds perfectly into the heart-wrenching closer, "Benfica."
For me, Panda Bear is the perfect kind of musician in terms of pure listener enjoyment: the more time you put in the more you take away. That's not to say that he is the only musician I feel this way about, but for the sake of this review, andTomboy in general, the description seems fitting. Tomboy and Panda Bear aren't for everyone. And whether or not it takes a "music nerd" to "get it" is completely, and rightly, up for debate. But I would argue that a piece like this isn't necessarily for a so-called 'casual music listener.' Like all of Panda's music, in and out of Animal Collective, it usually takes time to appreciate songs like this. But sometimes music begs for that kind of uninterrupted, invested attention.Tomboy is that kind of album. |
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Displaying posts 1 - 3 of 3. |
05:49 AM on 05/10/11 | she sucked and sucked and sucked. I am finding this album difficult to penetrate myself but I know it will come good when i eventually give it the attention it deserves. Your review of the album flows very well and almost seems conversational in style. Pretty informative piece. Thank you for caring enough about this record! | | |
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07:31 AM on 05/10/11 | A New Refutation of Time and Space I am finding this album difficult to penetrate myself but I know it will come good when i eventually give it the attention it deserves. Your review of the album flows very well and almost seems conversational in style. Pretty informative piece. Thank you for caring enough about this record! |
Thanks for reading.
Like I stated in the reveiw, the album isn't a rehash of Person Pitch, which may still be my favorite of the two. This one will take a bit longer to sink....let it! Again, thanks for checking out the review.
And since I didn't add it: RIYL - Person Pitch, Pet Sounds (on more drugs than B Wilson was on), Young Man, Animal Collective, music for headphones. | | |
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