Panda Bear are one of those bands that, on paper, ought to make me go all shivery and funny and weak at the knees. But, like the related Animal Collective, I’ve always found them (him?) a bit too dry and calculated for my liking. This, for me, is a danger of using electric doohickeys and sequencers and ProTools and Garageband and all that; these days, it’s all just too easy. Sure, I love old techno (like Kevin Sanderson, Derrick May et al), and Cabaret Voltaire soundtracked my formative teenage years, but it was tough in those days. You had to work damn hard to make something good. Now, it’s just piss about on a Mac for a few hours and bish, bash, bosh, all sorted. You’re the new Dubstep/Grimewave/Voodoo House king. For a couple of days, at least.

So, with trepidation, I’ve been slowly trying Panda Bear’s stuff again. A couple of weeks ago it was the Last Night At The Jetty EP, and feeling positive about it, I gave new CD Tomboy a couple of tries the other day.

And, without meaning to go all Dr Seuss on you, I liked it, Sam I am. Yes, more listening is required, and a part of me still thinks he’s just hitting a button on Garageband marked “Multi-track my vocals and put echo on everything”, but tracks like “Slow Motion” are slowly fixing themselves to neurons as I write this, ready to leap out at inopportune moments. Maybe I’ll write more as I get to know it better. If you’re lucky, I won’t. The eagle-eyed amongst you will note that I’ve posted about “Slow Motion” before, but it’s never bad being reminded of a good song, eh?

Slow Motion by Panda Bear

Buy “Tomboy” Here (CD/MP3)
(and you should, it’s quite good)