Noah Lennox passed me on his way across the
pelican crossing in Brixton. Hood up and inconspicuous simply blending with the
comings and going of South London. In some ways Noah Lennox takes this on to
the stage tonight. There is an effortless in his performance as he creates a
psychedelic electronic storm through repetition, clipped beats and sonic
dissonance. There is no real interaction
with the crowd until the end and little after the encore. Whilst in front of us
and clearly central to all proceedings Panda Bear seems larger than his lone
figure. The whole performance commanded from his workbench of electronic
wizardry knits with the huge LED screens positioned either side and behind to
present Panda Bear as something futuristic and otherworldly.
Today is Good Friday and Panda Bear is back
in London to celebrate the release of Buoys at the Electric Ballroom in
Brixton. After a thorough search on the door I make my way in to the venue –
it’s dimly lit and blurred. It does not have the same vibrations as last year
at the Village Underground in Shoreditch. The crowd slowly fills up for this
early start – Panda Bear will start at 8.30. Early evening electronics for the
soul served up for this diverse and disparate crowd who have found themselves
in South London. There are Americans of all shapes and sizes, young emo kids,
multicultural hipsters, a couple from
Scotland, a young guy who’d travelled from California and healthy LGBT+ mixing
as one for the sounds of one man and one part Animal Collective.
Noah arrives without fanfare and checks his
instruments before we check his track record. (Check the record – check the
guy’s track record) Plugging in
headphones and turning things on there is a sudden burst of the opening of ‘My
Girls’. He can’t possibly be teasing us?
It stops and that snatch is all we will hear. Yet in many ways Panda
Bear’s brand of electronica is captured in that phrase. He deals in repetition
and distortion, out of chaos and never ending reverb emerges beauty and
fragility with supersonic bass shaking stomps to unite the floor as one nation
under a (digital) groove. Tonight we are
mainly treated to the delights of Panda Bear’s last two wonderful records, the
vinyl only release ‘A Day with the Homies’ and the new long player
‘Buoys’. Through a harmony fuelled
opening of simple keyboard drone emerges ‘Dolphin’ with its water drop beats
and robotic vocal codas as Noah intones that he is ‘gonna switch of the screen
– unblinded’ as the visuals power up behind and at his sides in what will be a
profound light and video accompaniment throughout the show. Frazzled dancers,
liquid drops and pulsating static merge with op art lines and symmetry and
lysergic dreams and nightmarish grins as all that is solid melts into air (well
light – but you knew where I was going?) throughout the whole set. They do not
detract but add to the chemistry as we are exposed to the finer moments of his
recent work, Dolphins becomes ‘Nod to the Folks’ and the set lists switches
between the new album and its previous release.
Then within the inter song sound swathes
comes the familiar strains of ‘Comfy in Nautica’. Where it started for me.
Person Pitch was my first encounter with Panda Bear and I instantly fell for
its Beach Boy wonk and skronk. As Noah urged us to ‘try to remember always,
always to have a good time’ it struck me how wonderful a lyricist he is. Songs
are constructed and delivered with words that hint at situations of danger,
confront confusions and question it all. Panda bear is a wonderful singer his
range and fearlessness in moving through scales and tones to create the most
effective sonic delivery of any other singer currently on the scene surely
deserves wider exposure. He’s a harmony group in one. A pocket sized Beach B
Buoy. Words delivered in harmony with himself should be heard by more people
and its evident that tonight isn’t quite the sell out I had expected. The top
part of the venue is closed yet it doesn’t result in a lacklustre performance
despite the early start.
Panda Bear continues to craft the tunes with
a nod to his tussle with the Grim Reaper as he plays only one number from that
album tonight in the form of ‘Crosswords’. The songs from ‘Buoys’ are greeted
with cheers and yelps and even some air fist pumps (there was a guy from
Chicago there – he dug it maaaan). ‘Token’ with its repetitive motif of guitar
and soaring climax of longing as Noah repeats ‘ I want to tell you that I want
you’ is astounding in it’s simplicity but delivered through a clear full on PA
hits you hard and right in the gut. I was wondering how the sparseness of
‘Buoys’ wuld play out in a larger venue as I’d spent most of my time with this
long player in isolation and headphones. The album has this return to the ‘real’ but its cut up samples of guitars
mixed with the open and honest recording of Noah up close felt incredible
personal in its approach. It stills feels incredibly personal up close tonight
even with jutaxposed visuals and full on volume. Buoys is a tough one. It can
hold its own when turned up loud.
Panda Bear is a tough buoy.
Panda Bear is a tough buoy.
As the set builds to the final song we are
treated to a new number as yet not released, ‘Playing the Long Game’. In its
heavy bass and repetitive beats Panda Bear is forever reinventing and representing
sound in his time away from Animal Collective. His work is truly original and
uncluttered by the modern yet by its very existence repositions itself as the
most modern and urgent music being made in the 21st Century. As if
Van Dyke Parks and AFX collaborated whilst Eno recorded the results.
Panda Bear thanks us for coming, thanks us for listening and thanks the support band and is gone. Lights power down. And we begin to clap and shout.
There is a fleeting return.
Two songs. One from Tomboy, a sublime ‘Last Night of The Jetty’ with its beats turned to sledgehammer blows as Lennox asks ‘didn’t we have a good time?’ Followed by the bowel quaking ear wrecking sub bass bombing of ‘Sunset’. The crowd moves in unison, tripped and blissed out as sonics merge with soul and we all feel uplifted.
Then Panda Bear is gone.
Two songs. One from Tomboy, a sublime ‘Last Night of The Jetty’ with its beats turned to sledgehammer blows as Lennox asks ‘didn’t we have a good time?’ Followed by the bowel quaking ear wrecking sub bass bombing of ‘Sunset’. The crowd moves in unison, tripped and blissed out as sonics merge with soul and we all feel uplifted.
Then Panda Bear is gone.
I don’t believe in God. I do believe in Panda
Bear. It had been a Good Friday.
Panda Bear's site can be found here: https://pandabearofficial.com/
Here is Comfy from Nautica from the evening: courtesy of Lucas Moreira
Here is the video to 'Token' from 'Buoys'
Panda Bear's site can be found here: https://pandabearofficial.com/
Here is Comfy from Nautica from the evening: courtesy of Lucas Moreira
Here is the video to 'Token' from 'Buoys'
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