Discovering a really special band is one of the most rewarding entities in life, for your troubles of trawling through magazines/record shops/the internet you are bestowed a gift that makes the hours of time spent more worthwhile than say, getting a girlfriend or maintaining some sort of socially acceptable standard of personal hygiene. Because when you find this amazing band/artist, it can change your life in a very special way, and the music becomes part of who you are.
Gold Panda, or Derwin (refuses to give a last name) is for me, a bit like a blanket. No matter what situation you are in, it complements it perfectly. Wrap up in the blanket that is Gold Panda and snuggle yourself up to the melee of hazy electronic soundscapes and the entrancing beats of his latest musical offering, "Lucky Shiner". An album recorded in essex that sounds more like the soundtrack to a summers day in the south of France.
The opening track "You" (my personal favorite track of the summer) epitomises the tone of the whole album with it's woozy fuzz reminiscent of the chillwave sound and that addictive sample manipulation, it's pretty much nail on the head in terms of an opening track. 1 track in and it's already apparent that this 28 year old east Londoner has an insane aptitude for crafting songs.
The production is second to none, thanks to James Shaw, of Simian Mobile Disco fame doing his job on the mixing desk.
The next set of tracks on Lucky Shiner keep the thing moving wonderfully and then you are hit by the jittery mash of synthesized marimbas on one of the albums standout tracks, "same dream china". The melodies bounce around of each other soulfully accompanied by crashing drums and more lo-fi synths. One thing that strikes me about this album is that there is no lull in the quality of the songs, and I find it problematic to pick out a favorite 3 tracks from an album that is just so great. So i'm not going to because this is one of those albums where you really ought to listen to the whole thing as if it were a single piece. An album as grotesquely good as Lucky Shiner is deserves true recognition, if it isn't in most "top 10" lists by the end of the year i'm going to be hugely disappointed. Six and a half minute long odyssey, India lately brings to the record a song with fantastic structure, demonstrating Derwin's aptitude when it comes to a more thoughtful approach to production. And after this daze inducing number we reach the tracks closer, "You" which is by all accounts a more refined and sophisticated sounding track than the opener. It brings to close an album that seems to gradually tire itself out as it goes along. Not to say by any means that the songs get worse or drag on, just that they emanate a more tired out feel, as if the sun of southern France was taking its toll on the album, making it sleepier and more drowsy as if finally nods off to sleep in a content state.
In an album that doesn't adhere to the rules of any genres as such, (perhaps it could best be described as post-chillwave) you can find yourself lost in the intricate shuffles of what is in my opinion, one of the top 5 albums this year.
