“Half Of Where You Live”
We’re proud to be allowed to be streaming the new Gold Panda album for the ISO50 readers. If you love the record be sure to support it physically, this one should be around for years to come. Below is a more detailed description/story around the album but if you want just the music then enjoy above.
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Nearly three years after the release of his debut album Lucky Shiner, Gold Panda returns with his second album Half Of Where You Live, to be released on Ghostly International and his own NOTOWN label (UK). The album is the product of a period spent touring the world multiple times around, absorbing influences and probing potential new avenues of creative exploration.
Half Of Where You Live represents a stylistic and thematic advancement from Gold Panda’s previous work, expanding on the ideas he presented on 2012’s Mountain/Financial District 7” and this March’s Trust EP. It reflects its creator’s nomadic existence — you can see the influence of his travels in track titles like ‘Brazil’ and “Enoshima,” in the oriental textures of “My Father In Hong Kong 1961” and “We Work Nights,” and in the sounds of “Junk City II,” conceived as a hypothetical soundtrack to ’90s anime and the films of controversial director Takashi Miike.
“These films depicted a post-economic boom Tokyo in the 1990s”, the producer explains, “and there was a last days feeling in them. [The feeling] still lurks [in Japan]. I saw a return to that possible dystopia. I’ve seen people in Osaka walking around, jobless, mental, stricken. I think real desperation and poverty is returning; it’s quite scary.”
The whole album, in fact, is described as a “city album” by its maker, and it’s easy to see why — each track possesses a different aesthetic and reflects a different environment. Gold Panda describes it as “a jump from location to location… I felt like I was stealing a piece of each place I went to.” ‘Community’ is a house-tinged reflection on cultural divides in London, while “Brazil” catalogs Gold Panda’s arrival in Sao Paolo: “I wanted to make a track that soundtracked my ride from the airport to downtown” he explains. “The [vocal] sample is kind of like an excited chant, bigging up the place, then it all gets confusing to replicate the traffic and buildings.”
Taking on this loose concept has meant a more considered approach for Gold Panda, and the music has harsher edges than his previous work, and an almost hauntological feel at times. Crucially, though, this new approach hasn’t compromised the producer’s creative freedom, and the album still flows with his trademark organic vibrancy. “I’ve tried to really focus on just a few elements,” he explains. “I tried to avoid chopped up female vocals this time around, as it’s become pretty well done, and anything that was too solid structurally. Ultimately, though, you just you find your groove and settle into a sound and realize you only really need to please yourself.”
Up above is a full album stream of the new LP by Gold Panda, we got the exclusive stream because you guys seemed to love it soo much on a recent post, nice one ISO50 readers! below is a small blurb about the UK producer.
““I didn’t want to write ‘beats,’” says UK producer Gold Panda, “I didn’t want bangers. I wanted songs with structure.” And yet, despite the artist’s protests to the contrary, his debut album, Lucky Shiner, is full of bangers—of a kind. “Lots of factors affected the way it came together,” he explains, “touring, mixing, moving houses and splitting with a girlfriend. Family, friends, and lovers, places I’ve never been.” It’s that mix of directness and emotion that characterizes Lucky Shiner, an album of beat-driven electronic music that’s easy to fall in love with, and to. In Gold Panda’s world, vinyl-static beats and heart-on-sleeve melancholia collide, and the results are breathtaking.”
If Kraftwerk got a little more thuggish with their production and Joy Division sat down at computers to make their music then that project had a baby in the 80’s it would be called Com Truise. [all of that description is a good thing] The man just shoots out hits in my mind. Pyragony touches what recent synth pop artist can’t even grasp at, that flowing 80s FULL sound and this remix?! finally Pat Benatar teen girl fans can agree on something with the preppy girls, this song is an anthem for both.
Gold Panda has something up his sleeve, what he chooses to repeat and loop and lay over itself puts a smile on my face every time.
I want more Hotel Mexico, it has hints of Memoryhouse but with that violin intro it gets abit hoe down-ish but in a good way, maybe some similarities to Small Black even, whatever it is I want more.
Artwork for Com Truise
Today I find IDM being picked up where it left off but it can’t be called IDM ever again. Either way I can see indie rockers, pitchfork and many blogs loving this “new” sound.
Someone kindly suggested Com Truise the other day in a comment, man this stuff is soo soo good, instrumentally its super tasty like biting into a 7 layer cake made completely out of honey in slow motion.
This Emeralds track is epic and beautiful, I should of also posted its album cover, the under saturated VHS screenshot like photo is pretty nice.
When I first heard this Gold Panda intro I immediate thought it would draw the Passion Pit crowd but that reference is something that is more relevant to hip teens today. For the long time electronic fans that I think that will enjoy this are the ones that loved early Four Tet magically working with The Field, the samples have a happy tone plus there is more diversity in the back and forth the song offers in the sequencing.
JDSY’s track Lighter has hints of beauty sprinkled all thru the song, the backing for the intro are these shakey breathes, his singing might be the best from a post IDM’er plus the subject he’s singing about isn’t just stuff that makes people want to party but he actually has some substance , and the melody is made up of just oddball sounds that he puts to work and makes them sound great.
Pitchfork Media and XLR8R have teamed up and curated a free compilation together which features a ton fresh talent. I picked a few songs from it, the real stand out is the energetic work by Nice Nice, has this feeling of Battles meets Konono N°1, its strong on the tribal tip and the combination of dynamics and uptempo really work well for this sound. Others artists include Willits and Sakamoto, Hudson Mohawke, Lusine, Atlas Sound, and a many more.
