Person Pitch

Panda Bear – one man band

Panda Bear is an artistic alias of a man whose name is Noah Lennox. So, all the albums under the mask of Panda Bear can be considered as solo works. Noah Lennox loves experimental music very much, he has a sufficient amount of ideas to maintain not only his principal band Animal Collective where he plays drums and sings but also his personal albums. Honestly speaking it is pretty hard to give a proper review of psychedelically abstract music, it may take a lot of words but the essence runs risks to stay undisclosed, this is why the best recommendation is personal experience. Nevertheless, let's try to understand what Panda Bear's new and third album Person Pitch is. Before we'll dwell upon a cobweb of voices, arrangements and sound it is worth saying that Panda Bear's records were always kindred with Animal Collective in its spirit and style. There were some areas of contacts that have been strapping the music of these projects down to some common stylistic boarders, maybe weird ones, but when speaking about one of these projects you could always refer to another. Person Pitch by all appearances was made to ruin these associations.                    

Personal Pitch: a mixture of opposite genres

Generally speaking Person Pitch is a LoFi flood of samples and live instruments with a thick layer of vocal polyphony applied to it from above. During a songwriting process Panda Bear was obviously under the influence of three musical genres: life asserting pop rock of 60's a la The Beach Boys, tribal and mystic Gregorian chants. This stylistic combination forms a basis for all songs on the album offering quite unpredictable variations at times. The album features a lot of different noises, but it doesn't disturb as they sound casually, mostly somewhere between general themes. The first track Comfy In Nautica is a pretty unhurried song; the rhythmic is based on handclaps and choir sinning in time thus comprising a perfect background for Panda Bear's vocal ventures. Take Pills is composed of two parts: the first one with its slow bass line, hand bells and lots of vocals is akin a previous song, the second is up-tempo, lively and pop rock driven. Bros is a centerpiece of the album. It offers the most successful mixture of the styles that Panda Bear uses, but still old pop rock influence remains a foundation of melodies. It adds a necessary positive feel to the general atmosphere making it shiny and cheerful. You may find a similar mood on the final and the shortest track Ponytail, which sounds really simple and cute.

Panda Bear strives to sound accessible

In order to give a proper characteristic to this album it is absolutely necessary to say a few words about the sound of Person Pitch. As a true experimenter Panda Bear uses a great amount of effects. The voice always sounds volumetrically as if the songs were sung in a big hall or cathedral. The entire richness of vocal polyphony decorated with this sonic deepness creates a half meditative mood and makes you think about classical music, and the overall LoFi sounding adds a romantic spirit of antiquity. A complexity of Panda Bear's music doesn't lie in arrangements, the main thing here are the moods and atmosphere. The unusual combinations of opposite but similarly emotional styles evoke the most unpredictable associations, but at the same time there is a single, central pivot, which makes Person Pitch a self-sufficient and integral record. If one will take Panda's former works as his attempts to express his views upon how the music should sound than Person Pitch became that very album where he succeeded in reflecting his ideas greatly. Unlike many musicians who work in the field of experimental music Panda strives to make his songs accessible. The positive waves that the album radiates break all the obstacles between a listener and a performer making Person Pitch a pleasant and exciting musical discovery.