FFFreakout #56 (Aired on 4/12/07)

1) Modest Mouse - Missed the Boat
2) Klaxons - Isle of Her
3) Talking Heads - Crosseyed and Painless
4) Black Sabbath - Computer God
5) Kings of Leon - Black Thumbnail
6) Grinderman - Electric Alice
7) Comsat Angels - Waiting for a Miracle
8) Throbbing Gristle - United
9) Low - Dragonfly
10) LCD Soundsystem - Time to get Away
11) Radio 4 - Dance to the Underground (DFA Remix)

FFFreakout Record of the Week:


Panda Bear
Person Pitch
[Paw Tracks]

Noah Lennox (a.k.a. Panda Bear) has been involved with several genre-defying albums over the past few years through his membership in the Animal Collective, whose recorded output runs the gamut from noise abstractions to dreamy-folk to straight-up blissful rock. This is not to mention the electronic soundscapes of their early efforts. It comes as no surprise then that Person Pitch, Panda Bear’s second solo outing, sounds only vaguely familiar to anything he has done before.

Panda Bear’s first album The Young Prayer was a stripped down affair, offering up dream-like vocals, layered over randomly strummed acoustic guitar figures. Created in the wake of his father’s death, the album was imbued with a sense of melancholy and loss. With the recent birth of a daughter and relocation to a sunny Euro environment, Panda has reason to rejoice and this certainly shines through on Person Pitch.

Pieced together in a collage-like fashion using a variety of loops and patterns, Person Pitch is an electronic album created with modern ears and a classic 60’s pop sensibility. In fact, it’s hard not to mention the Beach Boys when describing the beautiful vocal harmonies that Panda liberally employs throughout. While his Mac, rather than his acoustic guitar, seems to be his main instrument, Panda has an ear for organic sound sources and classic vocal melodies that overcomes the redundancies of many dancefloor electronic albums. While shorter tracks such as Comfy in Nautica and Take Pills are certainly the strongest, the two 10+ minute songs Bros and Good Girl/Carrot provide enough sonic variation within their extended rhythmic pulse to keep things engaging.

All said, Person Pitch is the perfect album as we head into the summer months. Turn this baby up loud as you are driving around with your windows down.