Panda Bear And Sonic Boom - Reset

Released: 18/11/22

For many who heard Animal Collective alum. Panda Bear's 2007 album Person Pitch, the record was a revelation: a heady mix of manipulated samples and Noah Lennox's Brian Wilson-esque voice, which hit the sweet spot between polyphonic surf-pop, Tropicalismo, and psychedelia, it essentially laid the foundations for Animal Collective's huge crossover album Merriweather Post Pavilion, two years later. Where Lennox's solo follow-up, the also terrific Tomboy (2011), felt like a direct continuation, the analogue warmth was jettisoned for Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper (2015), and Buoys (2019), in favour of a more digital-sounding production, which at times made those records a little hard to connect with.     

Without reading too much into the title of the new LP, then, Reset “ made in collaboration with ex-Spacemen 3-er and long-time Panda Bear producer Sonic Boom (AKA Pete Kember) “ is a return to the sun-drenched, blissed-out pop of Person Pitch, taking loops from tracks by such rock n' roll luminaries as Eddie Cochran and The Everly Brothers, and twisting and bending them into something at once familiar and future-strange. The perfect album with which to bid farewell to the summer.